Dd1 nursery teacher potentially out of a job

[midwifeandmum]

Picked up dd1 this morning from nursery ( im in scotland) and was discussing with nursery teacher the new changes to early education regarding longer nursery hours from August.

She also said that the new change also states that nurseries no longer need nursery teachers just early years officers. So she potentially out of a job.

This is such a shame, she has taught there for years and the parents and school would sadly miss her.

Has anyone else heard about this new change that could potentially happen? Ive looked online but cannot see anything stating this.

I can only tell you about England where it has not been mandatory to have a nursery teacher in a nursery for years.

My LA re-employed the nursery teachers as peripatetic nursery advisers and the Nursery classes were managed by the Early Years teaching team in each school with advice from the peripatetic nursery teachers. Therefore we had early years qualified teachers in charge, but not in the nursery every day as they worked in Reception. They did oversee the early years curriculum delivery. The nursery was staffed by Nursery Nurses and TAs. It could be that Scotland is following this route. Your school may be able to afford the nursery teacher's salary and keep her on. She could go into Reception. Nursery Nurse salaries are a lot less hence there can be a big saving by making the change. If the LA is paying for the nursery direct and employs the teacher, they may well be able to re-employ her in a new role, eg as a peripatetic member of staff.

My DDs school never had a nursery teacher in their nursery class. When it was set up, it was managed by the Early Years team leader (a teacher) but honestly quality did not suffer as the nursery staff were superb and extremely well led.