Would this bother you?

[london111]

My son has just started reception and we had a letter home last week saying half the class would have the teacher as their key worker and the other half would have the teaching assistant. The termly meetings with parents would be held with your child's key worker ie not necessarily the teacher.

I feel a bit put out by this. The teaching assistant might be fantastic at their job but they don't have much training do they? I am worried that if my son gets allocated the teaching assistant he will get less time with the teacher. I also want to be able to have a regular meeting with the teacher without having to make a fuss about it.

Is this normal practice now? Am I being a bit silly?
Thanks

Well, yes, it would bother me. It sounds unusual.

it's only as a keyworker, which means your port of call when you want to tell them something.
or to assist the kids when they need something during school.

it won't mean that the lessons will be taught differently or that he will have less time with the teacher.

It's not at all unusual. What is unusual is that they've opted to tell you. The TA will keep all the records up to date and will liaise with the teacher. The teacher will still plan and teach. The TA will help settle him in, give him a cuddle if he is upset, show him around etc. can you imagine the teacher having to do that for 30 4 year olds?

I would assume the teacher is still planning the lessons (waits to be corrected).

Personally I would see how it goes first before making a judgement.

DD's school assigned keyworkers to the EYFS stage last year and the children split between the teacher and the two TAs. DD was already in Yr1 by this point, but it didn't appear to make any difference to the children in nursery or reception.

Having said that, the termly parents evening were all held with the class teacher and not the TA. This part would bother me somewhat.

i would want parent teacher meeting with the class teacher

I agree that I would feel relaxed about them being the keyworker, but less relaxed about not getting to meet the teacher at parent-teacher.

DD had a TA doing her phonics for the first term of reception (last year) it was fine.

But I would still want to see the teacher at parents eve...

EYFS states that children should have keyworkers but there is no reason the teacher can't be the keyworker for all reception pupils. Perhaps I'm a control freak but I didn't think it right to delegate responsibility for children in my class to another person. It's also important that as the teacher I knew all pupils well so I could plan effectively ( simpson the teacher should be doing the planning IMHO but keyworkers often plan for their own groups). As a teacher the system would bother me.

I would not agree to having parents' evening without the teacher there. I would ask to meet to clarify what is meant by this.

I don't think the principle sounds wrong in the sense that like has been said the classroom should still run in the same way but have the key worker as first port of call.

I would however want to speak to the teacher at parents evening (perhaps with the TA present if the TA is the keyworker) and I would want clarification that the child would read to the teacher and the TA the same amount as everyone else does. By that I mean in my daughter's class last year they read to the TA once a week, to a helper once a week and every few weeks one of these would be replaced by reading to the teacher (supposedly -we had one blip where for 11 weeks my daughter didn't read to a teacher at all which I was a bit concerned about because that was when her problems appeared but in general that was the process) I would be a bit concerned that with the TA as keyworker those children might never actually read to the teacher whilst those who had the teacher as keyworker might be reading to the teacher twice a week.

If they literally just mean it as the TA is the one those children go to with concerns or listen to stories from or you speak to with minor concerns then that wouldn't worry me but I do think you need clarification of exactly what the situation will be and I agree you are right to be a bit concerned until you know this.

The TA should have a qualification in Early Years. Some may have a degree. So yes they have lots of knowledge and training.

An experienced TA can have a lot more knowledge and training than an inexperienced teacher. I learnt heaps from my TAs when I began teaching.

I agree - some TAs are absolutely excellent but I think it is the potential imbalance of the situation that is the possible problem.

I would a parent teacher meeting with the teacher. I would also expect that the teacher doing the lesson planning should know all the children well enough to plan and not just her half of the class.

I've heard of similar systems, when ds was reception age they were split into groups for phonics and reading, his was always with a TA. Having said that, the parent teacher thing was always with the class teacher.

I think some schools are taking the keyworker thing a bit too literally TBH. It works fine in daycare, but doesn't really fit with the staffing model in a reception class. I'm the keyworker for all the children in my class. We have groups for various things and TAs take one of the groups (but these are not fixed).

My dd has the ta as her keyworker, it made no odds, she still read to the teacher and we had the teacher at parent evenings. I would go in and ask exactly what this means.