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.

No @dootball working fantastically means that it works seamlessly with both teachers having different strengths and excellent communication with each other and I think it had enhanced my child’s experience. However, these teachers came to the school as a job share and applied for the job together and have job shared with each other for many years in previous schools which may well contribute to the positive experience

@dootball

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.

No, that’s not what I meant at all. I’ve had 3 dc through primary school and they’ve being lucky enough to have had some very good teachers. The job sharing teachers that one of my dc had in Y5 were better than a lot of the years where dc had single teachers.

We had it and it was a disaster. They did not communicate with each other. Then avoided parents who asked questions about what was going on.

Why on earth shouldn't I express concern over the service I'm getting if I'm not happy?

Of course if something has gone wrong you should express you concerns, what is that to do with your OP?

You posted about not liking the idea of teachers job sharing, that isn't a problem with the "service". Paying fees doesn't give you any say over the employment conditions of particular staff.

Four day/one day job share has worked out really well for my Primary age DS: they seem to do a whole day of science and DT type stuff with one teacher, and everything else with the other one, so there is no problem with continuity of work.

Oh, I am jealous.
Love the school I am at BUT my head rejects people's requests to go part-time, unless it's 4 days a week. Often ends with people then working from home on their day off and not really having a break. Which is a shame, as so many posters on this thread have said it works well!

But anyway OP, you will just have to see how it goes, but you will hopefully have two dedicated form teachers for your child.

With job sharing teachers I have always found that you get more than the sum of the two parts. I think that as it is still not the norm teachers who negotiate these arrangements are very keen on making it work. It also mitigates against the fact that if, for any reason, a child ends up with a primary teacher who doesn't work for them the whole year can be miserable. I was a little concerned about a 4:1 split my son had in Y4 for similar reasons to the OP but the one day a week teacher focused on her strengths and it worked well.

With job sharing teachers I have always found that you get more than the sum of the two parts.

That was my experience too.

I think a lot of resistance to this is a fear of change.

That fear is often justified, but in this case it's not.

There's no particular reason why having the same teacher every day woukd be better than having two spread across the week.

@Twozerotwozero. I don't think of supply teachers as babysitters, but there were real issues with the fact that neither of the job share teachers saw it as their responsibility to think of anything for the children to do on the day neither of them were working, there were no lesson plans or ideas, and nothing about where the children had got to.

As the headmistress was not great she had failed to understand at the start of the year that she would need to cover day 5 for the entire school year and it seemed to come as a surprise every week so it was different teachers most weeks.

Not at all, as long as there was decent communication between then two of them, which most teachers would of course do.

We had two teachers for my year when I was aged 8-9 (middle school so not sure what year that would be). It was great and I think we got fresher and more energized teaching as a result.

I think it should be done more, esp when there is concern about teacher burnout, or many teachers having difficulties combining teaching with having a young family of their own.

@Chartsandgraphs

Was it a different supply teacher each week or the same person? If a new teacher was coming every week and there was never any work left then I can understand your annoyance and frustration; if it was the same person then I'd expect him/her to act like part of the job share and plan, prepare, teach and assess the subjects they were responsible for.

Sorry, ignore my above post: I didn't read all the way to the bottom

@Chartsandgraphs You'll find it is quite common. Teachers are also learners especially early on in their careers. Ive found that there's seems to be one career development day per week. However, in independent schools, the teachers follow a curriculum plan with exercises and extensions all planned out. In my son's school, there are three forms in each year, in my daughter's school, two. But they all do the same things at the same time. So the children don't miss out on anything and they tend to like the fact that once a week a get Miss This or Mr That. It'll be fine.

Wow.

For the record, I'm one half of a job share. We have a tutor group. We work our arses off at communication and consistency and the school gets a hell of a lot more bang for its buck than it would with one teacher. We know the kids and are fiercely proud of them.

But then I work in a state school with a lot of disadvantaged and vulnerable children, so I'm never going to darken your child's door.

You need to have a word with yourself.

I would expect it to work well. There are loads of positives - a fresh person part way through the week, different strengths, teachers are motivated to make the arrangement work, if one is off sick there's still some continuity.

But, the only year we had a job share teacher was an unmitigated disaster. If you had a question, as a parent, the two teachers would rush to blame each other (in situations where "yes, we will deal with that" would have been an adequate response). It was really unprofessional and they clearly weren't getting on. We started the year with two teachers and ended the year with two completely different teachers, so no continuity.

Despite that experience, I'd happily have my DC with job-sharing teachers. I think we and the school were unlucky. I think most teachers are more professional than that and work hard to make a job share work.

Y4 is two job share teachers in our primary school and I hated it.

Neither seemed to know the dc very well. Parents evenings were very uncomfortable...they’d both be there and were like some kind of cringy double act and both seemed uncomfortable in answering questions whilst trying not to over talk the other...it was all just awkward.

I don't think that you should focus your concerns on the job sharing teacher, it is simply too soon for you to be able to judge if it is an effective arrangement for your children.
But if you have other concerns about the school, you have raised them and they have not been addressed, please just walk away. Don't spend your money on a school that is second rate.

Supply teachers are only paid for the hours they are teaching so cannot be expected to plan although there is an expectation they will mark work. Don’t know quite how they manage it without working for free though. If teacher’s are working part time they can’t be expected to plan for when they aren’t there. They’re working part time for part time pay and should be doing part time planning. If there’s a teacher working one day a week it’s up to the head to employ someone who’s on contract and so will plan. Don’t know how easy it would be to find someone to do that though. State schooling runs on an enormous amount of goodwill but it shouldn’t be expected.

My daughters attend fee paying schools and no I wouldn't be happy either. Same as your school the Upper years of prep function more akin with seniors.

Our form teachers have a vital role for our girls and continuity is very important.

Do you have more than one year group? Cound transferring to another class be an option?

I don’t have a problem with teachers job sharing. As women I think we should try and understand that teachers have their own kids too. Also I’m not sure why a teacher working part time would affect the child? Children adapt and if it’s always been that way they will know no different at all.

Some children adapt and some don't. DS has SEN and the communication from the school was already an issue. We've pushed and they've moved him to the other form. We aren't the only ones who complained and now the form with the one teacher is 4 kids larger than the other form with more grumbling parents. It doesn't seem to be a well received decision.

My DD had a 2/3 day class teacher split this year in Yr4. The big advantage I noticed... She hasn't had a supply teacher once. If one has to attend a Training course, the other covers that day. They cover each other for illness. They both went on the school trip.

You've asked if people would be happy with a job sharing teacher and most of the replies seem to be that they would because it's pretty common in state schools and people have had no problem with it.

Your issue is a school specific one not one with the concept of a job share.

If you aren't happy in your situation that's your prerogative and has nothing to do with whether anyone else has has a good or bad experience, I'm not sure what you were hoping for, you were never going to change your mind.

Maybe the school isn't the best one for your child.

It's good to know you know me so completely @PleasantVille . Your assessment was truly helpful.