Class teacher swops

[8oxoffrogs]

Are there any teachers out there that can shed some light as to why the HT has decided to swop round most of the teachers for next September? 3 teachers are changing classes, two of which are swopping Key stage. Any thoughts??

So is there any truth in the notion that weak teachers are most likely shuffled into yr3? Have heard that a fair few times, or is it a mumsnet myth?

We're having a big shuffle round next year, although I'm told it's apparently fairly unusual at our school (I've only been there 2 years so can't say for definite). I think the HT has decided to do it this year because one teacher is leaving permanently in July, and myself and another will be on maternity leave, so changes were afoot anyway...

Actually, year 3 is VERY important as this is where the children begin the move from the relatively coddled world of KS1 into the big bad world of KS2! Expectations and curriculum expand, topics become increasingly complex and require more and more independent thought. I firmly believe that a bad start in year 3 can hold a child back considerably and year 3 requires a rather special type of teacher!

Any of the Y3 teachers which MNers regularly report as perpetuating the myth of 'oh yes, well, children always slide backwards in Year 3', when the nature of KS1 assessment since 2005 has meant that this is no longer the case, are definitely weaker ones! (Unless it's a separate junior school, in which case in can be very difficult where moderation in the infant school is not good.)

I really do hope that DairyQueen was joking, but have found that many lay people/parents and even some secondary teachers are of the opinion that the older the children, the better the teacher needs to be. Therefore secondary teacher = highly skilled, reception/year1/2 teacher = mumsy child minder.

I didn't know that about year 3. I teach in secondary school, so of course we all teach a variety of year groups, but it's year 8 that is considered the easy option here! It's where we put trainees most often!

I totally agree that reception is no place for struggling teachers, but experience tells me they often end up there. Complete disaster for the kids, DS has the scars to prove it...

Unserpentquicourt - not sure why you're running not slithering, but that wasn't the point...I really DONT think teachers have to be better the higher up the school, but it so often happens that if a school has a bum teacher they can't shift they stick them in reception. I mean no disrespect to teachers, they do the hardest job in the world, saints the lot of them :-D

Just to really make clear I'm not a teacher hater I think infants teachers are the most important!

Unserpentquicourt - I have taught right up to 70y+ adults so must be a really good teacher if that was the case Mind you, must have been "demoted" massively to now be a Y1 TA!!!

Do people really think older children need better teachers? Am genuinely amazed. From all I've seen it needs incredible skill to teach the younger kids.

I have taught adults, y1 to y7 in state schools, other teachers, EFL to all ages ... and Reception has always terrified me! I now have a four-year old, so maybe would be better at it.

Back to the point about knowing already- teachers have until the end of May to hand in their notice, if they want to leave at the end of the summer term, so no plans can be finalised until after May half term. In my experience, even the staff aren't told formally (they may have had some discussions) until after then, and the parents and children much later.

Why would someone want to be stuck in a rut?
20 yrs in year 4? Can't be good for anyone! A change is as good as a rest. I would worry if they didn't change.
I think that reception is the most difficult class of all to teach.

Teachers move round???? Oh my, and I thought I had dd's life mapped out for the next 6 years!

Actually I know they swopped the R teacher up to Yr1/2 a few years back. I thought that was because the Ofsted was good except for R satisfactory. The new R teacher is superb - I don't know if she was new to the school or was the old Yr1/2. More background to find out.

We have a bit of a shake up every couple of years. With some exceptions - one of the current Reception teachers has been there for nearly 5 years now.

They tend to set it up so that each year group has one teacher with more experience of that year group, paired with another who hasn't.

We find out who will be teaching which year group and which form teacher our dcs will have about 3 weeks before the end of the summer term.

We usually put some of our strongest teachers in reception, as it's so important for the children to make a good start. Also they are the staff that have the most face-to-face contact with parents and so we think which are best at building these relationships, so it's inital PR too. Also we don't move weaker teachers to a particular year group, we mentor them for a couple of years (regardless of how long they've been in the profession) and leave them in the same year group. Then we can support them in developing certain necessary skills without having to rethink the whole curriculum every year.

Of course we all know that reception teachers just play and year 6 teachers have to understand decimals, percentages etc

I was ridiculous in Reception - I tried worksheets! Luckily I only did one hour a week there. And, in my defence, at no time did my training even touch on Reception. The conventional wisdom is that it is far easier for a teacher to move up the age range than down.

There is a lot of defence for Reception teachers, which I agree with - to a point. I have found the better teachers end up in year 6, and if you are successful with Year 6, you rarely move. Many teachers shy away from Y6.

I would argue that that is because of SATS though.

There is a lot of defence for Reception teachers, which I agree with - to a point. I have found the better teachers end up in year 6, and if you are successful with Year 6, you rarely move. Many teachers shy away from Y6.

I LOVE year 6, although hate SATs! When I trained, I always wanted to teach Year 2, I just loved the progress and development you saw in that group. But my first post was teaching a mixed age Reception/Year 1/Year 2 class which was HARD! I've gradually moved "up" the school and now have 5/6. I agree, it is hard to get teachers to move into year 6, the demands placed upon us are HUGE and many simply don't want the contant monitoring and expectations which we unfortunately have to put up with from Heads and Education Authorities alike. But once you do make the leap, it's great ( although whether I would think the same when I'm still teaching at 68 is another matter!)

I agree Feenie-it is nothing to do with year 6, who in many ways are really easy-it is the pressure to get them all through the SATs.

We would get to state a preference but it would be done on who'd work well as a yeargroup team, who it was felt needed time in a different keystage for their own development, sometimes who had kids in the school and what year group they were going to be in - lots of factors like that. Some years no one moved - the justification being that the school had had an unsettled year and the head felt we would be best suited to being allowed to stay settled for a time. I've heard of heads where EVERYONE moves EVERY year as they feel it makes staff clear out all the junk in their classroom cupboards.

I know Y6 teachers who come away in terror after having to spend a morning in reception ("they kept patting my knees and calling me teacher and I was scared I was going to trip over one" and others who would hate year 6)! Everyone's got a few year groups they prefer though - I love year 4, love year 1 and reception but year 2/3 girls drive me crackers going through that bickery fally-out stage!

We did used to enjoy the parents trying to guess what was going to happen and assuming they were right though - even when staffing wasn't being moved around at all - going up to my partner teacher at the summer fayre and just standing there, staring at her. When asked if she could help them, "oh no you're going to be our son's teacher next year and we just wanted to look at you"... they ended up with me instead - because of things like classroom sizes versus class sizes, access for the children with special needs and what not (we had very... interestingly varied in size... classrooms).

You do know flipping early though - we would never know ourselves until probably the back end of this half term.

At my previous school I asked year after year for a move from Y6, just to experience a different year group - it never happened!! Once in Y6 always in Y6. In new job, have Y5 this year, but I think that Y6 is coming my way next year.