Who is teaching my child?!

[jjjpar]

It turns out that the qualified teacher is too busy with the year 6 pupils to teach the 30% of the class that is year 5. My child is year 5 and is bored stiff of worksheets supervised by an unqualified assistant.

Does a school have a statutory obligation to provide a qualified teacher to teach pupils? If so for how many hours a day/week?

Does anyone have any experience of how best to approach the school to ensure that a child gets a proper education?!

The teaching part of the lesson will be done by the teacher. The 'worksheet' part of the lesson will have been prepared by the teacher but can be supervised or 'delivered' by anyone basically. Theoretically no new teaching is done at this point, mainly consolidation. I would go in and tell her what you have been told and she will explain the set up to you.

I would go in and find out exactly what is happening-it sounds very odd to me.Is it a very small school?

have you gone in and spoken to the school?

'Worksheet' part of a lesson?

Worksheets are fine very occasionally, but should never be used as an integral part of a lesson - that's very bad practice. I would also disagree that this part of the lesson should be mainly consolidation - where's the challenge in that?

What I meant was that nothing new will appear on a worksheet that hasn't already been taught. The format of the sheet may need explaining but not the concept. That's how it works in our school (when we use a worksheet, that is).

Yes the school is small with approx 20 for each year group so classes have a mix of years. Until this year, the year6 class however was always on its own to "prepare them for secondary". However from this year it has changed so that some older year 5 have gone up early. Unfortunately though it appears that the teaching has not changed. The teacher did say at the beginning of this week to the year 5s that they would see very little of her this week! She has been right. They have sat in an overflow room with worksheets to go through all week. Certainly no teaching going on.

Before I go in to chat to the school I wondered if there was a statutory obligation or even a standard practice (Ofsted?) which I could refer to that highlight that this was not on

It isn't on. Ofsted certainly wouldn't like it! The teacher has to teach them all and differentiate. What do the other parents of yr 5 think? See the teacher first and then the Head if you are not happy with the outcome.

Sounds very odd. Is the unqualified assistant a TA? TAs are not supposed to take a whole class at a time for anything, let alone on a regular basis. Unless they are a higher level TA, in which case they can take a whole class, but only for a minimal amount of time per week. I would go and speak to the teacher about this first to get their take on it, perhaps it's a temporary thing? If not a meeting with the HT is probably the way forward.

The problem is the TA isn't taking a whole class technically they are "supporting" a group of Y5 children under the supervision of the class teacher. It may be bad practice but it isn't illegal.

I was totally put off history in Year 8 - having loved it in Year 7. In Year 8 the teacher gave us worksheets to do while she marked books (this is in the olden days). And I was a bright and able child.

Why does the teacher need to prepare Year 6's for secondary school at this time of the year? That doesn't make sense as they've only just started Year 6. As she warned the Year 5's they would see very little of her this week, it sounds as if it is a temporary arrangement.

This is a nice one:

Inner Speech during Silent Reading Reflects the Reader's Regional Accent

Oh Hell! Ignore last. I've posted it on the wrong thread

Fairenuff my cynical guess would be the teacher is teaching to the SAT tests

SATs was my very first thought and I would go into school and talk about it because the SATs are not until May and most of the school year will have gone by then.

Agreed. I thought that, but SATS are a good way off yet and the teacher did just say 'this week'. There must be some sort of assessment coming up. If the same thing happens today OP, I would speak with the teacher after school if possible.

I misunderstood-if it was just one week then I wouldn't worry.

Sorry new to this so should have been clearer from the outset. The year 5's have had very little time with the teacher from the beginning of the academic year. It appears to the parents of the year 5 pupils in the class that the teacher has kept to the rigid lesson plan she had previously used when she only had year 6 in the class. So when I said 'The teacher did say at the beginning of this week to the year 5s that they would see very little of her this week!' that is on top of them spending 1-2 days a week with the (unqualified) TA in the overflow room (shack in the playground) other than registration since the beginning of term.

Mrz - when you say 'It may be bad practice but it isn't illegal.' what is illegal? and is there guidelines of why this should be 'bad practice' anywhere I can refer to?

the teacher has kept to the rigid lesson plan she had previously used when she only had year 6 in the class

This can't be right. In effect you are saying that the teacher is only giving 3/5 of her time to her Year 5 pupils, when they make up part of her class? I think you firstly need to find out the facts from the teacher herself. Then, if you are not happy with the result you can find out where you stand.

Even if she uses the same lesson plan, she can differentiate it for all the children in her class.

Not necessarily SATs - are you in an 11plus area? I know some are around this time of year.

?School teachers? do not include teaching assistants, higher level teaching assistants or other support staff. However, support staff may carry out ?specified work?, such as delivering lessons to pupils,

www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2003/1663/pdfs/uksi_20031663_en.pdf

Other persons who may carry out specified work
10.?(1) This paragraph applies in the case of a person who is not a qualified teacher and who is
not mentioned in paragraphs 2 to 9 of this Schedule.
(2) Such a person may carry out work specified in regulation 6 in a school only if the following
conditions are satisfied ?
(a) he carries out work specified in regulation 6 in order to assist or support the work of a
qualified teacher or a nominated teacher in the school;
(b) he is subject to the direction and supervision of such a qualified teacher or nominated
teacher in accordance with arrangements made by the head teacher of the school; and
(c) the head teacher is satisfied that he has the skills, expertise and experience required to
carry out work specified in regulation 6.

My kids are much younger so I have no knowledge whatsoever, but I'd suggest talking to the other parents of year 5s in your child's class and if they share your concerns, asking for a shared meeting.

Whether supervised by the teacher or support staff, just giving worksheets isn't really teaching, it seems to me!

Quite.