To think job-sharing for teachers of kids 8 and under is selfish?

[blowingBubblesinABreeze]

My kid is in Year 2. There are 30 kids in her class. She has teachers who job-share (monday-wed morning, Wednesday afternoon to Friday).
We had a parents meeting and it was very clear to me that the teacher barely knew my child, and was just making up things to say. Other parents said the same.

Do I blame her? Yes and no. No because it is impossible to know 30 kids in a class if you are spending half the time with the kids in the class that a normal teacher does. A full-time teacher with 30 kids in the class already struggles to know all the kids in her class well. (understandably).

Yes because she has chosen to do the job share. (In the case of the teachers in my class, I know that they are both well-off). I know that this is not the case for most teachers. But again I would argue that many teachers that would choose to job share are not on the bread-line.

A teacher should know the kids in their class. That is part of their job. The kids are LITTLE, LITTLE people. They are in school for most of their waking hours. Alot of them really struggle to go into school at a young age. So to be left in the hands of a person who barely knows them is simply not fair on them.

We are prioritising the desires of teachers over the NEEDS of children. Which is where society seems to be headed as a whole. The desires of adults is our focus, neglecting the basic needs of our little people.

YABU- very. What about the needs of the teacher’s children. By working part time, they get a better work/life balance and can sometimes be around for their own children’s drop offs and pick ups. If the teachers weren’t great at parents’ evening, that’s a different conversation but working part time/job share doesn’t automatically mean a bad teacher.

Goady much?

YANBU I had this situation where my child's teacher job shared once she had kids. How selfish! If you wanted to look after kids then you had a whole class full - she didn't need to go and have her own. And don't even get me started on their holidays! I think you'll find most people will support you on this OP.

It's a your-school issue. Out head knows every child by name and stands outside to welcome them every morning and say goodbye. Your class teachers should be doing that.

Just to challenge your jobshare point, how many hours did you send your child to nursery? Mine went for 2 days a week (so equivalent to jobshare time of a 30 hour school week) and all staff knew them, from name, allergies, likes and dislikes.

So again, if your teachers don't know your child, that's either a problem with the school/teacher or your expectations.

Seriously! Get a grip. I’d rather their teacher was happy with a good work/life balance and had resilience to teach a challenging age group. Let’s face it. It’s phonics/reading and basic maths. Not exactly taxing if it’s delivered by a different teacher on different days. My sons both had job share teachers in primary. It was fine. Actually preferred it, if you hd a teacher that maybe they didn’t gel with, chances were they did with the other.

She might just be a shit teacher, or be crap at parents evening, which isn’t good either. I was a jobshare teacher for many years, sometimes doing two days and sometimes three. I prided myself on knowing my children very well. Maybe they have a poor job-share partnership, I would communicate a lot with my partner about the children, it helped to build a really solid shared understanding of the class.

Well I agree with you for what it's worth but often there are so few teachers looking for a job that schools can't be picky.

My children's private primary school does not allow job share for the class teacher role for that reason. They do for specialist subjects like art, music, sport etc but the class teacher role has to be full time.

However as they don't struggle to recruit they have that luxury.

I'm sorry your school allows it.

I job shared as a teacher and also covered 3 other classes on my other days.

200 on roll and I knew every child in the school.

Oh, and male teachers are in the minority, same for nurseries.

No doubt if you had your way you'd be wringing your hands about larger class sizes as schools can't recruit enough qualified teachers only wanting to work full time.

We have, over the years, had teachers full-time and part-time. Some of each group have known our children well and some, even when full-time, regular teachers have not.

It's often down to the individuals and personalities involved

At eight our son and his classmates had three teachers, none of them had any problems being an effective teacher.

That sounds to me like just a bad teacher(s) rather than a specific job sharers issue. Or bad management of the share at least. In 2/3 days a week it shouldn’t be hard for a teacher to get to know the kids.

My ds had several job share teachers at primary and parents evenings were always with both teachers and it always felt like they knew him pretty well. The job sharers tended to be the more experienced teachers too which I think helps. I actually think a job share has the advantage that you get a fresh teacher half way through the week rather than one overworked teacher slogging it out all week. Also you get the benefits of 2 teachers expertise so one may be particularly keen on art and music, the other on science etc and they can work that to the advantage of the children.

There is a very weird attitude towards teachers where some parents seem to think they own them. Teachers are humans like everyone else. They are entitled to work flexibly if their employer allows it.

It's the way that the world of work has gone and teachers understandably want a slice of the flexibility action. Work/life balance for teachers is appalling so its the least that they deserve. Wait until wfh is introduced!

Also, at secondary school they have dozens of teachers and it's fine.

That is a nonsense. Teachers are not saints. Teaching is a job. If the school decides to utilise job share teachers in the younger classes, then share your concerns with the school regarding that policy decision. All workers have a right to flexible working so why should teachers be excluded from that? And what does them being ‘well off’ have to do with anything?

If the school prevented a job share, there is a good chance the 'wealthy' teachers would just leave. Then your DC might have no teacher if the school struggled to recruit.

There can be benefits to children having job share teachers:

• they may be less tired/burnt out and have more to give
• they can each play to their strengths e.g. 1 can teach History that they love
• the children learn to work with different adults. Different children will naturally get on better with different adults

Yes there are drawbacks too, but it's not all bad.

There are clearly benefits to teachers too, but you obviously don't care about that!

You have a school or staff issue. Nothing to do with job share.

Iv seen job shares done extremely well and Iv seen them done badly. Tbh even a teacher working ft hours - the reports and parents evening will be quite generic

It's a school management issue isn't it? I imagine job sharing can be done well or badly.

It might be the school didn't want to agree a job share, but couldn't recruit otherwise.. or they think it's going fine.

Discuss with the head, and then with the board if you need to.

Wait till your child reaches secondary all the parents evenings can be very generic ! Anyway your child has 2 teachers that is probably fun for them. Oh its Mrs Smith today so Mrs Smith brings something new to the class , job sharing teachers do communicate with each other and not all kids stand out unfortunately so parentsevenings.might not be what you thought, im sorry you feel.that your child is getting the attention you expect but i don't think that is a jobshare issue..

I take it that's sarcasm. 😁

Yep. That poster has form.

This is nothing new. When I was doing PGCE in 1986 one of the primary placements had one class with 50/50 split and the other 60/40. The advantage was that if knew of the teachers was off sick,the children still had the consistency of the other teacher. Also the subject knowledge was deeper because the teachers had degrees in different subjects. It also better prepares children for secondary school.

When my DCs were small almost two decades ago in the golden age before social media judgement, angry internetters and term time holiday fines, their year one class was taught by a job share and I preferred it. It was the class they were happiest in. I felt the teachers were more engaged not less, and less burned out and there seemed to just be a nice atmosphere in the classroom. Noone’s names were forgotten and no one seemed to be overlooked. I think flexible working is generally a good thing in most situations.

Yes, there's very definitely selfishness at play here, but it's got sweet fa to do with the part time teachers or school recruitment.

Do you really think teachers should be subject to different employment rights than others?

Their financial circumstances are absolutely none of your business either. Goady shite

I wouldn't call it selfish but my experience (we had the same split in year 3) was that it's a worse experience for the children. It was certainly my son's least favourite year for teachers.