No teacher for A-level - need an advice

[JTro]

Hope someone can advise me what to do in this situation. My DS is in Year 13, one of his A-levels is Further Maths (FM). At the beginning of this school year, students doing FM chose what to do: 2 majors or 4 minors. My DS chose 4 minors and on the first week of doing his 4 minors he found out he has no maths teacher who will teach them ( it's 4 of them). Since then, Maths Subject Leader said that they need to teach themselves on Google Classroom, where she put some study materials while she try to sort it out very soon. Later on "very soon" transformed to "by the end of the half-term". When end of half-term happened, she said "at the beginning next half term it will be sort it out". Yesterday was first day of new half-term and of course the issue is still there. Now she says "it will be sorted out soon". At the same time, his Head of Year approached him and stronly advised to drom FM A-level and do AS-level instead, my DS refused. After that Head of Sixths Form approached him and again "strongly advised" to drop FM A-level. As his predicted grade for FM is B, I suspect this is their attempt to solve the issue by less painful way for them, but not taking into ccount his best interest. As all this happens through talking with his Maths subject leader, it looks like they will push him and few others to study FM themselves as long as they could and they are really missing out on proper studying and they do the same level on tests as other, who do have a techer. I need an advise how to approach school regarding this issue and finally make them to teach these 4 students properly. Should I contact Head teacher, or go straight to Governors? Just for reference - I am not familiar with A-level system at all, he is our first who is doing A-levels, and probably it's a norm when students learn themselves?

If there is no teacher I'm not sure they can do anything. Could he do these at the college ? Or arrange a tutor.

Its a sign of the times sadly. Teacher retention is at an all time low

It sounds like they either have not been able to recruit a suitable teacher (not their fault, there is an absolute crisis in teacher recruitment and retention at the moment) or now feel they cannot timetable one for such a small number of students (not on: they should not have made an offer they can't honour).

Obviously talk to the Head first, but other options include finding a private tutor for the four kids and splitting the costs between parents, or paying for an online Alevel. Alternatively there may be another local school which could accommodate them for this subject if timetabling can be tweaked.

Either way, get a move on as every day that goes by, content is being missed and the exams are getting closer.

If you don't have any joy with the Head, that is the time to involve the Governing Body.

If he switched to 2 majors would that help? It's dreadful that they offered him this option and then can't provide a teacher to teach him - if they didn't have a teacher they should never have offered that option - but with the situation being what it is I think I'd aim for damage limitation.

I'm not sure what the 2 majors/4 minors bit is.
What has happened to the kids that chose the other route? Would switching to 2 majors get him a teacher? All be it with content missing, but at least a qualified teacher in front of him.

sorry what do you mean by damage limitation?

There are other students who do 4 minors, but their timetables are not overlapping with FM lesson, if you get what I mean, it's only these few

Schools have complaints policies you have to follow. So it’s found on their web site and you can get started. I can see wuth so few pupils it’s an issue. They should look to another school or get DC to change options. Most schools don’t run options for tiny numbers. They should have offered what they can deliver. What you are being offered isn’t good enough. It’s disastrous and it’s poor management and frankly dishonest to even start the year offering something which is not deliverable. I would be absolutely fuming!

@noblegiraffe, (maths/further maths teacher for those that don't know) sorry to send up the bat signal for you but what would you advise being on the inside?

There is clearly a teacher teaching it but not available for the timetabled slot for a few of them. Anything you can suggest?

Well, limit the damage that not having a teacher is going to do to his chances of a decent grade, obviously. Is there a teacher for the 2 options? He may be predicted a B if he has a teacher, but without? I certainly wouldn't want to have taught myself my A level subjects. There is just too much material and with maths surely it's hard and someone needs to be there to show you how to do it?

I am fuming! But my DS is relaxed saying the teacher promised to sort it out. She told it a few times before, but nothing is done! Going to contact Head of Year, to see what's going on and how they think it will be resolved

I don't understand the major/minor thing either, is this England? Which exam board?

Has he already completed A-level maths and is looking to do Further Maths in a year, or has he already studied FM in Y12 to AS level and needs to do the final year?

It is very odd that they have a further maths class with a teacher but then offered students to study something other than what is being taught in that class but they have to teach themselves. Why can't he join the further maths class that has a teacher?

What other subjects is he taking and what are his plans for uni/next year? If he needs it then the school telling him to just drop it is unacceptable.

There is a support programme for students who want to study further maths but don't have a teacher, the school should look into accessing it if they cannot sort this timetabling issue https://amsp.org.uk/teachers/a-level-further-mathematics/student-tuition/

There are no maths teachers, nothing the school can do about that - they might have had one originally but lost them for whatever reason.

We also have no maths teachers or science teachers, so have had to limit the number of science lessons on the GCSE timetables, and also have year 7 and 8 taught by unqualified non specialists

He is doing Maths, FM, Physics and Chemistry. They all have to do 4 A-level as he is in garmmar school. So, what I understand, for the first year they were doing mostly maths with a bit of FM, now they are doing mostly FM, with a bit of maths. But as he is doing math and FM, both subjects are very into each other and sometimes it's difficult to distinguish between them. Those who chose to do only maths, doing it slowly over 2 years. So, FM is divided in 4 areas: Mechanics, Statistics, Algorythm, and something else (I don't remember, these all is new for me). So everyone who is doing FM has to chose 2 majors ( as I understand, but could be wrong - 2 areas for deep learning) or 4 minors (do all 4 areas, but not too deep). Hopefully it's a bit clearer now.

there are maths teachers , other students are doing their majors and their minors, just 4 out of around 100 do not have teachers. I think as these options were offered and other sudents ARE doing 4 minors, it's not fair to not teach these 4.

noblegiraffe, yes, it's England. They offering him to drop FM A level and downgrade it to AS-level, because as my DS said, most of the AS level programm is already covered. I think its OCR board. But I don't think it's fair for his future to drom A level to AS level while his predicted grade is B (they did end of year exams and all predictions are based on that). Anyway, email to Head of year was sent, hopefully will get a reply on Monday. School refused to share Maths subject leader school email due to confidentiality (is that normal?).

yes, that is normal

If there is no teacher, then there is no teacher, not sure what anyone can do about that. Unless your son wants to be an external candidate and learn through a tutor

of course they can't pull a teacher out of a class of 30 to teach a class of 4. They need more teachers, they don't have enough teachers - that is the issue

if there is no teacher, how others are having lessons with a teacher?

so that's ok to discriminate these 4??? interesting

That is a different class.

That teacher will already have a full timetable

it is a class doing 4 minors, the same as my DS and other 3 students.

and? so it's ok for 30 students to do learn and for these 4 - not? even more interesting

My understanding is if the options are offered to everybody, they all ahve the same rights and should be treated equally. Why others (even if it's 30 of them) have preferences over these 4?