to make a fuss about job-sharing reception teachers?

[EmmalinaC]

DD1 starts school in September. Last week we attended the new parents evening and discovered that she will have two part-time teachers: Mrs X works Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Mrs Y works Thursday & Friday.

Many of the parents expressed concern about this and were told that both teachers were working mums and it suited them better to work part-time. They didn't really offer any justifications that were to the children's advantage (apart from 'it's better to have two teachers in case you don't get on with one' )

I don't want to start off on the wrong foot with the school by making a fuss about this but I can't help feeling that it is totally inappropriate for a reception class.

So AIBU to complain the school? To the Head? Or to the Governors?

DD had job-sharing reception class teachers and it was great. The TA was full-time, so there was one person there all week and the two teachers were always fresh and enthusiastic. They had time together to plan, so everything felt cohesive and it worked really well. For her and for us it proved to be a really positive experience. Teacehrs with young families are likely to be attuned to the needs and ways of small children and their families, so celebrate it, I say.

I think that you are misreading me entirely Violet. I am not saying it is better! I am saying it can be better-it depends entirely on the quality of the teacher. I bring most of my work on myself-I have to be very organised.
One teacher or a job share doesn't matter. The quality of the teacher or teachers matters. OP can't have grounds for concern until she sees them in action. One good teacher is much better than two bad ones and two good teachers are much better than one bad one.

Wed 07-Jul-10 19:36:53
'YABU. You are actually getting a much better deal.'

Your last post would seem to contradict this earlier one then pisces. How do you know the OP is getting a 'much better deal' if it depends on the quality and commitment of individual teachers. It may be better than the one she would otherwise have, or it may not. My only misunderstanding is this post you made earlier, when you assume it must be better to job share, based only on your experience of not managing five days.

Not read whole thread, but my DS is just coming to the end of Reception having had 2 job share teachers, and I have been delighted; absolutely no concerns about him, the teachers or the school. So imo YABU. He loves school, he loves Mrs S and Mrs P and the TA. And he is doing well despite his Daddy having been absent for the majority of the year (which would have been far more responsible for any confusion that he would have suffered).

Sorry -I should have said 'you are getting a better deal if the teachers work well together, are conscientious and put in extra time'-my whole point is that OP doesn't know if they will or they won't she is just making the assumption that it has to be worse than one teacher. I would wait and see. A parent would be annoyed with themselves if they kicked up a terrific fuss and got one teacher who turned out not to be very good when the job share were outstanding. The whole thing depends entirely on the quality of the teacher.

OP probably doesn't realise that the class will get another teacher anyway -at least half a day the teacher will be out with PPA cover. If they have any responsibility e.g. SENCO they will have extra time out. They will be out for courses. An NQT will have extra time out. If there is a job share there is far less disruption.

Ah right, that makes sense then. But equally, a single teacher who is conscientious and giving over and above, would be a good deal too!

I just didn't understand the assumption that a job share is favourable!

To OP: you are not even in the school yet and you are thinking of making a complaint?

You have many, many years of schooling to come yet where you will very quickly learn to pick your battles.

Two teachers is good - twice the experience and knowledge, twice the amount of support for the children, twice the amount of teacher stories at home!!

I think that you just seized on the wrong words! I didn't mean it was better just that there is no reason for it to be unfavourable-I didn't put it very well. I still think that 2 teachers can be a good deal (they can equally be a bad deal!)

OP could get in the really silly position of complaining-getting her one teacher and then finding out that the job share were outstanding! My only message was don't make assumptions-wait and see. It will also get more common IMO-whether people like it or not-people like flexible working hours and teachers are no different.

YABU. My dds have nearly always had two teachers. This year in fact dd2 started the year with Mrs a and Mrs b. Mrs a went on maternity leave at october 1/2 term to be replaced by Mr c. Mrs b went on mat leave at christmas to be replaced by Miss d. Miss d taught them till last week when Mrs b came back. Mr c will stay till the end of term and then next year dd3 will have Mrs a and Mrs e......who was originally planned to have taught her last year but who went on maternity leave right befor term started when she was able to adopt a baby. i have nothing but praise and admiration for all of these teachers. dd2 is doing very well and I have no concerns at all about her progress or the continuity in the school. By agreeing to a lot of part time posts the head is actually hanging on to his most experienced and skilled staff members. In the 8 years i've known the school 1 permanent teacher has left to emigrate and 1 was promoted to head elsewhere. 1 retired - and that's it. 2 teachers - or even 4 is a small price to pay for that level of continuity and commitment within a school.
Op - back off and see what sort of education your child is actually getting before you start deciding you know, much, much better than anyone else. It also wouldn't kill you to be glad your child's school supports colleagues in their worklife balance - as mothers that's something we should all be celebrating.

YABU

My DD will also start school in September and will also have job share teachers. I can see no disadvantage for her.

Northernlurker I do wish people would READ THE THREAD.

I have backed off.

I have no intention of complaining.

I have agreed to give it a chance and as a result of the many responses on here I actually feel very optimistic about it.

I know nothing about primary education: I am not a teacher and this is my first child.

That's why I asked Mumsnet.

