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.

My dd is in year 1 and has 2 teachers, she loves them both so much, they are both excellent, really happy with the way they work together.

Job share in primary is very common. No issue at all.

I think its because you used the term form teacher Chartsandgraphs as that's more usually applicable in secondary schools. When my children were in primary I would have just called their teacher their teacher, as they had the same person for more or less everything. But in secondary of course they have multiple subject teachers and a form teacher. Reasing your title I assumed secondary for that reason, so I imagine others have done so as well.
I do have some experience of jobsharing prinary teachers in that my children had the head teacher as their main teacher in infants but on a Wednesday she did head teacher work exclusively and they had another teacher every Wednesday. It was absolutely fine. The other teacher followed on with the standard maths and English in the morning and then did a specific project with them in the afternoon so they had continuity with the main curriculum plus something special that they did with her too. It worked well. But the communication between the two was exemplary and it was a village school with tiny classes which I think made it easier.

In my kids' primary all classes have this so their teacher can do their lesson plans etc. It's worked fine.

It's a prep school with specialist teachers from year 3 onwards which I believe is fairly standard for an independent school. It's a lot of teachers for 7-8 year olds already and now the form teacher will be two people. It their communication wasn't already an issue I'd be less concerned. If it were a 2/3 split that would seem better but only 1 day a week?

I wouldn't even call 1 day a week job share to be honest. All through prep and pre-prep my kids often had a different form teacher one day a week because of other responsibilities such as prep time or one year her form teacher was the school music teacher etc.

I understand you have issues with the school and you need to address those and if necessary, vote with your feet, but I don't think this will make any difference.

If they do it well, the 1 day pw teacher will be able to focus on stuff the 4day pw teacher is weaker on. The 4 day pw teacher will be more rested and motivated.

What are your reasons for thinking it is not in their best interest?

Is the 4 day a week teacher an NQT? It could be that the 1/4 day split is to account for the NQT's non-contact time. I had this in my NQT year and it was never a problem. My class never considered the cover teacher to be their class teacher, it was very much my class.

My DD (8) has had split form teachers this year. I haven't liked it - the teachers have had quite different styles of teaching and seem to be rather uncommunicative. I don't know if they're each afraid of stepping on each other's toes or something, but not much seems to get done.

DD has rolled with it but not enjoyed it much either and honestly hasn't learned much at all this year.

Maybe we've just been unlucky.

No, not happy. At our (private) junior school it isn’t permitted. Form teachers have to be full time. TAs, art teachers, music, science etc can be part time though and I agree with that.

It happens at my school. It's really good. Each of the teachers have their own specialities and it works really well.

@Pollyputthepizzaon

No, not happy. At our (private) junior school it isn’t permitted. Form teachers have to be full time. TAs, art teachers, music, science etc can be part time though and I agree with that.

Better not publicise that as its illegal in terms of employment law.

Job share teachers have been v common in my DC time in school. It's been at best a massive bonus and at worst irrelevant. My children have really benefitted from having 2 different teachers' passions and strengths shared with them. They've also covered for each other when needed so it's reduced random supply input etc.

Illegal & discriminatory to have a blanket policy without being able to cite strong business reasons as to why a role cannot be part time.

This is for primary not secondary. I'm not sure where some posters read secondary.

Because the majority of primary schools don’t have ‘form tutors’. They have class teachers. Many of which are part time and job shares.

Workplace law allows us to work flexibly to enable us to work around caring for children/parents etc-that is pretty crap of you to moan about it.

It's a few paying private school. Why on earth shouldn't I express concern over the service I'm getting if I'm not happy? This isn't AIBU.

@Comefromaway No, it isn't. Clearly there is a strong business reason anyway, because that's what parents prefer.

I don't run the school, I don't know why you say "don't publicise it", I'm a parent of children at the school and that is the school's policy.

No, a strong business reason would be that they were unable to find someone to job-share with after reasonable advertising or that they were unable to find solutions to handover (and they would be hard pressed to legally argue that when so many similar schools manage it succesfully).

Employers can reject an application for any of the following reasons:

extra costs that will damage the business (it's often cheaper to employ 2 p/t due to employers NI levels)

the work cannot be reorganised among other staff (it obviously can in the case of a job share)

people cannot be recruited to do the work (they have been in this case and the employer has to at least try)

flexible working will affect quality and performance (it really won't, parental preference will not over-ride the precedent set in many, many other school)

the business will not be able to meet customer demand (not applicable, see above)

there’s a lack of work to do during the proposed working times (would only be applicable of the person requested to work during non core school hours)

the business is planning changes to the workforce (not applicable)

We had a fairly disastrous job share pair of teachers for DD in year 6. Both did two days with a day of being taught by 'specialist subject teachers' - usually a supply who babysat for the day. I'd mind 4+1 less as there is a main teacher who can oversee everything.

My boys are at an independent school and have had this for two years. One was a 60:40 split the other 80:20. There was good communication and the teachers had different strengths and passions. I think it was an advantage .

usually a supply who babysat for the day. Do you see supply teachers as babysitters? I certainly don't consider myself to be simply babysitting. 3 teachers in a week might be unsettling at first but if it's every week and follows a regular timetable then the children usually get used to it.

I'd be happy with a bagpipe playing unicorn for a form tutor if it meant they'd take my kids back in school...

Interesting replies, our prep won't have job sharing form teachers as they feel they would get too much grief from parents

The issue is that the school are happy with this arrangement. The fact that you dislike this idea because you think it might not be good is neither here nor there. If you dislike the school, move.

I don't think these replies are very reflective of what the average person thinks. I suspect 'working fantastically' probably means working about as well as 1 teacher (of a similar ability) would. But obviously mumsnet is very pro part time work, so obviously pro part time teachers.