Would you be happy with a job sharing form teacher?

[Chartsandgraphs]

DC are at an independent school and for next year they will have a split form teacher. I'm not happy at all as I don't think it's actually in the kids best interest. I'd be interested to hear other views.

Yes absolutely happy with it. All my children have had job share teachers in an independent. It’s key the teachers have a good relationship with one another and if they do it’s not an issue.

Ours works well especially in lockdown where they take half the class each for online lessons. The children find it fine and the main thing for us is that all emails come from both of them and all emails we send have to go to both of them. Not an issue and absolutely not a problem for the children

We have this in state primary, both teachers are excellent and no problem with communication.

I would have no problems with this at all; in fact I have been one half of a job share several times throughout my career, albeit in key stage 1, and it always worked really well.

Yes. Why not? What concerns you about it?

My eldest daughter had this in reception. It was fine.

No problem with that at all.

I wouldn't care less.

We’ve had this and there has actually been a lot of benefits. Both teachers brought different strengths to the class. One was a great musician and the other was a really good artist. They seemed to work well together. It was a really positive and productive year for dc.

A split form tutor? So your beef isn’t even about subjects? You’re being ridiculous.

Can’t see any problem with this at all.

I’m also of the view we should all be trying to support others in flexible working arrangements wherever possible.

What is the issue with this? I’m a HOY in aN independent secondary and have 2 forms with shared tutors. This is very common and usually works well. These are actually some of my best tutors, they just don’t want to work full time as they have young families.

I am a teacher and I was one half of a dream team jobshare. Worked excellently for us and the students. Two for the price of one!

Does it matter, one bit?
Why aren't you happy? and you can always vote with your feet.

I cannot see how it would matter one bit.

We had job share teachers in reception, it worked really well.

Form tutor in secondary where they have minimal contact time? What on earth are you worried about?

Job sharing teachers can work really well for staff and students. Students always get a “fresh” teacher, and it’s usually the way that some pupils get on better with one of the teachers than then other, so there’s more chance of them being seen as an individual. I share loads of classes and it’s really interesting comparing notes - one of us will see something in a student the other overlooked.

It can be brilliant if they are good teachers and collaborate and communicate well.

The advantages of two minds, two approaches, two sets of eyes are immense.

@RuginaSnug

I am a teacher and I was one half of a dream team jobshare. Worked excellently for us and the students. Two for the price of one!

Yeah, that's how it was when my kid had two job share teachers.

Admittedly this was primary.

The only thing that bothered her was figuring out which of them she loved the most

I'm not happy at all as I don't think it's actually in the kids best interest.

I'm always bemused that quite a lot of MNers feel that their opinion matters about something which they have no expertise in and which it is not their place to be involved with.

We had this in year 1 and it worked really well. One was great at science and maths the other was all over the humanities - amazing

It wouldn't bother me....in fact it's a positive
Two teachers both fresh
Two lots of ideas and teaching methods

Both of my children had job share form tutors in prep and pre-prep. One was due to the teacher having management responsibilities and the other was due to part time work.

There was no issue at all. In fact in many ways it was better than just having one teacher as they could work to their strengths.

I have been part time for 6 years sharing a form with various other part time staff members. It has never once caused an issue regarding supporting the pupils or communication with home. As previous posters have said, it can actually benefit the students as they get two staff members who have different subject knowledge and strengths.

Two of my DC have had this, it worked fine.

This is for primary not secondary. I'm not sure where some posters read secondary. The schools communication and organization has already been poor and I'm afraid this will only make it worse. One teacher is doing 4 days and the other 1 day.

@Chartsandgraphs

This is for primary not secondary. I'm not sure where some posters read secondary. The schools communication and organization has already been poor and I'm afraid this will only make it worse. One teacher is doing 4 days and the other 1 day.

We had split for early primary - worked fantastically but they did 2/3 days. DC found it really enriching - teachers agreed on fundamentals of course but had different approaches and styles and this made it fun and interesting for DC. The teaching assistant was the same across the week.

FWIW I don’t think you’re unreasonable to be concerned if you’ve never experienced it before. I was a little “huh” when we first heard, but it was fab for us - and they were both at parents eve for example and both wrote reports, it was basically just great to have more people who cared about and had input into the education of our DC. Hope it works out for you.