Anyone worried about teacher shortages?

[blackcatbabe]

Schools are struggling to recruit at the moment, particularly in the South East. Anyone particularly worried about this in their kids' schools?

@SoWhatEh that's crazy! Isn't that below minimum wage?

Fuck me is this what it’s come to ? Posters falling over themselves to defend sticking unqualified staff in front of kids and charging thousands for it. Claiming you don’t need a qualification to be a teacher ? If you think that is even remotely acceptable in a country like this then give your head a wobble. It’s a disgrace

I don't know how anyone can argue that having untrained teachers is a positive. I've got 40 years experience in the state secondary sector and believe you me - people need proper, rigorous training.

@mafsfan

Y1 in my experience and opinion is the most important year. They move from provision to lessons. You set the standard and expectations and groundwork for learning for life. I've taught Year 1 and seen children miss Year 1.

I meant Year 1 of their teaching career, not Year 1 as in KS!

Look, I don't want to derail. I totally agree that ideally teachers should be qualified. I was only reacting to a post basically saying don't go to private school because teachers don't even need to be qualified. ALL I was saying is that it's not that straightforward. Yes, ideally teachers should be qualified. But - some people take (and pass) PGCEs when they're not very good. Some unqualified teachers have years of teaching experience and are outstanding. Not doing a PGCE doesn't mean no training or observation, it might be provided extensively within school. And loads of classes are being taught by unqualified teachers or non subject teachers in state now anyway, because of shortages. In short yes- I think all teachers should ideally have a formal qualification. But in practice, it's not as straightforward as 'state better because qualified', for all the reasons above.

My children aren’t at private school but to be honest, given the current situation with the teacher recruitment, I would be ok this. Your friend has a degree in an essay-based subject and recent experience in a classroom, interacting with students and seeing how teachers handle behaviour etc. I’m not saying it’s ideal but given the current situation I would accept this.

Schools need the ability to get rid of more pupils, they can’t be the dumping ground for all of society’s ills.

I suspect a lot of parents would become much more reasonable if they were faced with looking after their teenager all day.

One advantage of private schools is that they can expel disruptive/poorly behaved pupils far more easily than state. Probably makes life easier for teachers.

Ah yes...but what about the private parents?!

They also withdraw them from exams and enter as private candidates if they’re going to affect results

Not sure why people are going on about teachers in private schools not needing to be qualified when this is also the case for the majority of state schools. Plenty of unqualified teachers there.

This is all so sad to read but confirms our own experience. We were so dismayed with how things were looking we didn't register our DC for school when we moved to another county and have home educated them through their GCSEs instead.

MIL, an ex primary head, left teaching for many of the reasons highlighted. Once upon a time she'd have criticised our decision. Now she applauds us. I just feel sad at the appalling situation in the system.

@YUJA what did you move onto do. Asking for a friend...

Because many parents don’t realise what they’re paying for

Yes very concerned. I am a teacher though not teaching at the moment due to DC but I seriously am thinking about not returning. My school I worked as has three vacancies and has TA filling the role at the moment. They have just recruited a teacher who finished Uni this year, so no experience but at least they are qualified. The pay is not good but it isn’t the pay that makes them leave. The hours worked and all the extras they have to do with no time for themselves. Too much red tape and too much thrown at them. I was dealing with 6 children who so desperately needed support and going to all sorts of meetings to get them it. All in vain. I also had children who didn’t know how to open a book or dress ( parent jobs not mine). Children who were vulnerable and in need of outside help and I spent so much time with social services and police that all I wanted to do was teach and I couldn’t. I felt sorry for the children as I wasn’t able to do my job due to all the other jobs.

Actually this is not as common as people think. The Equalities Act (rightly) doesn't allow this.

Agreed.

@JRHartleysmum the proof is in the pudding of results. My DC is at a private school and it's not perfect but the staff seem to have longevity so they must be fairly happy at work. I must admit I don't know the qualifications of his teachers but from speaking to them and from what DC says they're mostly older, experienced and subject specialists.

I'm worried because DD is thinking of going into teaching. I want to encourage her if it's what she wants but she needs to go in with her eyes open.

Of course...which is obviously not great! But the reason I've pointed this out to people talking about how they are 'glad they've taken the private route' is because they possibly don't understand that they are paying thousands of pounds for their child to be taught by someone who is not qualified to teach. If I was paying an exorbitant amount of money, I would expect the staff the absolute best of the best, not an unqualified TA with just a couple of years experience in a classroom, using Twinkle slides and no actual degree in the subject they were being asked to teach to A level!

I think that's the point, @SpringIntoChaos .

@Macaroni46 at least 4 pupils have been expelled from DS year at school over the years and they were definitely the most distruprive.

Exactly. That's why it pisses me off so much when people (headteachers, KS2 staff, randoms on the internet) say it's 'only' year 1!

I completely agree. You'd think after witnessing the fall out of children who have missed chunks of ks1 due to covid they'd get it!

I guess different schools have different ways of doing things. The private schools I worked for very rarely, if ever, expelled anyone.

Depends how much they need the fees and the size of the waiting list.