what would you do in this situation?

[ilikemysleep]

ds is in a 2 form entry primary school. There are quite a few young teachers and a smaller group of more experienced teachers (in their 30s). The last 3 years ds has had teachers in their first or second year of teaching. That was ok one year, good one year, and this last year has been terrible. This lasy year the parallel class had the phase leader (they have a phase leader for early years, ks 1, lower ks 2 and upper ks 2) who was obviously not only a more experienced teacher but in charge of that section and therefore I would assume is known to be good. That class had a much more settled year than my son's. Earlier this week we got the next years teacher allocations. Once again there is a teacher moving into her second year teaching and a more experienced teacher who is phase leader of the new phase ds is moving into. And they have again given the parallel class the experienced teacher and the very young teacher to my son's class. I have nothing against the young teacher, she may be very good, but does it seem inequitable to give one class in a 2 form entry school the experienced phase leader 2 years running, and thecother class very new inexperienced teachers 2 years running? I probably would be less annoyed if his class hadn't had such a terrible year. Complaining won't do anything, hell would freeze over before they either justify themselves or make any changes, but I was thinking of asking how they came to their decision. WWYD?

Next year I would take my concerns to the HT in May and put in a request about my child getting a more experienced teacher for a change.
Nothing else you can do at this point except lump it.

I always thought it was better not to have a phase leader/deputy head/SENCO as your form teacher as they would be frequently off doing those duties instead of being consistently in class teaching their actual class? Just a thought. Unfortunately they're probably not going to switch the teachers round at this late stage. It does seem unfair though.

Lim, the phase leaders don't take time out of class, I think they oversee curriculum planning in their phase, that kind of thing. Otherwise I'd agree! My other child was in deputy head's class one year and barely saw her by the end of the year....

There may be a good reason why the other class need someone more experienced - special needs, difficult parents, boisterous group of kids - and if your ds' class is easy in comparison that'd be easier for a newer teacher....
Fwiw older/ more experienced doesn't always mean better - we once had a highly thought of experienced teacher the kids dreaded cos she was a dragon and an nqt who went above and beyond in their bid to start their career well...

I can see where you are coming from, but I have to say all 3 of mine have had teachers in their first year this year, and they have all been really good, so I wonder if you have just been very unlucky?

I think it can go either way - experienced can be good but can also be know-it-all-stuck-in-their-ways whereas new teachers can be inexperienced but very-interested-in-learning-more. Fingers crossed you get the second kind!

The one thing that I do wish we had more of in our school are teachers who are also parents. I do think that even the best teacher doesn't really get what it is like to be a parent and having a few parents around on staff does tend to make the school a bit more parent friendly, in a way I can't really put my finger on.

I get where you're coming from - i've been much better at communicating with parents since having my own and making sure all the little things that matter to kids get done....

I would think it highly unlikely they'll tell you their reasoning, as it's almost certainly to do with the spread of needs of specific children in the cohort.