To expect my reception child to have a qualified teacher?

[MaryBeardy]

DS is in reception. I was told by another mum his teacher has been off for a few days. I asked DS who was teaching him and he said the two teaching assistants that help across reception and occasionally a teacher from a different class. Should there not be a qualified teacher present at all times (or at the very least one in training that has some supervision)? I’m feeling a bit annoyed this hasn’t been communicated by the school but don’t know if I’m being unreasonable. TIA

To soften my massive rant about the state of schools, I will say that on the plus side TA’s are generally awesome. They’re often massively overqualified for the job, very experienced, and could very easily become a teacher if they so chose. Most I know don’t want to because they don’t want the stress.

Our yr4 teacher went off sick, the two TAs carried on with the class between them. Sickness for longer and she quit, so TAs worked as class teachers all year Inc parents evening.

In reception the one TA has been there longer than either class teacher. I wouldn't assume TA means "silly slip of a girl who can onldo her own shoe laces

Some secondary school classes are led by cover supervisors who aren't qualified when there is staff sickness. It's really not going to do any harm in reception, their working to the same key stage as they are at nursery anyway.

Welcome to the teaching recruitment and retention crisis

YABU. This is very normal/standard in a lot of schools now.

Don't forget academy schools can and do employ many unqualified teachers for subjects in secondary as it is cheaper for them.

My sympathies to the teacher who is off sick and sending in cover work and the TA who is barely getting minimum wage covering a lesson(s).

Don't forget many of those unqualified secondary teachers actually have a degree in the subject they teach whereas some of the qualified teachers do not!

As a supply teacher for short term you might only get half an hours notice to get to the school, you might not necessarily be a teacher for that specific age or subject and basically following a plan that may not be very detailed and won't obviously know the pupils or routine, of course the TA would have to massively step up but to say the supply was useless is harsh and unprofessional and heresy.
They are fulfilling a need and have been required by the school. No I am not a supply teacher.

Honestly I think for reception it’s far better for a TA that knows the class to teach them for a short term absence, they will know the children and their routines. A new adult could eb very unsettling for such young children. Also echoing other comments about actual lack of supply teachers/no budget for supply, I work in a secondary and we sometimes have to split classes up and put them in with other classes if a teacher is absent

What surprises me is that there are people who aren’t aware of how critical it is in schools these days. It’s not going to improve any time soon either.

If you voted Tory or did not vote in 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019, you helped create the issue, though I agree many TAs are excellent. If you or the parent of another child think they can never do wrong or did not do basic parenting for your child, that has also contributed.

No no no, it's better for your kid not to have a qualified teacher. Just marvellous. They're probably better than the actual teacher anyway.

Look at the people falling over themselves to say this.

The school is lucky it can still afford TAs. The education sector is on its knees and it will only get worse, so best conserve that anger OP as this won’t be the last time you’ll be upset by a lack of teachers.

Also sometimes you genuinely can't get people in even when you try! I've just gone on mat leave as a full time secondary teacher and I was absolutely shocked at the poor quality of who applied for my cover. One qualified teacher who was poor at teaching and subject knowledge and one unqualified teacher with good subject knowledge but crap at teaching and seemed to have a temper.

If it's only for a few days they'll be absolutely fine - I think it's part of the crisis in teaching that people have been ringing alarm bells over, lots of good teachers now retiring or leaving the profession and aren't getting replaced. Even the new cohorts of trainees are basically getting waved through because we need boots on the ground (anecdotally from the trainees we've had, tiny numbers of trainees on our local PGCE course and the uni bending over backwards to pass them even where they're not up to scratch or call in sick at the drop of a hat)

@MaryBeardy I know a few teachers who went part time after maternity leave and their job shares are all TAs, so 3 days a week the children are taught by a qualified teacher and the other 2 it's a TA.

Would you have preferred for the kids to be sent home if the school couldn’t find a supply teacher to cover?

Honestly, an experienced TA who knows your children is often better than a supply teacher.

No. There are two separate things being said repeatedly in this thread:

1. For short-term occasional absences where whoever covers is implementing plans written by the regular qualified teacher, having someone familiar with the students, the classroom, and the teacher's lessons is more valuable at that age than formal qualifications. If we could have TA's and cover staff who were familiar with the students, the classroom, and the teacher's lessons AND qualified that would be great, but that's not remotely feasible right now.

2. We have a widespread, critical teacher shortage and horrifically inadequate budget for employing them that needs to be addressed upstream at the national level. When allocating what is unfortunately a scarce resource, using qualified teachers for short-term illness coverage when TAs are able to do it is and should not be a priority. The systemic issues need to be addressed, but in the meantime schools have to figure out how to function best with the resources they have, and using qualified teachers to cover a few days of illness would be absurd when other classes are being left without qualified teachers for months on end.

This is what a decade of underfunding in schools looks like.

One of our Reception TAs had been a TA for so long she taught one of the kids' mums. She was amazing, vastly over-qualified but didn't want the stress of being a teacher.

A supply teacher would be very unsettling for little ones, my son's Y1 class had one for two weeks to cover paternity leave and there were all sorts of behaviour issues.

I’m a TA and honestly, some of the supply teachers we get are very poor. I can do a much better job myself with the other TA. Our teacher was off recently and it was much easier and less disruptive for the kids to have someone there who knew what the work was and could just carry it on. I had a supply for one day and he was horrendous.

Yes, it’s so worrying about the lack of applicants for PGCE places at the minute. I trained in 2010 in secondary MFL and the process was really rigorous with only 30 spaces available and around 100 applicants. People were turned down at the interview stage, people were failed mid year. Now, the same uni and course can’t even muster 20 applicants. I’ve been involved in training a few during the past few years and you’re right about the universities not wanting to fail any of them - it’s sad for the trainee teachers because they are being set up to fail.

@Eyerollexpert thanks. I know how it works I've been a supply teacher!
But sometimes they are just a body for numbers than an actual help!

It's not unprofessional to say someone was useless, stood back and let a level 2 TA take the lead, when the supply is being paid as a teacher to take charge!

I'm a supply teacher, there's so much work it's ridiculous. I'm booked up already all the way until the Easter holidays because schools know that there is a shortage. Getting people at the last minute to cover sickness is hard.

I went in to a year two class last week and they had had a supply teacher the day before who didn't speak English. I've also turned up for a day to find the lunchtime supervisor had taken the class on her own the day before because itbwas either that or send all of the children home.

Also, two TAs being available to cover rather than being one to ones is unusual now. There's a lot of reception classes that don't have a TA.