How many different teachers does your child have in Year 3?

[justlumpingalong]

My DD is in Year 3. I've just counted, and she has ten different teachers in the course of a week. Her form teacher teaches her for two subjects, but the other subjects are taught by eight other teachers. I was very wary when this was announced, as were some other parents, but we were assured that it was quite normal for Year 3. When I was in primary, it was the same teacher all day, every day.

Three weeks into term and I think my DD is starting to find it all a bit stressful. It feels as if she is at secondary school - having to cart her stuff from room to room, remembering where to go and what to take. Tears tonight because she forgot to do something that she should have done.

Is this standard now...?

My year 3 has one main teacher. They have a cover teacher one morning a week for her PPA. I think they may have an HLTA once a week. He’s also in a few intervention groups run by the TA from his class & the other yr3 class. What your daughter is experiencing sounds unusual to me & my Ds would really struggle with it.

My children had their regular class teacher, then a specialist PE, music, art and science teacher.

They stayed in the same classroom though. Moving classrooms throughout the day is unusual at primary, I think.

Mine had two job share teachers, then a music, PE & French teacher.

In my school it’s class teacher, PE, art, Spanish and music. All of that is with the whole class

Then there is a different teacher for maths and literacy when they are in sets between the three classes of the year.

Thanks all for replying so late. My sense is that it is unusual...and not in a good way.

I'm sure some kids rise to the challenge, but I think it's too much for my DD. She's scatty at the best of times.

I'm not sure whether to say something to school, and if so what... and to whom...?

Late at night, I mean!

one class teacher (although there is always one class in the school that has two class teachers, as there is a job share, so if they are teacher year 3 it could be 2)

Then they do dance once a week with dance teacher, and music once a week with music teacher, both of whom come in.

The TA covers PPa time, but it may be covered by another TA or another teacher depending.

That's it really. If teacher is off on courses etc then there will be a cover. last year dds teacher did a course one day per week, so there was cover one day per week.

I would stress though that they have their own class, their own base and the teachers come to them (unless pe in hall)

That souds very unusual.
I'd have thought a lot would have their own (class) teacher + someone covering them for PPA = 2

Some will have a jobshare = 3 (although sometimes the job shre covers PPA so back to 2)

Some will have management release time, but this is generally covered by the same PPA teacher.

Some schools are lucky enough to have a specialist music teacher or MFL teacher, but they then tend to use them for PPA cover so it still remains just 2

My dc were in a 3 form entry junior school and they set for maths and English each day, so, potentially you could have 1 main teacher, 1 English, 1 Maths (+ maybe a job share + maybe PPA)

but I think it is really bad panning for them to have 10 teachers when they are so young.

I think it wouldn't be so bad if she was with her (lovely) form teacher for say, 60% of the time, but it's actually only around 25%. It all feels so anonymous. I chose the school because it felt so nurturing, but I'm having my doubts...

Is it state or independent? Friends with DC in private schools seem to have this as normal from Y3. DD is in a state school & has about five... two teachers on a job share; specialist music, specialist PE and the HT often takes them for PPA

Hm my first instinct was to reply 'one' but actually that is not true. There is the class teacher, but then also the PE teacher, and they have a music teacher and a French teacher who come in. So that is four already, not counting any PPA cover nor TAs.

And on the question of teacher coming to the class or class changing rooms to go to the teacher, again I was going to say the former, but actually obviously they go to the hall/field for PE, and music may be held in the 'small hall', and in fact I suspect French (will start after half term) may be held there too. So yes, they are moving around quite a lot!

If you'd add in a jobshare, and a specialist Art teacher, then (counting cover and TAs) you'd soon get near the OPs ten...

It’s more common to have one teacher who teaches all subjects for 90% of the week with the other 10% PPA covered by another teacher or a specialist coach (PE or Music etc).
This year our Y3 will be a job share after Christmas. But still only two teachers

Is this a private school? They tend to introduce specialist teachers earlier.

In Y3 DD had different teachers for music, PE, MFL and PPA cover but had her normal teacher the vast majority of the time.

What you are describing is a secondary style approach. I have never seen this with such young children.

It does now seem the norm in primary for at least 2 teachers because of PPA. Add in specialist teachers for PE, French etc. But the class would normally still be taught together, in their own classroom.

Is it state or independent?

Just one. She does PE with them too. There is a TA but I think she's a one to one with another child. This set up is entirely normal white I live, I've never heard of anywhere having that many teachers at primary.

DS is in a 3 form entry school where they can move classrooms for English and Maths as they re-group them based on ability and they have some specialist teachers covering PPA.

He has 6 though some might have 7 ie job share main teacher (2) + English + maths + RE + Spanish + music.

I am confused by this as children do not have a form teacher in primary, is your daughter actually in secondary school?

It's independent. They have separate teachers for Maths (two ability sets, so that makes sense), English, Humanities, French, Spanish, RE, IT, PE, PHSE, Handwriting, Science, Art. I've just counted again...that's actually 11 different teachers.

I'm really not sure whether to make a fuss... She's not on her knees (yet). I just feel that, at 7, they need a secure base. And, if I did make a fuss, is there anything they can do at this point anyway?

I think, in truth, they're doing it to cover a staffing shortage (they've not replaced someone who has just gone on mat leave). I've had a look at the timetables for Year 4, and they seem to have lots of different teachers too, but spend at least half of their time with their form tutor.

Should I moan...? What's the consensus?

Crimson - yes, it's primary. Year 3, and she's seven years old.

Normal for independent so don't think complaining would get you anywhere I'm afraid. Also normal for old middle schools approach

It is a shame that they can't arrange for the form teacher to do PHSE, RE, humanities, science and handwriting him/herself. Much easier that way for the kids. But if it is done due to staff shortage I suppose it is unlikely to change.

Is it a new policy since you chose the school? In any case you shouldn't moan, you should simply visit the school, talk to them explain the problems your child has (anxiety of being in the wrong place etc. etc.) and get them helping solve those problems.

The problem that needs solving is not the number of teachers, it's your daughters difficulty with it, as you say the number of teachers probably doesn't help (DD's state school has 6 btw, with specialist, PE/art/music/language and mixed year group for some lessons) but what's needed is help to get through it - that's why you pay the school.

Isn't that something that (some) independent schools advertise with? That they have specialist teachers from early on, rather than just the 'generalist' primary school teacher who might in fact be weak in one area.
So you would have known...? And now it's just a bit more than they'd 'normally' have, so 11 instead of e.g. 8.

Still I think it is fair to let the school know that your child is struggling with the set-up. If they have staffing issues, perhaps if several parents voice their concerns, the school will reconsider and perhaps re-arrange internally (it could be Y5 that gets the improvised 11-teacher solution rather than Y3); and even if nothing changes right away, they will know to prioritise Y3 once they have the ability. If nobody says anything, they may think 'oh our experiment is working, the Y3s are coping fine, let's keep going this way'.

Class teacher, music teacher, maybe a specialist language/sports/whatever they have funding for this week, head teacher covers planning time = 4 max