Experiences of having a newly qualified teacher please?

[FleurdeHeadLys]

The playground rumour mill has apparently discovered that DD's P7 (11 years old) teacher is only 21 and in her first year of teaching. I wasn't particularly bothered but quite a few people are. It'll be fine, won't it?

Mixed experiences. My DS had an NQT in Y3 - disaster. She had no control over the class at all. they made virtually no progress and it was chaos. However, I know parents who have had her in subsequent years and she is now known as being really strict and is a popular teacher.
My DD had an NQT in Y1 and she was absolutely fine (she was a little older at 26ish which I think helped a bit).
However, both my DCs had the same teacher with years of experience and both classes performed badly for the year. I guess it really is luck of the draw - some teachers are good, others not so, regardless of how long/how much experience they've got.

I have a student teacher with me at the moment. She's only a second year, but I'm already confident with getting to plan lessons and teach them to my whole class group (usually they just observe and work with small groups using my own lesson planning). She is fantastic and natural and looks like she's been in a classroom for years. I'm learning heaps myself having her in my classroom as she has some fantastic ideas. I've had other student teachers that I've had to really think about how to delicately write 'do not ever set foot in my classroom again' on their report.

Age and experience is not always a predictor of ability and performance.

DD2 has had 2 years of young NQT teachers - and they've been her best academically.

These teachers are getting a lot of input/ support and are very enthusiastic about their new career and this job opportunity. Catching a teacher before they're jaded about children/ parents/ colleagues/ SMT is a good thing. Catching a teacher before they start lecturing you on your need to respect their work/ life balance - is a good thing.

My experience has been that the two NQT's we had (both out of University based PGCE courses) were fabulous. One came in as a substitute and was contracted to finish out the year and then landed the position in an open competition (ill teacher she was covering for opted to retire early). The other was a surprise hire (we thought another relative of a member of staff would be hired again - as is the norm at our school). They both were aware of best practice, had high standards and were ambitious in terms of what they envisioned their class should be capable of.

In our case that has meant the Year 4 class was virtually doing the same level work as Year 6 this past autumn. Unfortunately it has lead to a few tears from Y6 (and my DD1) to discover that they're doing Year 4 level work - and basically are behind where they should be (something many of us parents have been worryingly aware of for years) - but it does mean standards in the school are finally, radically improving.

HTH