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

confident with basic concepts such as adding/subtracting fractions

Nursery seem to be very impressed that my 3-4 year old can count past 20, so I don't think there's much call for adding and subtracting fractions in nursery! I'd be surprised if someone with 'only' functional skills couldn't talk about half or quarter of a cake.

TweenAndTeen* previously I mentioned 'the tosser' Michael Gove. We used to have two levels of English GCSE and although it didn't cover vastly different skills the foundation paper was more accessible.
The tosser MG insisted all students sit the same paper. Have I mentioned he is a tosser?

The majority of reception class teachers are employed not specifically to teach reception but as a primary school teacher. Most schools I know move their teachers around every few years do you may be teaching reception one year & Year 2 the next year. A few are allowed to specialise but would still be expected to have the same qualifications as the rest of the teachers.

I am in absolute agreement that as long as nursery etc staff are literate & numerate they should not be excluded from working with this age group due to a lack of GCSE's.

Tween do you want to be Minister for Education because you have grasped the issues better than 'the tosser' ever did!

noble but wouldn't you want nursery to be able to extend your child confidently, e.g. saying (and knowing why) if they put the half cake with the quarter cake they have 3/4s or whatever?

So, I'm happy I think with the functional skills level, but I would prefer that was a GCSE pass rather than a separate less understood qualification.

Nursery nurses aren't the biggest issues FE colleges have. You try teaching literary devices to potential plumbers and paint sprayers

Why doesn't the lower end of GCSEs just measure the functional skills? good question Teen
Nobody knows, except maybe Gove and the fresh young oxbridge grads who advise him.
The new spec GCSEs will make this question even more relevant. Nobody wants to segregate the academic from vocational too young, teenagers are fickle things. For many though, GCSEs are a form of irrelevant torture, which leave them with no valid qualification. Proving what you can't do is rubbish.

Bit I'm aware of the tiered papers, my elder DD did GCSEs 2 years ago ...
... and has just applied for an apprenticeship to be an Early Years Educator!

She also struggled massively with some aspects of the English Lang GCSE despite being very well spoken and widely read.(Due to her dyspraxia).

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

Those maths skills on the functional paper are to some extent part of the GCSE. However there were plans a few years ago (under Labour) to have a separate functional skills paper and students weren't going to be awarded a C in GCSE maths even if they passed the maths paper if they didn't pass the functional skills paper. There was a pilot, and it was all set to launch, then the whole plan was dropped. Suspicion was that too many pupils failed the functional skills pilot and there was too much disagreement about what the papers should look like.

There has been report after report into maths education (including the one for Gove led by Carol Vorderman) which recommended two maths GCSEs, one numeric and one more algebraic, with the majority taking both and the weakest only taking the numeric one. Gove said no, he wanted an academic education for all. The only nod to this was making maths GCSE double-weighted in Progress 8.

Pestilent i posted because in a discussion elsewhere I said I didn't think parents would care or know the difference between a Early Years Teacher's qualification and a teacher, teaching in the early years ...seems I was correct.

I'm sorry! I was under the impression I had posted in some detail about the quals involved indicating the levels and entrance requirements.

I am a parent and I do know the difference.

I also know a really rude, antagonistic poster when I read one.

Was that to me Bitofa? Because I've obviously missed where anyone posted the two degree courses

By definition PGCE implies two degrees - Post Graduate. Also, level 7 courses are post graduate. Do you need any other terminology explaining mrz ?

You don't need a PGCE for QTS or EYTS

A PGCE Confers QTS status. The other way of getting that status is to participate in a school based training course but most of those also lead to a PGCE.

The entry requirements for both routes are the same, GCSE grade C in maths & English (plus Science for primary) & a degree.

There are a number of ways to gain QTS those are but two.

And EYTS is an equivalent level qualification but currently doesn't allow the recipient to teach in schools however that is one of the changes being proposed

Please point me to a way of gaining QTS that does not require maths & English & a relevant degree.

EYTS is of no concern to me. Schools would not employ a classroom teacher with only EYTS as primary teachers are not employed to teach a particular year group only but are expected to be able to teach across all age ranges within the school.

"EYTS is of no concern to me"
Then you're on the wrong thread because that's what I was talking about ...

Lots of academies do currently employ teachers with EYTS to teach nursery and reception classes. However as teachers with EYTS have GCSEs I'm not sure why its relevant t to this discussion.

Have you seen how much early years educators are paid? If someone is able to get GCSE English and Maths then they probably want to aim for a better paying job with career prospects. I would have no problem with retaining the need for GCSE English and Maths if there was an increase in funding that could allow pay to increase but that hasn't happened. There has been a recruitment crisis just as the government want to increase the number of funded hours so they had to backtrack.

i would much prefer that nursery staff have a caring persona & an understanding of what makes children tick than any academic qualifications whether it be a nursery unit attached to a primary school or a private daycare nursery.

Once children are in proper school then they should be taught by qualified teachers.

Not if they're being paid minimum wage, no

I'm puzzled OP the link was to a TES news report that focused on English and maths quals.

And EYTS is an equivalent level qualification but currently doesn't allow the recipient to teach in schools however that is one of the changes being proposed

You want a thread about EYTS yet this is not specifically mention in the link or in the title of the thread.

If your concern was about the specific change you NOW mention it might be worth including a specific rather than a general link.

Reception teachers in the title, L3 nursery nurses in the link, wants to talk about EYTS.

I think everyone is confused.