Teacher on long term sick

[emma123456]

My son is in reception. His teacher went off sick on the 1st or 2nd week after Xmas so this is now either the 4th or 5th week without his teacher. The school have relied on the TA's to cover every afternoon and all day fridays and have used another PT time teacher to cover Mon - Thurs mornings.
Im concerned that the class isnt having enough time with a qualified teacher. Does anyone know what the guidlines say? I cant understand why the school havent used a supply teacher when the sick leave has been so prolonged.

Is there a chance that the teaching assistant is actually a qualified teacher? I know in my daughters school a couple of them are.

Ex-TA here :
I don't know the current guidelines (things keep changing!), but in Reception it's probably better to have a TA that knows the children, and the children know her, than bring in an unknown supply. It is just possible that the absent teacher is still keeping in touch with school, planning and settling work to be carried out by other people.

There are some very good supply teachers, and some schools have a 'pool' of regulars, but others just 'mind' the class and don't do much real teaching.

It's important for the youngest children to feel secure and not worried about anything, which hopefully will have been considered by the HT when arranging the alternative cover in the class. If you are still worried, ask the HT or early years co-ordinator.

I hadn't thought of that Ferguson. The head teacher is also off sick and has been since xmas. The sick reception teacher is the early years co-ordinator. She could be still working from home I guess. I feel sorry for the TA who is coping with 29 kids on her own for huge chunks of the week.

It is legal for a TA to cover a class for short term "unplanned" absence (eg teacher phones in with a stomach bug and TA covers until suply can be found situation) but not for long term absence as a TA isn't allowed to "teach" only to supervise.