I don't think that anyone has mentioned the TAs Emmalina, they will be there all the time I expect and they are very important to the reception age child. They pass on any information that the teacher might forget to mention e.g. 'Lucy was very upset at lunchtime because .......' In a job share I tended to leave lots of notes e.g. Josh brought in xxx yesterday and we didn't get time to show it-can you do it today?'
email also makes it all much easier to communicate these days.
As a supply teacher the first thing that I ask when I go in is 'have I got a TA'-they make things so much easier.
I didn't put it very well, so that Violet thought that I was saying it was better to have a job share. It is neither better or worse-it depends entirely on the teachers involved. The fact they are sharing the job isn't the thing that makes it better or worse.

Yes, there is a TA and she comes on the home visit too, which is great.

piscesmoon could you please tell me what exactly PPA stands for? Lots of people have mentioned it as if I should have been born knowing...

It is many moons since my own school days when we had one teacher, no TAs, no PPA, free milk and everyone left their front doors unlocked...

Emmalina, I see you've been reassured but I'm another parent very happy with job-sharing reception teachers. My older 2 have both been in the same reception class and had 2 fantastic teachers. They have different strengths and personalities and I sometimes wonder if it isn't actually the ideal scenario for all ages.

School nursery had 6 members of staff, so 2 plus a TA is great.

PPA (can't remember what it stands for) is the half day a week given to classroom teachers for prep etc. It's a national arrangement so every teacher gets it (and I think it's a whole day in their first year of teaching) but in our reception class they don't have another teacher coming in because I think the part-time staff actually get paid for that time on top of their teaching days so it doesn't affect the class.

Just wanted to add my 2 pence lol. Emmalina I think yanbu to feel the way you do. It's quite common to think the children will get confused, not settle so easy etc etc.

I felt similar when I changed my dc's school. He went from one teacher in reception to having two teachers in reception and I wondered if he would cope, or it would make settling in a lot harder for him. It hasn't done him any harm at all. He likes both his teachers and so do I because they couldn't be more different. One is very stern and takes no messing at all and the other is lovely and sweet and well, how you would expect a reception teacher to be. I find he likes different things about them both and he's very aware that Mrs S takes us on mon/tues/wed and Mrs P takes us on thur/fri etc. Also as some other posters have said, he has 2 full-time ta's so consistency is not a problem.

both of my dds have had two teachers in their first year of school. These two teachers work a 5 day fortnight so each works an alternate Wednesday. Neither dd has become confused. These two teachers have worked together for a number of years and the kids love them both. Whilst they are different in personality - their teaching styles and their teacher personalities are very similar. Even my eldest who had sn had no problems with two teachers. In fact I wanted them for dd2 and hope to have them again when dd3 starts school in 2 years time.

Sorry, only just come back Emmalina, PPA stands for Planning, preparation and assessment. Teachers are entitled to 10% of their teaching time for this. Therefore a job share person won't get as much as a full time person. Another teacher will take the class. I often do that job throughout A school. The other teacher is responsible for planning those lessons and marking them. The teacher will tell you what to cover and then it is up to you. (They tend to leave what they don't like and I get a lot of music and RE).Some schools will use a TA for this-especially at the younger end-but they shouldn't.
When I started teaching you were in the classroom all the time (bar courses and illness) but now the DC will be used to other people taking them.They will often go off in a group and work with a TA or parent. (You can volunteer-a good way to see how it is going).
I know that it sounds as if it isn't a good thing, but it can be-as long as the teachers work well together. It is very common when a teacher goes back after maternity leave-they don't want full time. It is also common near retirement where an experienced teacher just wants to ease the hours. It can be common where the teacher is the deputy Head and has a whole day off. If it is a small school the Head often has to teach a couple of days.

Even though this thread is old, since this is the site/thread that came up in a web search I'd like to share my experience in reply to some of the points made here.

With a job share, the individual teachers are out of the class as much as a single teacher is (meetings/other). So instead of 2 teachers, we have 2 + relief = minimum 3. Just as with 1 teacher we would have 1 + relief = 2 minimum. The minimum is largely unattainable seeing as there isn't a specific person employed for relief. When one of the job sharing teachers goes off sick for any prolonged period of time, the other doesn't take over - there is a reason why they are job sharing after all. So now the 3 teachers are 4... minimum.

I think it's important to be realistic with the figures. All the negatives applied to having one constant teacher here can be applied to job sharing where there is potential for them to have a greater negative effect. I read over and over about two good teachers being better than one bad one. This is clearly something that will happen only in the minority of cases so it is as irrelevant to this discussion as the possibility of having two terrible teachers is.

Far from being unreasonable, these concerns are common and are taken very seriously by educators. The fact is that it works for some (most?) children, but not others.

Remembering that on a bad year, 1 can equal more than 2 but 2 can equal more than 4... plus equal numbers of support staff. As has happened with us.

There are clearly steps that can be taken in individual circumstances to maximise continuity, which is something that some of the replies address regarding support staff for example. The first stage towards implementing an effective system that takes on board the needs of the staff and the children is acknowledging potential issues.

And there are, clearly, potential issues which need to be acknowledged and discussed openly and honestly. Nobody wants to take away the opportunity for teachers to job share, even though in some other industries it isn't an option because of the nature of the jobs, so I'd like to see more of a willingness to engage from some of the teachers posting here.

Can any of the professional educators here post links to scientific research that demonstrates the innocuous or beneficial nature of job sharing in the early years of education?