New teacher every year - does it have an impact?

[Ninetynineandcounting]

Due to maternity leave, a firing and a teacher relocating, my daughter has had a new to the school teacher every year since starting in Reception. We’ve just found out that her teacher for next year will be new to the school too!

Do you think this has an impact in the classroom or school? No one seems to last more than a year!

This is happening at our school also!

It has definitely caused issues. The children were told that they would be doing such and such a thing after the summer holidays and then it never happened and no one knew anything about it because the teacher had left. Plus the school doesn’t follow the national curriculum so the newbies have to acquaint themselves with this whilst on the job. It’s quite dispiriting really.

Same qualified teacher throughout the year? Not supply teachers?
This would not worry me. They are professionals and know how to engage with the year group and deliver the national curriculum, and keep the children safe? Has your child progressed thoughtout the year?

Have all three been newly qualified and you are worried about their inexperience?

One was teaching a year group different to her previous experience, don’t know about the others. It just seems so... haphazard. Always going, always goodbye presents at the end of the year and new faces at the start of the next.

As a parent, I definitely prefer knowing a face in advance, and being able to say that so and so's sister had had Mrs X and had a great year, etc.

One of the reasons my middle DC settled into school so well was definitely because he was used to seeing DD1 with the teacher he had for Reception. It really helped the family vibe in the school.

However, the new teachers we've had have all been fine, and they do need to get a start somewhere. There is a big crisis with teacher retention- this is the reality of state schooling now I think.

It’s not just state schools. Teaching is a transient profession these days. If you can find a school where the teachers have been there for years, grab that school!

It does make a difference to the feel of the place. Happy teachers stay put. A school that is happy with its teachers tries hard to keep them.

Has your child fallen behind?

WelliesAndPyjamas

Has your child fallen behind?

How on earth is the OP supposed to answer that?! Compared to if they had had a continuity of teachers do you mean...?!

Or do you mean to other schools?

I don’t know whether to 🙄 or 😂.

My 15 year old had a similar issue to this, so much so that she asked to move to a more stable school. I obliged and now she has settled well and had consistent teaching staff throughout her time there. Sometimes it can just be certain schools!

Depends.
Do you mean it just happens that the class your dc is in happens to have had a teacher who is new to the school each time ? - in which case I wouldn't have any issue with it
or
Do you mean half the staff seem to leave each year? - in which case, if that has been going on for 4 years or more, then it would seem to indicate there is an issue there. Even then though, it might not affect your dc particularly.

Yes. This seems an obvious answer. A teacher being new to the school will surely be an issue since the teacher has additional challenges to deal with relating to settling in to the school.

The question is, what to do about it? It doesn't seem helpful to complain at the new teachers, since they will have enough to deal with so that would make things worse. You might want to question the school leadership, governance etc. and let them know that people are questioning the high turnover at the school. If any organisation has an unusually high turnover, eventually all finger will point to management as staff dissatisfaction with management tends to be the most common root cause.

Frasierland, compared to what is expected of a child of that age.

If the school itself is ok and well run l don't see much problem. Big schools always have some change of staff. I am a teacher and would have no problem teaching any class in a new school as long as the school was well run.
You could have the opposite problem. She could get a teacher who is in the school years that everyone dreads or who has a reputation for not overly exerting themselves.
As long as staff are not mass exiting the school every year it is fine. A school can be like that for a while and then settle into a routine. But it all depends on the teacher not whether they are new or not.

WelliesandPyjamas But that still means nothing. The child could be a genius or the opposite to start with and how I s the OP supposed to know the standards of every other school/child in the country?! 😂

We have a policy of.continuing books which would work well in this situation - no new books in Sept, teacher just had to look at previous page to see what a child is capable of (works the other way too, as in wow, how grown up your writing looks now, what a fabulous start, etc).

Feenie that sounds really good.

I'm a primary teacher, no don't be worried, in fact you might be in a better position as new to the school teachers won't be stuck in the rut "0h, we always have done that here". They may bring in fresh ideas, be trying to make their mark, be young and not yet disillusioned with the career, not be so tired that they are still putting in 14 hour days.

Also it's healthy for teachers to move around year groups, I know some parents want to know in advance (before July) who their child is getting but it's not practical in a school setting and for the teachers growth it's good for them to move year groups. Although saying that I've taught year 1 for 8 years

I’m sorry to disappoint you, frasierland, but I haven’t just typed random words on a page to confuse the OP or make you laugh. I’m trying to help. Yes, each individual child is different but age related expectations are an actual thing for each year group and help to determine what progress has been made over a year.
Age Related Expectations

The only age related expectations that exist are end of key stage - so Y2 or Y6 (exactly what your link explains).

There's a reason why teachers leave schools and its usually because they're not happy there. I know a few schools where there is a very high turnover of teaching staff, simply because the workload is crucifying and teachers are working 75+ hours a week to keep up with the demands placed on them. You could write to your local MP or to the Ed Dept. However, I think the situation looks set to continue for at least another decade, leading to a further shortage of teachers.

Yes, there are end of KS tests. Also, the National Curriculum sets our programmes of study for every year, not just key stages, and outlines the expectations of what they should have learnt during that year. In-school assessments throughout the year look at how the children are doing in relation to them, you may have seen the terms ‘emerging’, ‘developing’, ‘secure’, etc.

In-school assessments throughout the year look at how the children are doing in relation to them, you may have seen the terms ‘emerging’, ‘developing’, ‘secure’, etc.

They're completely artificial and vary from school to school. The NC is so vast that schools tend not to assess every objective, or more time would be spent assessing than teaching. So one school might use the key performance indicators suggested by the NAHT, another might make up their own, one might use LEA suggested ITAFs - there can be no true comparison until the end of the key stage.

As your link explains.

Also, the National Curriculum sets our programmes of study for every year

It doesn't. It sets out programmes of study over two years in lower and upper key stage two - another reason why assessment varies hugely from school to school.

see page 21 as an example

And also pages 34 and 42

From your own link:

Age-related expectations identify what is expected of a pupil by a specified age or year group. In the national curriculum, there is a set standard of expectation which is defined by threshold descriptors indicating what a pupil should be able to do by the end of key stage 2.

As the government does not publish expected standards for other year groups across key stage 1 and 2, NFER has developed its own age-related expectations for its summer reading and mathematics tests.

Yet another different example of how and what different schools assess (to add to my list of examples above).