teachers spike 4 days / 1 day....awful???

[yodachronicles]

I've known about this for ages but with Monday the first day of term...I'm starting to worry about the effects of having 2 teachers, 1 for 4 days and 1 for the remaining day (Monday) - feel like the Monday will be a non starter day and the week will start fully on Tuesday.

Any advice or people who have experienced this?

Yep, certainly wasn't the case in Leeds primaries after reorganisation in the early nineties!

We've had 4/1 day split twice and it wasn't succesful either time. 3/2 split is better. The one day teacher (in both instances) never took ownership of the day. Any questions to them on their day was met with "ask the other teacher tomorrow" and the work always seemed to be finishing the other teacher's work and there never seemed to be directed learning or teaching. With two days, I think the teachers can split the subject areas/topics between them and cover discrete areas. The second time we had 4/1, they gave up part way through the year as the 4-day teacher said she had to plan and mark everything anyway so might as well be paid for it.

I think PPA is different as with us it's an afternoon and the PPA covering person does a self-contained subject like art or PE or forest school.

(I know this is a side issue, but) DSis was a primary teacher, and she got non-teaching time.'

So - did teachers at primary never have a time when their class went off to PE/music/had the head teacher in etc? I went to school in the 70s and we def. did have several times a week when we weren't with our class teacher. I know that smaller schools were different, but I thought almost every teacher got times when their class went off to do something else, and that became their planning time? I know that often it only cam in 30 or 45 min. slots, which is pretty useless, but it existed in primary schools where I grew up, and where DSis taught as well.

Hadn't realized it was just a regional thing.

I was secondary, and officially had 3 non-teaching periods a week, but often went a month or so with them being taken for cover. When PPA was formalized I, in theory, got one period a week when I didn't teach, with 2 that could end up being used for cover.

Teachers in primary teach every subject including music and PE they do not have free lessons in a normal school day which is why PPA time was introduced.

When I went to primary in the 80s the class teacher did everything. No TAs either, even in reception. 32 kids. A lot less paperwork than today I should imagine.
DS has sometimes had specialists for PE and sometimes the class teacher. Some larger primaries do have a music specialist just taking music lessons, cos my friend is one.

No-when I was at school in the 80s-the primary teacher taught you all day for every lesson. This was the case until ppa came in.

I don't think it was a regional thing either, kickass - as I've said, I've taught in Leeds since the early nineties and never encountered it. Growing up in the seventies, we were taught all the time by the same teacher.

So obviously it depended on how the school was organized, but we had choir/music with the headteacher, and she took one gym lesson per week for each class. There were also times when classes were put together, so 3 4th year classes split between 2 teachers while the 3rd one did something else.

there wasn't a full time cover teacher, but there was def. a plan to make it happen. My mum ran the PTA and was chatty with the head (in every school I ever went to!) so this sin't just something I've mis-remembered. Having seen DSis get the same when she started teaching I thought it was fairly normal.

If I'd gone into primary I'd have kept my eyes open about that! DSis trained in another LEA (Winchester area) and seemed to think that it was normal as well, so it wasn't just Kent or a couple of schools. But, all the schools were quite large - at least 3 classes per year. I knew smaller schools didn't do that.

Sorry - just realized that it could sound like I don't believe people. Obviously I do! Just trying to explain that I didn't randomly make something up or assume that I was right. Not trying to start a bun fight, honest.

When I first started teaching my school had a weekly hymn practice which meant I got 30 mins non contact time once a month

My dc are starting school with new (maternity cover) teachers. 1 is doing 4 days and the other 1. As I understand it the teacher doing 1 day is doing so as she has a small child and this fits in with other things quite nicely. I'm just grateful it won't be a string of temps in my dts reception year.