Teacher absent from class (not ill)

[0MrFibble0]

Hello all, this is my first post so please forgive my ignorance with anything I say. Recently I have realised just how often my daughters teacher has been absent from class. I know it has been continuing for some time but only now has it come to light, my best example is this week.
Monday she was absent in the morning, rehearsing a play with the class in the afternoon.
Tuesday absent for most of the morning, in the afternoon she was COVERING ANOTHER CLASS.
Wednesday absent for the morning.
Thursday (today) absent all day.
Almost worse is that she would come out in the morning to lead the class in, and that would be all they would see of her. It is like it is just to keep up appearances.
Now if she were ill that would be understandable, but she is doing other things in the school. My opinion is that she is the class teacher she should be teaching. I have spoken with her and she agrees and "advises" me to air my views on the matter. I have put a letter into the head and I'm waiting to hear back.
I would like to know what you think about it, and what if anything else there is I can do.
Thank you all for your time.

Noble that's not true. A PGCE on final placement (which they probably wont be at this time of year) would not be babysat any more than a GTP would. Ultimately the class teacher would be responsible if there was a problem but they might well be elsewhere when the student is teaching.
Take it from someone who has both done teaching practice and had a student in their class.

Yes I do think you should be communicated with but I still fail to see why you need to 'vent at the Head'. Do you feel the student is doing badly? Is there a problem?

wellthen, I'm also a teacher who has had a student in my class. I didn't say that the teacher couldn't be elsewhere, but that they should be available if needed. If they are teaching another class then they are not available.

What instance are you imagining they need to be available for that the student/management couldn't deal with? This clearly varries from school to school as it has never been my experience.

I agree with Wellthen the whole point of a GTP course is that the student is employed and works as an unqualified teacher while gaining qualified teacher status

I had a PGCE student in my class earlier this year and used the time she was teaching for lesson observations throughout the school.

Me too - common practice, if the student is good.

Certainly I would expect a final placement student to be teaching almost full time. How else would they learn to manage a classroom if they are never left alone?

Obviously the guidelines are different in your LA then, mine definitely say you need to be on hand if needed.

As for circumstances in which I'd need to be available, well, my second term PGCE student wasn't very good and I ended up sitting in the classroom with them every lesson in the end. He definitely needed someone to be available at the drop of a hat, and for more support than management would provide.

Cumbria, I didn't say the student shouldn't be left alone, merely the teacher who is actually responsible for the class shouldn't be teaching elsewhere.

I think OP is right about communication, if this was our school there would definitely have been a letter home to explain what was going to happen with the student teacher.

We've had letters home about far less!

We wouldn't routinely inform parents that students will be teaching classes just as we wouldn't inform them that a supply teacher is teaching their child.

Noble, of course there will be times when the teacher is needed. I have experienced (not in my own class) a student who was very close to failing and so had to have a teacher in at all times to see if he could turn it all around very quickly! But surely cover or observations are arranged on a week by week or maybe 2 week basis. If you suddenly find your student is floundering then you cancel the other things you had planned to do. Your class is obviously still your priority.

My objection really was not with you but with the fact the OP objects to the class teacher being away but on no real grounds. There appears to have been no ill effects she just doesnt like it. I sometimes feel parents forget the Head runs the school and staffs it with proffesionals who are allowed to decide on the day to day running.

I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to my class so wouldn't leave a student in charge if I felt they weren't up to the job. My head respects my professional judgement in such matters and obviously our parents must respect his as no one has ever raised the issue.

When I was GTP (secondary) I did all the subject teaching (which is unusual but not unheard of) and there was no-one else who taught the subject on site! So needless to say school did not inform parents of my status...

However, on my day a week at another school the teacher responsible for the class sat in all my lessons, which she felt was necessary because of behaviour management (although I think she may have had classes run amok with student teachers previously, as I was not having particular issues managing behaviour) -- I noticed she used the time to catch up on her marking.

The point of this post is to say that I now realise it's entirely normal in education for students/TAs/cover/supply to cover classes and parents not to be informed, however, I think it could perhaps be an idea where schools do a lot of training that they send a generic letter/email out at the start of every year to parents saying that some classes may be taught by students (I have noticed the NHS does this, explaining that patients will be seen by a member of the consultant's team not necessarily the consultant).

I agree with the points above about trainees possibly making more effort -- after all we are trying to impress! So it could be spun as a positive message to parents re the school contributing to the future of education, new ideas etc.