Disappointed with how school had treated ds teacher

[SleeptightDaisy]

Teacher was employed last June to be the reception teacher on a 12 month contract as parents we found out on the intake evening which was the day of her interview. Then in the July the week school finished the other reception class found out the teacher they thought they were having was leaving and a new teacher was employed again on a 12 month contract. Both new staff were nqts and were both placed in reception I personally thought that they'd been thrown in at the deep end as both new to the school, both classes have a high percentage of children with statements that come with extra adults. In the first few months of the school year some children left and also two more teachers at the school left. Rumours were that not all was well we were happy with D's progression but were concerned with what actually was going on. As the school year continued you saw ds teacher grow in confidence and add more too the classroom plus ds was progressing. We've just found out more teachers are leaving including ds teacher a governor has let it be known that ds was told all was going well and was led to believe her contract would be extended due to this she hasn't applied for other jobs, but they've employed someone else. I feel really sorry for her and worried about what really is going on in the school on regards to the education of ds.

I think probably the best thing to do is stop listening to rumours.
I doubt a governor would know that a teacher had been "led to believe her contract was being extended", and if they did, then they shouldn't be talking about it. And if the governor was aware of this, they would also have been aware of the advert going out for new teacher and could have insisted she was told, or told her themselves.

If she's done well, she'll be in a good position as jobs after the end of May (of which there will be plenty going) will be mostly competing with NQT and returning teachers as current teachers have to resign by the end of May if they want to start new in September.

Yes you probably are correct in not listening to rumours and we've tried and when other parents have asked at playgroups we've been supportive of the school especially as our child seems to be doing well. But it's surprising that a school with around 300 pupils has had at least 7 teachers leaving from last July to the end of this school year. The staff are also leaving outside the notice periods obviously with the school's permission. The governor that we spoke to, removed her child from the school after the autumn term they have another child at the school but they are due to leave this summer.

The teacher will have been given notice, or will have given notice, one or the other.

The teacher will have no difficulty finding another job, if they want one, don't worry about them

Sometimes you'll get a year when a large number of teachers leave. I would not worry about this at all unless you have genuine concerns based on facts & not rumours. Sometimes negative rumours can actually cause problems where there were none in the first place. Also that governor should not have stated what they did.

Look at the facts & if you have concerns, address these with the school.

Did the NQTs actually pass their probation year? Not a good idea to have them both in the same year group in my view. Is the school losing children and, as a result, losing teachers? I assume it is 4-11 with 60 per year? That should be 420 children but you have 300 or about 43 per year which mean two teachers per year is very expensive and not possible. You would expect composite classes over two cohorts - therefore 90 (86) children having three teachers. Is this what they are doing?

Yes they did pass and yes I thought back in September it would of been better if they moved one of the other teachers to reception as well as an nqt to provide experience and knowledge of the school and was surprised this didn't happen. Especially with the high number of children with 1:1 support. The school is nursery to year 4 mainly two classes per year group apart from y4/nursery. No real facts other than teachers are leaving and so are some children in different year groups and probably more than you'd expect, it makes you wonder if you are missing something. Ds is progressing well and that's what we've been told. I suppose it's partly due the fact this school was my first choice but dhs second choice. Not sure it's all down too money as the two new teachers are experienced and one has been given an early years leader position.

My understanding is that schools get extra funding for taking on NQTs which means they were probably quids in for employing the NQTs. That is also probably why they were on 1 year contracts. I suspect as well as the new experienced ones they have employed some of the others that are leaving will also be replaced by NQTs which bring a cash bonus too (which is lost when they are 1 yr qualified).

If you're happy with DS's progression then the rest doesn't matter.