Y1…about to be on teacher number 4 this year.

[Rescaetal]

The first one went on mat leave. The second one was going to cover mat leave but then it turned into a jobshare, so teachers 2 and 3. Now a different teacher who was also on mat leave is returning and will take over one of the job shares.

School is doing its best to cover the class with teachers that are available. Whilst also trying to balance a budget. They sound like they’ve been stuck with a bit of mess with 2 inconveniently timed maternity leaves. No one s fault but it is a pain.
I suspect they couldn’t really find a permanent teacher who wanted the short term contract of a maternity leave so managed to patch it together with a couple of part time staff. Then the other staff returned and they can’t afford to keep on the extra person. They’re still paying the person on maternity leave as well.
It’s not ideal and school wouldn’t have chosen it but there’s not a lot to be done.
Have you actually noticed that it’s having a negative impact??

Many people in many different jobs and professions want to return under different terms. There will be one job share who is continuing, so the one returning from maternity leave will have a colleague who is familiar is the class.

The class has qualified teachers and the head will be making the best of the staff available.

This is the reality of an underfunded education system that is haemorrhaging staff. Teachers are thin on the ground.

It’s not uncommon to find it difficult to get a temporary teacher to cover a maternity leave.
for obvious reasons people prefer permanent jobs.

I don't blame you for being unhappy about it, I would be too, even though I understand the reasons.

Has there been a TA attached to the class that's been a constant throughout?

What do you expect the school for do? They are providing a qualified teacher so you are lucky in that respect. Teachers have families and are entitled to maternity leave and to work part time afterwards, just like anybody else. Fewer people are wanting to become teachers so this is where we are.

This, there’s another thread running about how parents are constantly unhappy as they treat schools and teachers as commercial commodities who should be answerable to them.
how do other places of work manage when they can’t get staff?schools are just the same, but as in nhs some of the public seem to think we as staff can just be ordered “go and work there now!!” And we have to.. (well to some extent they can, but that’s what brings on sickness absences!)

Op hasn't said she's complained or demanded anything.

In her position I'd be disappointed too, even though I'd know there's nothing to be done.

Unless every class is this disrupted, though, the school might have been able to share out the disruption a bit eg put the two part time job sharers into year 2 and swap the year 2 teacher into year 1 (say). And bring back the other mat leave returner into a different class. It does seem quite unlucky for this much disruption to all go to one class.

We don't know the full circumstances though and probably neither does op.

Edit - I know my example solution doesn't make that much sense. But there could have been a solution that spread out the disruption

Honestly I think most people would agree this is non ideal for the children. I’m so sorry OP.

It’s not ideal but try and look at it positively, your child is building a relationship with more teachers, who will bring different skills and knowledge to his learning. My child was terrible for latching onto their ‘one’ teacher which made transition to the next year difficult. Having more teachers in the mix can be a positive thing.

Ds has similar one year in primary, while not ideal it worked fine. It also happened in secondary and that awful, very badly handled by the school/teachers.

My DC had this for the first 3 years of primary. 9 teachers over 3 years. It's affected the long-term progress of at least half of the children.

BUT it's the consequence of primary teachers being almost exclusively female. And of teaching having a low retention rate. Young women go into primary teaching, do it for a few years and then leave because it's too much for a long-term career. It also coincides with their reproductive years.

The only answer really is to make teaching more manageable to retain women in long-term teaching, to value (and pay) more experienced older women teachers or to try to make primary teaching more attractive to men.

Given that ECT teachers are cheap, it's almost unavoidable that there will be constant swapping and changing.

It's not ideal at all. But I don't blame teachers for leaving as the job really is absolutely awful now - the pressure is relentless and is only getting worse.
I did 21 years in primary and leaving was by far the best thing I ever did for my own family. I still pinch myself when I'm at my 5 yo's school events. Also cannot wait for a little abroad holiday with my husband in term-time this year; first ever in my 45 years!
The already massive teacher recruitment and retention crisis is only going to get worse. As someone said, it's fortunate that your child has a qualified teacher in front of them these days.
No pay increase would have encouraged me to stay.

I do primary supply teaching and some schools have to cover long term absence with a parade of day to day supply teachers. Nobody is planning anything because it’s not their job. And then they can’t get a supply teacher who is willing to stay more than a couple of days because there is nobody planning anything. Some schools are using their HLTAs to cover long term teacher absence but people don’t like that either.

Im in an EYFS class at the moment where there are two classes and one teacher and one TA are off long term and covered by supply so the other teacher is floundering. She will probably collapse under the strain.

@savoycabbage Agreed. Schools are in such and complete and utter mess because of teacher shortages/teachers off long-term with WRS. Something should have been done a long time ago to try to make the job at least manageable but now it's far too late.

How different is it to schools where the children leave class for specialist instruction? My private primary has the little ones having multiple teachers.

What do you mean how different is it? If a specialist teacher left, then everyone who had that teacher for that subject would have a different teacher for that subject. Same as in any school.

’Little ones’ do tend to have a form teacher though.

form or specialist they still have multiple teachers in the day. it doesn’t need to be viewed as a negative.

It's not ideal but most primary class teachers are women of childbearing age. They have babies and then want to go part time. If one of the job shares is staying then that will mean consistency.
Teaching really isn’t well paid enough to forgo having a life!

OK then. Doesn't sound like the sort of set up that would work for a lot of four year olds.

I've worked in a public school in a reception class. I had my children for at least 70% of the time.

Nothing to do with funding! Job shares are usually more expensive due to handover time. It’s rarely exactly 0.5 for both teachers. I think they work well when the teachers are good. Plus it’s very bad luck one is now leaving. Hope teaching stays stable for the rest of the year.

My child of a similar age is in a class that was taught by a job share, one of whom has gone on mat leave and has cover. It hasn't had any negative effects as far as I'm aware. Children are surprisingly resilient about this stuff.