Teacher job share in reception

[Donthackmenow]

I have just discovered today that my dd will have 2 teachers in reception with a 3 day/2 day split. I am bit worried about the logistics of this and the impact on the children. Does anyone have any experience to reassure me that I am just being pfb!

No experience but DS starts reception this year with a 4 day/ 1 day split. What is it that concerns you about it exactly?

All 3 of my dcs had this in reception and it was fine, I promise you. In fact ds3 has a job share again this year in Year 2 and it's still fine.

There were some absolute advantages, eg each teacher brought different strengths. They had the same TA each morning who helped provide continuity and they seemed to talk to each other so all was good

DD had this in reception and it was managed brilliantly, I wouldn't worry.

I can understand your concerns as children are learning the basic routines of school without needing the complication of having two teachers each with slightly different expectations.

My son experienced two jobs shares, one in year 1 and one in year 5. The year 5 job share was brilliant as the one of the teachers spoke french and the other was very good with science. The year 1 job share was a disaster as the two teachers did not cooperate well. Thankfully the head teacher brought that job share to an end.

A job share can work well provided that the two teachers cooperate. In reception there is usually at least 1 TA and that will bring continuity.

It has to be remembered that all teachers are entitled to PPA so for at 10% of lessons your child will be taught by some else. It could be argued that every primary school class in the country is a job share.

My DS will have the same. He's my second child in this school and whilst his sister didn't have this experience I haven't heard any concerns for the intermittent years that have.

My thoughts are that it can have advantages. Different children will "click" with different teachers and the energy levels of teachers only working a part week will likely be higher. Good communication/handover will of course be crucial but any school/teacher worth their salt will have this covered as it's pretty fundamental.

Was just coming back to point out the PPA point also and see Reallytired beat me to it

I think it can work v well, especially if they csn recoup their energy on days off, better to have 2 fresh teachers than one exhausted one.

Thanks for the reassurance. I'm not really sure what my reservations are but will try and compose them.

1. as a secondary school maths teacher the few times I have had to share a class due to timetable constraints it has been confusing for the children involved and they have tended to under perform.
2. one of the teachers is the assistant head, I worry that she will be too busy with management issues to give the children her full attention- called to meetings on one of 'her' days so the class end up with cover etc. The other teacher is brand new so an unknown entity.

Those are my main concerns, I think I'm feeling a bit negative in general because she went for a taster session today and the school have disregarded the nursery advice and not put her in the same class as someone who she would have thrived with. And I'm tired after a long day, hopefully it won't seem so awful in the morning

Donthackmenow
Reception is a completely different type of educational experience to a secondary school maths class. Reception is learning through play where as secondary school maths is far more formal. A reception plans lots of play activites and then can allow other staff to record and supervise the children for brief periods without the children suffering. A lot of learning in the reception classroom is child initated learning.

A typical reception classroom looks like total chaos. However you will be amazing at how much young children learn during their first year at school.

I imagine that with two teachers there will be less need for TAs to cover PPA.

My DD had job share teachers and TA in school nursery with no notice of the change 1/2 way through the year. It made me wobble a bit but she seems to like working with different teachers with different personalities. I would now be much less concerned if it happened in reception onwards

My DS is in reception and has job share teachers. One also came back off maternity leave mid year and the days changed round but it doesn't seem to have had a negative affect. Both teachers are lovely (as was the maternity cover teacher) and seem very nurturing, caring and fair, just what you want in reception teachers. (My DS knows they are his main teachers but also thinks the TAs are his teachers so it can get a bit confusing talking about his day and what he did with whom.)

My dd1 had a jobshare in Reception - brilliant year. Interestingly, there were loads of parents expressing concern before hand, all of whom realised how great it was for the dc, as the year wore on.
We were very happy to have jobshares in future years too.

At our school there's a job share in Reception - it works well for the children as someone teaches them on a Thursday and Friday who is not as tired as the rest of us are by the end of the week. Most schools will timetable a handover meeting (often joint PPA) and a good job share team will communicate.

My DS is starting school with the exactly same job share split. I think it will only be a good thing tbh. It will mark the week out nicely for him, he will get 2 teachers who are keen and not knackered by the end of the week and they will bring different strengths to teaching him. Also if he doesn't click as much with one hopefully he'll get on with the other one more.

He is though used to having up to 4 or 5 different adults at nursery as the adults move around more for the older children to ensure consistency for the younger ones when people are sick etc. He's been fine with this and has his particular favourites.

DD had this. Two amazing teachers who didn't want to work full-time - it worked out really well. Kids do prefer one teacher ime - every time dds have had a job-share, there has been one teacher they like more (usually the one who does more days). I would not worry though - you get to pick parents' evening with the one you like best, and can raise any tricky issues with them too. The communication between our two teachers was fantastic, I have to say.

Also, if one of yours is the deputy head, she should be a good teacher. DD has the deputy head this year. She is away quite a bit and there have been various other teachers filling in. I do find that can be tricky, but she is such an amazing teacher that they have all made huge progress.

I would also imagine that the deputy head will have her meetings etc scheduled for the days when she is not teaching.

The Assistant Head will have scheduled teaching time and then scheduled leadership time - they shouldn't overlap.

My experiences have been overwhelmingly positive, especially lower down the school - by the end of 5 days with 30 four year olds you see teachers looking understandably exhausted by a Friday, but with a job-share they're always relatively fresh. Communication between the job-shares has always been good, so if there have been any issues the other one will know.

Have experienced it twice, reception and year 2, unfortunately was not happy on either occasions.

I don't like teaching job-shares. They seldom work in any industry and they are designed to suit the employee, not the organisation. Children crave consistency, they should have one consistent teacher throughout the year in my opinion.

I don't like teaching job-shares. They seldom work in any industry and they are designed to suit the employee, not the organisation. Children crave consistency, they should have one consistent teacher throughout the year in my opinion.

I can see there being many many more teaching job shares in the future. Teachers are leaving the profession in droves and will be staying on until a ripe old age-job sharing is a way of staying in the job but retaining your sanity. 2/3 of the classes in my old school were taught-extremely well- by job shares.

"Children crave consistency, they should have one consistent teacher throughout the year in my opinion."

Nonsense. How on earth do you think children cope with two parents then? Or with the myriad of adults in the average Foundation classroom, what with TAs, 1:1 support workers, Nursery nurses and so forth.

Children crave consistency

I'd say that many children love change as well ;)

They are getting consistency - Miss X on Mon/Tue/Wed, and Mrs Y on Thurs Fri. Every week, consistently.

Children are absolutely used to being taught by more than one teacher/TA, especially in larger schools with more than one form entry.

It's really not a bad thing unless it's badly organised or the staff are not good in the first place. But then having one full-time teacher is no guarantee that things will go well.

When children get to secondary they will have to cope with loads of teachers, so it's good preparation.

"they are designed to suit the employee, not the organisation."

Surely, if they suit the employees, then the organisation will benefit? Happy teachers = happy children = happy parents = happy Head Teacher = Happy Ofsted = Happy Gove.

Yay!