primary one class with three teachers

[falseeconomy]

I have posted this in aibu but think it might be a bit dull to get many replies! This is a primary 1 class (Scotland, so 4 to 5 year olds).
Ds in this class.

Children and parents met the very nice teacher at their induction days in May. All good. Since starting school last month it's become clear that the class are actually to have three teachers - main teacher on mon and fri, newly qualified teacher on tues and wed and a third teacher on a thurs. Been told this could change again.
Kids are only in mornings until end of this month.
There's been no official communication from school about this.

Some problems are coming up - there's been homework confusion(mix ups between teachers), speaking to one teacher I realised she didn't know who ds is and kids are a bit confused as to who their teacher actually is.
The other P1 class has a single teacher.

Will this work? I think it's a bit rubbish. Wouldn't have minded a job share situation with two teachers.
What d'you think?

Given that you have had no official communications on this, are you sure the additional teacher is NQT?

I would suggest that they could be GTP (Graduate Teacher Program) student teachers. Whereby student teachers are attached to a class and progressively take over more of the teaching throughout the year.

Another option is that some schools are using the two-teacher per class model rather than one teacher and two teaching assistants (which is usual for younger classes). This offers better teaching experience for the class, since two qualified teachers may be better than just one with two TA helpers - even though the cost to the school is about the same.

I know of several schools who do this.

There is also the fact that it is the start of the school year and so some staff may be 'extra' for now. For example if a school is employing a teacher or two to cover staff absences, but for now there are no absences, then the member of staff would help out in younger classes (more hands-on help needed with younger classes) until they are needed elsewhere.

Likewise maybe there is a member of staff who is going on maternity leave soon? It is not unusual to employ maternity cover during the summer (when most job hunting is done - so more potential applicants) when in fact the cover is not needed until, say, October.

Maybe the extra teachers are for directed intervention - for example with reading support or to take out specific groups of children for extra help.

There are lots of possibilities. Personally, I think extra teachers in a classroom is a good thing, not a bad thing.

Thank you Waffle, you've given me a better insight into school staffing issues and I agree that more than one teacher in a class would be wonderful.
That's not what's happening here though.
Each teacher takes the class individually on different days.
It's leading to problems and I don't think it's great for the kids.

I think that is a rubbish arrangement but afraid I have no constructive advice about what you could actually do about it . Unless they are doing one teacher does a day of maths, a separate teacher does a day of literacy I don't see how there can easily be enough time for them to all communicate and provide adequate continuity.

I am a teacher in Scotland.
What Wiffle Waffle has said about the Graduate Teacher Programme doesn't apply here. Children can not be taught by an unqualified teacher.

Job shares can work really well but it doesn't sound like it is working well for your child. Have you been told which teachers are teaching on which days and that one of them is an NQT? There should not be a "main" teacher but each teacher should be equal in looking after the class. The Thursday teacher might be doing non-contact time cover in lots of different classes so wouldn't learn children's names as quickly.

I used to teach job-share and it worked really well as we were great at communicating and meant that children got different expertise (the other teacher could sing!).

I would definitely recommend you raise this either with the teachers or if it is ongoing with the HT. Don't make an official complaint but raise it as a concern and something that could be fixed with an improvement in communication between the teachers (and with the parents).

It doesn't sound like a set up you'd plan to have, so my thinking is that something has happened and they are doing their best to cover an emergency ??? It does seem poor you've not had a letter about it, explaining what's happening though.
I do think I'd say that your ds is confused, and can someone clarify the situation for parents please.

My DD had this set up in P1 - One full time teacher and 2 doing job share and it worked fine. We were lucky in that the 2 doing job share had the arrangement for a number of years and they worked well together.

I assume that your child is in a larger class that's why they have more than one teacher?

My dd had one teacher monday - wednesday then a different one thursday and friday, my older dd had the same last year. I havent liked it simply because dd was struggling at school and it was very very hard getting some sort of coordinated plan as it meant going in thursday and having to explain the whole thing again then repeat on monday.