Unqualified teacher

[ladybirdsmum]

My DS is starting in Reception in September. There are two Reception classes and he is in one where there is a job share. The other class has one full time teacher. I just found out that one of his 'teachers' is not qualified. I looked her up on LinkedIn and saw that she has worked at the school as a TA for 3 years and prior to that she was working in admin in a non educational setting. She does not have a a degree. Apparently there is someone else currently teaching at the school who is also unqualified. She is not on any sort of training programme so I don't think this new teacher will be either (she is replacing the other one as she is leaving). I feel like this will not be a great start for DS and wish he could have got into one of the other schools in the town. Can I do anything about this without coming across as a difficult parent?

I work in a primary school. One of our amazing TAs regularly covers reception when needed and does half a day a week consistently. There is no difference to the quality of the education between the two.

Wait and see how things go.

MATs don't have to employ qualified teachers.

Some TAs are as good as a qualified teacher, some aren't. Only time will tell. It's shit for the TA to be expected to teach without proper pay.

Hmm.

Its very common now for TAS to cover the half day ppa or sometimes full day.

Its cheap.

Its also wrong but the govt decided we didn't need qualified teachers in front of classes.

I think of its moved to job share territory (if half and half not just an afternoon) that's all kinds of wrong.

I wouldn’t be thrilled to be honest.

It’s a low birth year so are you definitely sure he wouldn’t get in at any other school? I decided not to send DS to our most local school for this reason.

It’s shit but completely legal. Every child should have a qualified teacher but unfortunately that isn’t the case.

What is the job share breakdown? How much time will he have with the unqualified teacher?

How do you definitely know she doesn't have a degree? Maybe she has been working towards that over that last few years and this year will be her training year to complete teacher training?
Regardless I would say in my school we have some excellent TAs and HLTAs who do an amazing job considering they aren't paid the same as a teacher.
If you are that unhappy already then I would call the local council to look at transferring your son's place or to find out where he would be on the waiting list to move to another school.

Just keep in mind, a teaching qualification doesn’t automatically make someone a good, caring or dedicated teacher.
The TA might be one of best educators your son could wish to have, she just doesn’t have a formal teaching qualification, that you are aware of.
Let him start and see how it goes, by October half term you will know if you are happy with what and how he is learning.

I'm afraid that it's cheap even if it isn't ideal, which is why it happens. It happens a lot and I think often goes under the radar if people don't check as you have.

As a side note, I appreciate that there are brilliant TAs who can have excellent delivery, great skills with the kids etc but I do object to the idea that they are as good as a qualified teacher, who (should have) a thorough background in pedagogy as well as subject knowledge (in secondary, anyway). It plays in to the idea that you might as well not have a qualified teacher because why pay more for the same deal? It shouldn't be the same deal.

This wouldn’t bother me at all.

This is a state school not an academy and the unqualified teacher will be teaching for 2 full days every week. Definitely no degree or training involved.

So is the other half of the job share a qualified teacher? How many days a week is the non qualified one doing? Dd used to be taught by a TA one or two days a week. Was fine.

There is no requirement to be 'qualified' (even in LA maintained schools it's just recommendation that teachers should be qualified) and with the current recruitment and retention crisis in teaching, this is only going to become more common.

When I worked in reception as a TA, the class teacher did all of the sitting at the front of the class stuff but half of the delivery of the educational content was my responsibility. Each week we'd rotate doing the maths and the English task and the rest is free flow - continuous provision. Reception is not the year I would kick up a stink about not having a qualified teacher. Year 6 would be a completely different matter imo

@ladybirdsmum I'm afraid this is increasingly normal and might well have been the case elsewhere too. Doesn't mean that he won't have a good start on an individual level as, as people have said, they might have excellent support in house in understanding how to scaffold or help children develop ideas and great interpersonal skills. But honestly, at a larger level, I think it's shit too.

I’m in Scotland so we don’t have reception here and I’ve never wrapped my head around the school system in England so I may be way off base here - but is it the equivalent of our preschool year at nursery? Age 4-5, play-based learning, very little prescribed “teaching”? If so, I don’t think I would have an issue with this if they were experienced in early years as our early years educators are not educated to degree level like a teacher (but are qualified for a role in early years) like I am guessing a TA is qualified for their role.

It wouldn’t worry me in Reception at all, the TAs that DS had were just as capable as the teachers especially as it’s more play-based

It's reception class @ladybirdsmum , they are 4 years of age .

I’ve known some awful qualified teachers, and some amazing TAs. (I’ve also known plenty the other way round). I’d see how it pans out. I wouldn’t worry about her lack of degree, the material at reception level is hardly challenging. An actual teaching degree where you study pedagogy would be useful, but a degree in an unrelated subject would make zero difference to your ability to teach reception level. If there’s a job share with a qualified teacher then they should be responsible for curriculum and planning, the TA should just be delivering the lessons. She has three years classroom experience and has seen the way qualified teachers deliver lessons, and have been used to working with smaller groups and probably has experience teaching the whole class too. You have a qualified teacher responsible for the class, and someone who has three years classroom experience backing them up. I genuinely wouldn’t worry.

Actually recent posts raise really good points. Our reception classes generally free flow and there are only a few parts of the day the children remain in their own class. The rest of the day they can move between both reception classrooms and outdoor areas. Assuming this is the case where your son is going this means that there will be a teacher present (as you say the other class has a full time qualified teacher). Many activities will be supported by TAs regardless.
Also in schools phonics groups are run by both teachers and TAs, so again your child isn't ever solely going to be taught by a teacher.

I have also just thought about my own child who had a HLTA one and a half day a week and actually they were much better than the class teacher!

How many days is she doing?

There isn't 'just' delivering lessons though because you need to be able to work out where and how to do depth and stretch, where and and how you might need to totally change tack, how you can scaffold a child differently and so on. Teaching is a profession. TAs are great but, again, if we keep saying that it's just the same it just makes it acceptable to put more and more load onto the shoulders of people who aren't paid the salary to do the job but get used to do it nonetheless.

Other local schools may end up the same so might not be beneficial moving. This is a result of teacher retention/recruitment crisis, funding crisis and falling rolls. What attracted you to the school? I would expect the qualified teachers will help with the planning.

Do you do this research for all education staff?

I understand your concerns and felt the same at the beginning of my DC's schooling.
However, had my eyes and mind opened by a couple of truly brilliant TAs, who 'taught' for part of the week, one of whom really brought my SEN child forward in her learning.
Just see how it goes.

TAs hugely vary in quality. There are some at my school who are exceptional and are every inch as skilled as the teachers they support and I'm so grateful for their presence. However, there are others who are basically well meaning Mums who want a school-hours job. It's very hard to call....maybe give it a fortnight and see how it goes?

How on earth do you know she isn’t training?

I did Schools Direct and had a more or less full time timetable at secondary level from the start - lots of school experience prior to that. No one would have known I was training.