Class teacher & SLT time

[Twistedheartache]

Hoping for some insights into how much is a "reasonable" amount of time for class teacher to spend outside of the class.

Dd1's reception teacher is also head of early years. To begin with it was just Monday's where they had cover from other school staff teachers. 1 in am, 1 in pm consistently same people.

Increasingly dd is saying we had a new lady in our class today/we didn't do phonics today coz class teacher wasn't there to take her group she was off doing her work/had a meeting.

How much is reasonable? Is chopping and changing unsettling/disruptive to children?

They also have 1/2 day music & PE with external providers, but obviously both reception classes have this as do the rest of the school AFAIK.

Am happy with school, dd seems to be settling well & teacher herself apart from being a bit disorganised (always last class inside in morning and last out in pm) seems very knowledgeable & passionate about teaching the children etc it's just a niggle that it's not "right"

I'm not sure how much is reasonable, but when DC have had teachers who are SLT it was always a minimum of 1.5 days out of class, and quite often 2 or 3. I do think the school should be consistent with the staff member that covers though. That said, how is your Reception structured? At DC's school they mixed they classes most of the time and adult moved in and out of different groups, so the class teacher felt less important.

Yes, it's more about how they're being consistent with who is teaching the class. In all years (she's in Year 4 now) my daughter has had other teachers teaching at various times but it is normally consistent, unless the teacher is off sick or has some other reason for unexpectedly not being in the classroom.

For example, in Year 3 they had a different teacher on Thursdays. This year her teacher is SLT and he teaches them for 2 and a half days a week. They have a different teacher on Wednesday afternoons, and then a different one again on Thursday and Fridays. Both of these teachers have taught the class in other years so are familiar to them.

In my experience you will find that things change in the classroom - they won't do something on a particular day or time because they're doing something else instead. So maybe they didn't do phonics but what did they do instead? In reception, sometimes, they would look at something a child had brought in, have a special topic instead of the routine stuff.

I'm SLT and don't have regular time out of the classroom. Most weeks I teach full time. I'm head of KS1, English coordinator, SENCO and designated safeguarding officer.