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?

It's terrible practice so yes please do make a fuss with the headteacher, or if you remove your child tell them why.
Lots of people commenting on this thread that think it's fine seem to be TAs or parents, neither of which are likely to fully understand the role and responsibilities of a teacher. The lovely bits like building relationships with children, singing songs or running a cp activity are really the tip of a huge iceberg that is teaching in reception.
Teacher training is a rigorous process which not only trains and informs those going to work as teachers, but also acts as quality assurance to make sure those who achieve QTS meet the Teacher Standards. TAs and unqualified teachers have no such training or scrutiny.
Teaching is a professional role for a reason.

State Schools have to employ qualified teachers it’s the Independent sector that frequently relies on unqualified staff.

I agree. As a HLTA I did have to complete a year of training and gain a certificate to say I had met the HLTA standards but this does not compare to teaching in any way. I regularly have to push back requests from my head teacher to step into teacher territory and I often feel I’m being awkward when I do so. For example I am not permitted to teach PE but get asked to all the time.

Ironic really that private fees are so high and yet the standard of teaching is not higher.

Meant kindly but what possible relevance would a degree in archaeology or economics be to being a reception teacher.

years of experience as a TA may well make her exceptional

Class sizes are way smaller

Would rather have a better teacher than small class. My state school has classes of 20.

My year 1 child's teacher has been off sick 3for 6 weeks. The TA has covered. She had done a fantastic job. She doesn't get paid enough for the responsibility. She has been the year 1 TA for a few years so she knows the curriculum. I'm sure the TA knows the curriculum and will be overseen by a qualified teacher. Realistically, thet are mostly playing and leaning phonics in reception. It will be fine. My youngest has a job share of both TAs and classroom teachers. I think the worst thing about it has been that my DC hates one of the teachers. She cries on her days.

Somanynamechanges1 is right.

Unfortunately, this is becoming increasingly commonplace. MATs are pretty much a law unto themselves and, with decreasing budgets and increasing costs, schools are having to make difficult decisions.

I imagine this will mean that the qualified teacher in the year group will have an increased planning and assessment workload as well has having to direct and effectively supervise the unqualified staff member. In this respect, the functional teaching of the children will be ok. The biggest risk is to the impact on recognising emerging misconceptions, recognising the appropriate provision needs of children with SEND and the 'on the spot' changes to the lesson that all teachers make through ongoing 'in the moment' assessment.

Some TAs are brilliant. Others are good. Some adequate and others not so much. I'd hope the school would have put one of their best TAs in the role but that's not great for her and I doubt she's happy either. TA pay is rubbish.

Some TAs go on to become qualified teachers and are brilliant. Others start and realise just how different the role is and leave. So, no, it's not appropriate for a TA to be expected to fulfill the role of class teacher for many reasons.

We had an unqualified teacher at our school for 3 years. She is very good and the school finally trained her but I know that, as happy as she is with that, she is finding the 'extra' that goes with being a qualified teacher is more demanding than she expected.

I would wait and see what happens. I think it's highly likely that this person is actually on a training scheme and is training within the school. To be fair I have also known some excellent TAs and some rubbish teachers. If you actually feel your child isn't getting a good education from her then yes question it later on, but not based on your judgement that she can't teach well based on nothing!

Not ideal but it’s been happening for a number of years now. IME, teachers had the support of TAs in the classroom but TAs were expected to teach on their own!

This.

Not as simple as that. Academies (which is about 46% of primary schools and 83% of secondary) can employ unqualified teachers. They even have their own payscale, it is that common.

Independent schools don’t have to have unqualified teachers but that doesn’t automatically mean they do. It will vary hugely between schools and subjects.

There is talk about making all state funded schools use teachers or those working towards the qualification. But who knows if that will actually happen.

Relevant information fro, the Early years framework in the photo below. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/670fa42a30536cb92748328f/EYFS_statutory_framework_for_group_and_school_-_based_providers.pdf#page28. Schools need to have a teacher in an ordinary teaching session. TAs and HLTAs are specifically excluded.

As she doesn't have a degree it's not highly likely that she'll be doing a teacher training course. She may be starting a teaching apprenticeship but they are very new, not many ITE providers are running them yet.

As a scottish teacher, it seems completely foreign to me that classes don't need a qualified teacher to teach them. It is a legal requirement to have a fully qualified and registered teacher in a classroom. We may have our own issues with education in Scotland but I am glad we don't have a system where 1) pupils are taught by unqualified staff members and 2) low paid staff are used as cheap cover, which feels very exploitative.

OP I wouldn't be happy to have my child taught by an unqualified teacher 2 days a week, and would speak to the school. It is in no way a reflection of the TA, but I think a qualified teacher should be the minimum standard.

One of the other mums told me that this TA is replacing another TA who has been teaching a different class full time. Apparently she was unhappy with the school because they wouldn’t pay for her to train as a teacher. That’s why I assume her replacement will also not be trained. It’s a maintained school not an academy.

There are unqualified teachers in state schools, academies, private schools…. It’s also incredibly common for people to teach subjects they’re not qualified in.

This is what teachers have been explaining over and over for years. And it’s a consequence of the recruitment and retention crisis across the whole education system.

It’s a maintained school not an academy.

A TA will be half the cost of a new ECT. The cost effectiveness increases as teachers become more experienced.

Schools can't afford it. No school is choosing to put a TA in a class over a class teacher because they think it makes no difference or it doesn't matter.

Not highly likely if they don't have a degree.

Not likely at all, in fact.

DS1’s Reception teacher was an NQT. She was absolutely brilliant at teaching. However she hadn’t had any SEN training and didn’t seem interested in learning. My son has multiple complex disabilities and his Reception year was a complete disaster. His SSA was wonderful, but the teacher’s lack of understanding of his needs meant a very difficult year for him. Eventually we moved schools and the head of KS1 was unqualified. She’s one of the most inspiring, child focussed teachers I’ve ever met in spite of not having a teaching qualification.

Agree that new teachers aged 2 1 can be too young and inexperienced no matter how enthusiastic In that circumstance, an experienced TA may well be better. In my experience they lean heavily on TAs anyway.

Some academies I know are nearly 50% ECT( NQT) and that’s not good. They’re cheap but woefully unprepared.

I am a TA and I agree it’s shit. I was offered to take the HLTA qualification but I turned it down as I didn’t want to be covering classes for peanuts. My colleague did and got the qualification in six weeks!! She whizzed through the modules. She covers so many classes now and honestly she’s just not good. She managed to get that qualification without ever being observed. It’s not good enough.

Academies are state schools.

But not all state schools are academies.