Unqualified teacher teaching class?

[Scottishgirl85]

My daughter will be starting Y3 at a junior school in September (my older daughter is already there).

We already don't love the school, so I wonder if that is clouding my judgement here...

We've just been told her teachers, 2 part-timers job sharing 50:50. I happen to know that one of them is currently an LSA (as like I say, older daughter is at the school). So I emailed the Head and asked who would be the qualified teacher on her days. The response I got was that the LSA is "working towards Qualified Teacher Status and will be appropriately supported".

Is this acceptable? I'm very happy to be told it is acceptable. Just want to check with you knowledgeable folk. Thanks.

"So the student teacher is on their own in the class?"

This was standard during my teacher training and I had far less classroom experience than this person has.

They probably aren’t. Everyone is a bit shit at the start.

Dd is doing her PGCE and finishing up her last placement.

First placement, she was never alone in the class.

Second placement she was often alone. This was against guidance of the uni placement team, but what can they do... in her school there were 3 people teaching chemistry, none of whom held a relevant degree. DD23 does have a biochem degree, and is/was doing a Biology PGCE. It was a very large school, needed another 2 chemistry teachers, so sciencey placement students that were over 21 with a positive first report, got to learn to teach chemistry without a safety net.
Yay...
(Forgetting, of course that the PGCE is much more about behaviour management which kind of needs input from the experienced teacher in the classroom)

Thanks everyone. Think consensus is, it's not uncommon, but also not really acceptable... ☹️

My daughter qualified as a teacher a couple of years, ago and as a student teacher was just treated as a supply teacher nearly always working alone.

A student teacher who is an experienced LSA is fine to teach the class if properly supervised and supported. In fact, their classroom management skills are probably better than most student teachers!

Thanks for that.

As others have already said, private schools often ignore QTS and hire according to their own criteria.

QTS isn't a guarantee the teacher will be good, just as not having it doesn't mean the teacher won't be up to it.

However, having said that, qualifications are a good indication of someone's education and training, so I'd want to find out whether they have a degree, what subject and which uni etc to get a better picture of the individual person.

Initially we had two part-time teachers in one class this year, but one left during the first term. Now we have what I believe is two TA's for one day a week, and two days each of two other qualified teachers. Some parents aren't happy, but they seem to have timetabled it so that they have other help too, e.g. PE lesson or other qualified teachers doing some of the day so it's working out fine. The teacher who left was not happy, she clearly didn't want to be there so this would be the lesser of two evils anyway,

I should add that the school has a lot of "extra" staff, quite a few ND children with helpers, quite a few children for whom English is a second language. They seem to make the most of all their extra staff.