Should your child's reception teacher have GCSE maths and English?

[mrz]

https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/dfe-drops-gcse-maths-and-english-requirement-early-years-educators

So should a secondary PE...Art ...Music ...Geography ...History ..English ...teacher be numerate?

But a secondary teacher is a different job with different entry requirements. You need a degree to be a teacher for a start, so I'm not sure how it's remotely relevant to the qualifications needed to work with 3-4 year olds in a nursery.

user - so what's the solution when we can't recruit enough nursery nurses with grade C GCSEs - close nurseries? Increase ratios?

Mrz, I think I shouldn't be commenting on this matter, since school system is totally different. We don't have GCSE. We don't have A levels. But majority of children go to high school( do A levels,16-18), and to do so, they need decent grades at end of junior high(15) Majority of unis are 4 years(18-22, with exception for few courses, including nursery teacher, 18-20.)

Is it? Why do you need maths if you are teaching PE or English? Why expect less because the children are younger? They need and deserve well qualified "teachers". I cringe every day when I hear the staff in a nearby private nursery talking to the children in their care. Poor grammar, poor subject knowledge are the tip of the iceberg.

Eden why not just value their profession? Give them the pay and working conditions that reflect the importance of their role ...unless of course our children don't matter?

Why expect less because the children are younger?

Do you expect nursery nurses to have a degree as well?

How do you know that the nursery nurses you heard talking don't have GCSE maths and English?

Teachers need to be able to perform data analysis whether they teach English or PE.

Mrz would you rather reduce nursery provision rather than have staff without GCSEs?

If you would like to make nursery nurses graduate professionals with pay and conditions to match then I wonder where the money will come from? Early years teachers in nurseries should also be paid a lot more.

I also think nursery care should be free and universal from 12 months but that doesn't solve the immediate problem of recruiting enough nursery nurses with GCSEs.

I just looked up Functional Skills English, and half the marks on the writing paper are for correct grammar.

I think somebody starting a thread like this, should have sufficient literacy skills to be able to ascertain the difference between teacher and nursery nurse.

Mrz are you being a GF to provoke discussion or just through habit?

OP as I have already explained this change is not for teachers who need GCSE English and maths to get on a PGCE which is a level 7 qual.
This change is for level 3 quals. They still need a FS English and maths qual just not GCSE.

What exactly do you think they teach in "maths" at 3 and 4 yrs old? Fractions? Equations?
It's mostly basic stuff like counting,recognising numbers,simple maths,number bonds,doubling and the last ones only at pushy nurseries.
Again in English,they won't be doing Keats and Shakespeare and SPAG. Mostly the alphabet,sounds and maybe phonics and HFW and letter formation.
All these are basic enough that most people would know. What they need is knowledge about children's development and psychology, behaviour management. To care for and about the children they look after.

Mrz are you being a GF to provoke discussion or just through habit?

Did you mean to be so rude, Pestilentialone?

It could be argued that FS maths is more practical and less theoretical and thus more use to younger learners.

I've worked in nurseries and Pre schools for 22 years. I don't have a C in GCSE Maths.
It does not make me incapable of doing my job. I'm bloody good at what I do thank you very much, as my managers, my colleagues, many, many parents and children would testify.

I would like a Reception teacher to have GCSEs in Maths and English.

I would however like English Language GCSE to be more 'functional' to reach a C/4 grade. So less wittering on about use of similes to produce certain reactions in the reader, and more plain comprehension, writing letters, reports etc.

I think I would like Early Years Educations in rooms with 3&4 year olds also to have English and Maths GCSEs, but I am less bothered about those in the 0-2.11 age range.

I would like anyone with my 3+ year old to speak good grammatical English and to be confident with basic concepts such as adding/subtracting fractions etc so they can introduce those concepts through play.

I would also like teachers and EYE to have GCSE Science (or BTEC Level 2) so they can introduce scientific concepts correctly through play.

I would also like EYE to be paid more on qualification.

So less wittering on about use of similes to produce certain reactions in the reader, and more plain comprehension, writing letters, reports etc.

But that is exactly what the Functional Skills qualifications are about? They're not saying that nursery nurses shouldn't have any qualifications in maths and English, but that they should have ones that concentrate on the less abstract parts of the GCSE syllabus.

Here's a Functional Skills Maths paper:

filestore.aqa.org.uk/subjects/AQA-4368-QP-JAN16.PDF

And here are some English papers:

www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/functional-skills/English-4725/past-papers-and-mark-schemes

noble But I want to change English Language pass for all pupils. There are a lot of employers asking for English language passes, and I don't think they really know what the contents is. So rather than try to get all employers to accept 'functional skills' I would change the English Language pass grade to test more useful stuff and then to get the higher grades (6+) have the technical stuff.

As noblegiraffe says Functional Skills quals are practical. FS English might involve writing a letter and newspaper article. GCSE English involves creative writing.
Reading in FS would be reading a leaflet or blog and answering questions about the content. GCSE English includes reading a 19th century text and commenting on the literary devices used.

I would like a Reception teacher to have GCSEs in Maths and English.

Reception teachers do have maths and english GCSEs.
OP is being deliberately misleading.

TeenAndTween if the English Language GCSE changed to be more 'functional' it would not prepare students for A levels. This is why FS quals were introduced. Students going into practical jobs don't need the knowledge of metaphor and other devices, but students who want to follow an academic path do .

So the maths functional skills paper looks quite good.

Why are there functional skills and GCSEs?

Why doesn't the lower end of GCSEs just measure the functional skills?

Bito I've an idea - why not have tiered papers?

But seriously, if only x% of pupils go on to do A levels, why are schools being measured on GCSE English and Maths if they are unnecessarily high and/or why aren't pupils put in for functional skills whilst at school rather than having to do them at college?