Now the supply teacher has gone. Is continuity just an oldfashioned notion?

[sparkysparkysparky]

Dd's teacher went on maternity leave before the end of the first term. This appeared to take the school (primary ) by surprise as they only started to recruit for her replacement after she left. And now the replacement has left at short notice. DD is 8 and whole year seems to have been one long exercise in coasting. Not sure dd has made much progress. Am I being incredibly naive to be fed up about this? It's parents evening soon. Do I shrug this off or do I ask for a clear plan of action?

Oh I know noble, not meaning to denigrate pt teachers AT ALL - unfortunately we have a policy (rightly or wrongly) of NO split GCSE classes, & the timetable is such that anyone on 0.6 inevitably only gets KS3 - unless they are prepared to do as you do & do 0.6 over 5 days, which none of our pt colleagues are!

So they inevitably get all KS3 & (again this may be our particular culture to blame) are very much seen as 'lesser' by the kids.

It's the reason I've always stayed ft - certainly where I teach pt is 80% of the work, 60% of the money, & about 40% of the status - if you're lucky.

Some of us supplies work blimmin hard as well, and are supplies by choice, not 'cos we're rubbish.
Just saying...

Good or excellent when there has been a large number there are problems with continuity to say the least

This has happened to my 8yo year 3 Dd too. In Reception ~ three teachers. Year 3 and two teachers so far. My Ds is older and he had 4 teachers during year 4. But the biscuit was taken by this: we were getting rid of his year 11 exercise books and he showed me the front cover where you'd put the teachers name. He read them out and I was like this . 18 different teachers!! in one year! I knew there had been several, but not 18!!!

Personally, I think it causes huge disruption for kids. I also think it's wrong that a teacher leaves at the Christmas holiday. This seems quite the thing to do.

I accept the reasons behind their leaving, but it really messes kids up IME. And I've seen that first hand for two Dc's 8 years apart.

It's tough on everyone when teachers leave. We have one off sick and have had two at a time supply teachers and one ex staff member has come to help out with the head teaching the rest of the time. If there's no teachers there's not a lot a school can do. I'm more concerned this teacher recovers than much else to be honest. Especially as my child is doing okay, before anyone says I don't care enough about their schooling.

The ideal might be that supplies who try hard are recognised and given perm jobs, if the school shows no loyalty, where do teachers stand?

Fortunately, I've ended up with a September due date for my pregnancy, but already I've got my Year 10 and 12 students worried about who will take them on. I can't tell them as no one applied for my mat cover. It wasn't advertised in the TES, despite our request, as that was too expensive!

But Pippity, many supply teachers don't want a permanent job. Many supply teachers these days, good experienced teachers, have actively chosen to leave permanent jobs, and do day to day supply because being in a permanent contract is often soul-destroying with an unmanageable workload. Hence the problem.

A colleague from a nearby school has just resigned to work supply. With the number of vacancies around she knows she will be able to work as much or as little as she wants, without all the paperwork and hastle of permanent teaching whilst earning just as much.

I think the answer is that what ever the reasons, continuity is an old fashioned notion

Continuity belongs to an old fashioned world and, sadly, is one of the many things lost from the profession. I've never left mid year, worked almost up to my due date to coincide my mat leave with gcse and a level study leave, and feel really guilty about leaving kids half way through a 2 year course. But as the job becomes more and more shit, the weight on the 'this is intolerable, leave as soon as you can' half of the scale gets much, much heavier.

Continuity belongs to an old fashioned world and, sadly, is one of the many things lost from the profession. I've never left mid year, worked almost up to my due date to coincide my mat leave with gcse and a level study leave, and feel really guilty about leaving kids half way through a 2 year course. But as the job becomes more and more shit, the weight on the 'this is intolerable, leave as soon as you can' half of the scale gets much, much heavier.

Totally agree. The talk of the staff room (when anyone actually gets 5 minutes to go in the room) solely comprises

1.Which lucky souls are retiring and how many days they've got to go

1. Who is applying for a job outside teaching and how much it pays
2. How to get a management role 'out of the classroom' as these appear substantially easier. A non-teaching, teaching job seems rather an oxymoron but the pay looks rather nice...

Really
Just wanted to give you an example of why someone would move mid-year. I left my class at Christmas (I handed my notice in before October half term but parents weren't told until December, when I took my ppa in my new school, on a day I wasn't there to answer questions for the children or parents). I felt terrible - I was very close to the children and other teachers and still think of them. But the school was an hour commute (I'd moved to shorten my husbands commute - his was 2.5 hours some days) which I would have stuck out but the management was terrible. The head was running the school into the ground and what was going on with SEN children was appalling. I was made to lie to parents about the support they recieved. I couldn't do any more. I applied to a great school near mew home and got the job (they needed 3 new teachers but only hired 2 as only 3 applicants were worth interviewing).