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.

Nope. If you want teachers to remain in the profession you need to be flexible when they have children or other family caring needs. We struggle as it is to get enough teachers in the classroom due to pay and conditions and I suspect if schools were willing to do more job-shares they might be able to make a dent in that ‘6000 new teachers’ target that Labour promised a million years and a hundred broken manifesto pledges ago…

Workload meant that I left the profession after 26 years, which clearly isn’t good for the children. Although it could be argued that a burned-out teacher wouldn’t have been good for the children either. There is a retention crisis for a reason. All enquiries to the Secretary of State for Education.

I job shared for a number of years. I knew the children well, communicated really well with my job share partner and we had lots of positive feedback. I always felt the parents got a good deal because both of us put a lot of effort in the job and different skills that complimented each other.

My children have had full time teachers that I wish had been part of a job share as they weren’t as good as they could have been.

YABVU

Who are you to demand that teachers need to be selfless in order to do a good job?
We are trained professionals with a vocation. We are not missionaries or cloistered nuns who need to renounce our own lives in order to serve you and your children.

ok. Thanks mumsnet for a sanity check. It is true that we don't have enough teachers, so we cannot pick and choose. And teaching IS a demanding job. I might have unrealistic expectations. Thank you teachers for all your hard work. You are very much appreciated 👏

Completely disagree with you op. My DS had two teachers job sharing in year 2 and it was absolutely fine. In fact, it's quite common in our primary school.

Yes, which proves my point that so many don't want to work full time anymore.
I left after 13 years, and it wasn't even down to workload in the end as I only worked two days a week, however there was other bullshit I wasn't prepared to keep putting up with.
The whole system is a mess. I privately tutor now which I love.

Seriously one of the mums at my DS's primary school years ago suggested that teachers shouldn't come back to work once they had children, after our childrens teacher announced her second maternity leave!

As a pt teacher yabu. I worked ft when my son was a toddler and didn't know the kids any better. I was also tired, miserable, stressed and probably neither a good teacher or parent. I notice in my school it is more often the ft teachers who burn out and end up off sick. Now I'm part time I have a good work life balance and feel a more effective teacher.
Tbh this sounds more a teacher problem. My child's teacher last year was full time and knew nothing about him. Different teacher and different story this year

I privately tutor too, no more 90-minute lunch duties or data analysis. I ♥️ it.

DS job shares a yr 5 class . It means the children get two excellent teachers with complimentary strengths and interests.

My daughter once had 4 teachers across the week. It was awful, but then her upper primary school years generally were.

Exactly! I wonder how many of the critics can 'book a day off' to attend an event their child's involved in, can demand to work from home for at least part of the week, saving on some child care? Do these critics also like to tell their doctor, dentist etc how to do the job they're professionally trained to do? Too many see school only in terms of their child whereas s/he's just one of many in school.

So are you equally angry about all the other things that may prevent teachers from spending time with each child and thoroughly preparing for parents' evening - lack of support in the classroom, excessive paperwork, lack of resources, lack of support with meeting needs of ND children? Or are you just mad that she dared go part time? What a nasty take. If going part time wasn't an option then even more teachers would be leaving the profession.

You have no idea why they are a job share. You’ve honestly got no clue why people choose this or have to have this. YABU.

You are being incredibly unreasonable. Ideally in a job share both teachers would do the parents evening together but to say the teacher is selfish for wanting to work part time is madness!

So many teachers job share because they have young children of their own. They absolutely should know your child well, but you are being ridiculous. You think their young children at home aren’t LITTLE LITTLE people as well?

You remind me of the parents who moan when their child’s teacher goes on maternity leave.

Well I would imagine in most cases, the teacher is prioritising her own family, who also need her. So that’s not selfish. And even if she is spending the other 2.5 days on a bit of R&R, well sometimes people need to fit their own oxygen mask first, as the saying goes. She’s no use to anyone if she burns out.

Our DS is in year 2 and had two sets of job share teachers once in reception and once this year. All 4 knew him really well, generally knew if anything big had happened on the other days and were very close to him and his progress.

Really great experience on our side, and think there's an advantage as different teachers connect with different kids so you're much more likely they'll like one of them at least.

YANBU!
Everyone will of course completely disagree.
I did a job share in my school. It worked very well for me, but not for the children.
The only way a job share in education can work effectively is if the class teachers are very good friends outside of work.

My son is in Year 2 and also has a job share this year. His class is a combined Year 1/2 class (the only combined class in the school) and they’re also the only class with a job share. I totally understand about working part time but it feels like they’ve really drawn the short end of the straw this year with the combination.

My daughter had a job share teacher one year. She didn’t progress as well as she should have. But I think that was down to a poor job share, not because of job sharing.

Having been a teacher, I 100% don’t blame teachers for job sharing. It’s just such a demanding job. A happy teacher is (usually) a good teacher.

I would imagine most people who want to work with little kids also want to have their own. People who don't like them are unlikely to be good primary teachers (obviously teaching older kids is different). There are lots of people, including me, who always wanted to have their own, but definitely wouldn't choose a job teaching, but I've never yet met anyone who wants to look after 30 of someone else's, but is never planning to have their own.

YABU for many reasons. How wealthy a teacher is has no reflection on their abilities to teach.
Two teachers with higher energy levels due to being part time can be beneficial to the class; not one that’s broken by the end of the week. They have two ‘brains’ to come up with creative ideas for the class, share best practise etc. They’d also both have bad handover notes from the previous class teacher. I think you’re being short sighted with your views. Bear in mind kids at school are very different to home so they may well know your child, but in a different way to how you do.

Wow. I think you may be wrong regarding people's opinions.