4 class teachers in first two years at school

[DebbieFiderer]

Please reassure me and tell me this will be ok. DD1 came out in tears this afternoon because her teacher is leaving at Christmas, just the same as happened last year. It was fine last year, new teacher was great, and I am sure this one will be too, but surely it must have some impact on their learning? She is in Y1 btw.

Thanks. Luckily her current teacher is staying with the school part time, and will still be in the class 1 day a week, so there will be some consistency, and the new teacher has already been in to meet them, and will be at parents' evening.

We've had a similar sort of situation (NZ so the education system is a bit different)
"Introductory class" for first 10 weeks or so after she joined (they start the Monday after their 5th birthday and the introductory class is to get them all up to a certain level). Then she moved into proper "year zero" class with a new teacher who was great.

Then at the start of the year (school year is calendar year here), she moved into "year 1" with a new teacher who was lovely, but left on maternity leave in July, so we've had a replacement since then. And will be starting again with new teacher in February when she goes into year 2.

So, essentially in the space of 2 years there will be 5 different teachers.

Luckily they've all been pretty good, handovers seem to be done well, and the various teachers had different strengths that brought DD forward in different ways.

I think it can be ok once the teachers make sure the handover goes well and information gets passed on to the new teacher.

Weve had the same issue. In 3 years my DS has had 7 teachers.

The children just accept it as ok but im concerned that my DS's work always drops back until he gets used to the new teacher and then they get to the end of the school year and he gets another new teacher .

His year is actually performing at the exact same level and in some cases behind the year below who has always had a constant full time member of teaching staff.

I dont know what to suggest to you really. The school in my case has finally admitted its been difficult to retain staff and also difficult to maintain good progress with my sons year. They are hopeful they will be able to bring them back up to scratch but after 3 years of messing them around I dont see how they can recoup this lost time.

Speak with the head and ask them whats been put into place to make sure the children are not behind and that if they are how they will be bringing them back up to speed.

Ds will have had the situation that by the end of year 2 he will have had 7 teachers. (all good reasons to go-other class has had the same teacher all year every year!)
He's distraught at them going generally for about 1 evening, but he adapted very quickly-one of them by the end of the week his only complaint was she didn't call people "silly sausage" like his old teacher.

I'd be wondering what's going on at a senior mgt level. Talk to the governors and ask directly?

DebbieFiederer:

You haven't made it clear whether teachers are leaving (quitting teaching or going to another school) or are taking maternity leave, etc...

If it's maternity leave - I'm afraid I rather view this as luck of the draw. Primaries are heavily dominated by younger women (20-40s) and many chose to take the full year's maternity leave. Sometimes pregnancies are planned (as DD2's teacher did - leaving at end of year in July for her maternity leave) and sometimes they aren't. That's life really.

If it's teachers leaving the school, and it is in fact older staff, then that is another kettle of fish. Is the HT driving out older staff to lower the wage bill? Is the HT driving out older staff because they're not working to the new higher standards? Often older staff well aware of 'history' for the school will be slowest to make change or can oppose change on behalf of students/ parents and this can lead to a lot of friction.

I fear schools are political workplaces and this kind of thing can well be playing out. Regardless, usually most schools try their best to make this as smooth a transition for the pupils as possible.

What I will say is the one teacher who left (we think she left teaching for good) after a long period of sick leave was replaced by a fantastic teacher who all the children absolutely adored. She worked incredibly hard to catch them back up after months of watching DVDs and doing not a lot and really saw them through. She was so good the school snapped her up and she now works there permanently - so it can all turn out for best, if that's any help.

No maternity leave, last year teacher left to move to a new job nearer home, this year it was apparently planned all along but they didn't tell us, she is dropping to part time and will actually still be with that class once a week, along with the other Y1 class.