If a primary teacher was moved from year 6 to year 3, is that a demotion ?

[Lardlizard]

I thought the better teachers were kept for the start of school and the end
And the not so great ones in the middle ?

Me too. Yr13.

Best teacher ever 😂😂😂

Speaking as someone who has taught both Y6 and Y3, I'd say it's a promotion . I did not enjoy the relentless focus on SATS, SATS, SATS in Y6 and others must feel the same as we struggled to recruit and retain staff for Y6.

Teachers can get extra payments for extra responsibilities. That could apply equally to a year 6, year 3 or Reception teacher. That is probably what happened in the situation @meredusoleil refers to - could be responsibility for SATS, for a subject area, Key Stage 2 leadership but not just because it's year 6 and they are a better teacher. There was, maybe still is, an Adavanced Teacher status but that applies equally from Early Years upwards.

GuyFawkesDay
Some days I have Year 13 and other days I only have KS3.

I must be 50% amazing and 50% terrible, but at least I'm better than my friend. She teaches Reception and we all know that's finger painting all day

I am obviously amazing then because I only teach exam groups.....or the truth might be I am the only teacher of my subject 🤔

I'm not, but you have got it wrong. It's not even possible, speaking as someone who is a governor on the resources committee! As a pp poster explained, they may be paid more for extra responsibilities, but not just for teaching a certain year group.

That was for @meredusoleil

@Feenie

I'm not, but you have got it wrong. It's not even possible, speaking as someone who is a governor on the resources committee! As a pp poster explained, they may be paid more for extra responsibilities, but not just for teaching a certain year group.

It depends. If the schools is an academy, it has more flexibility on salaries. Also though the teachers affected might be told the extra is for teaching in Yr6, the head can add an extra responsibility that might be extremely minor, in order to get past the regulations.

The scenario might be unusual, but it's not impossible by any means.

Having read this thread, I now feel slightly worried that my year 6 child has a NQT teacher. I know the head and deputy observe some of the lessons and my children have always had a good year with NQTs they've had in the past. Having one child already go through year 6 I don't think it would be a year I'd enjoy teaching. I remember loving year 6 when I was at school in the 90s I don't even remember doing tests or SATS.

NQTs are usually extremely enthusiastic and hard working. They have to pass this year so they put every fibre of their being into getting it right and doing the best they can. Also they're monitored and checked all along the line, so in some ways you can be even more assured of the quality of your child's teacher's work.

They're also not jaded yet!

My DD goes to a 2 form entry primary. You can see that loads of thought goes into the allocation of teachers to classes. There's thought around pairing more and less experienced teachers, those new to the school and also the needs of each year group. Trickier years seem to get more experienced teachers, which isn't surprising. I think they try not to give a class an NQT for more than one year in a row, though if they mix the classes then some kids do sometimes get a run of less than ideal experiences. They also may make up for a disrupted year of teaching with an experienced teacher the next year.

Having read this thread, I now feel slightly worried that my year 6 child has a NQT teacher

Are you worried because of my comments about pay scales and experience?

My point was literally was that pay comes with experience, and soley that. Of course some NQTS are ace while some older teachers are completely and utterly shite!

Inexperience doesn’t mean that your not awesome teacher, in fact a good NQT is the type of teacher that is likely because bumped up the payscale quickly because of the experience they gain by teaching year 6.

It came from some one saying year six teachers get paid more, the point was only if their more experienced

Payscale doesn’t always indicate quality of teaching we all have to start somewhere

We should use this logic to rate parents. The younger the child the worse the parent surely?

Teachers are getting a tough time on MN generally at the moment, which is shit, but all these sarky comments coming from lots of teachers on here aren’t helping getting parents on side.

@OverTheRainbow88

Or maybe we're using humor to cope with the hatred and criticism directed at us? Most teachers above a certain age are parents too.

😂😂😂 no! Each age group has different challenges. Often the younger the harder!

As a teacher you are encouraged to move year groups.

Teaching isn't about just knowing the stuff, it's understand enough about child brains to get them to learn.

Do you know the person who was moved was told to move out of Year 6, they might have chosen to?

It is generally true that the 'better' teachers are deployed in Year 6 for obvious reasons.

However, I know from experience that Year 3 can be a tricky year group to have as well. Partly because the move from Infants to Juniors is a big one, and partly because you are landed with the, ahem, somewhat 'massaged' Year 2 SATs teacher assessments

You don't pay anyone any more for a particular year.
Every year brings their own issues.

As a former governor, aa far as I’m aware teacher pay is dependent on responsibilities and their performance in the areas agreed to be the subject of the annual appraisal. They are assessed via the appraisal scheme adopted by the school. This can award pay progression or indeed none at all. The governors pay committee then ratify, or not, the Head Teacher’s pay recommendations. What year group they teach is rarely a matter for an appraisal scheme but it would depend on the individual goals set for the teacher. Sats results might be a goal but this is not a great measure of a teacher’s performance and good schools wouldn’t use this. So y6 teachers have no extra pay based on that at all.

I also meant to say that the governors are not told which teacher they are considering. So y6 or Y3: they don’t know. They merely know whether targets have been met, not what they are so each teacher cannot be identified.

Crikey, is this really what the parents think? I was stuck in Year 2 for years, then begged to moved to KS2. Lord only knows what the rumours were at that point....

IME, the reason R teachers stay there for so long is that it’s very specialised, so schools don’t want to have to be reinvesting in early years training every few years. With 6 and 2 it’s true that you can get trapped if you get good results. The key I’ve found is to have a baby - have managed to thus far successfully avoid Year 6 via this method....

As a Year 3 teacher myself, yes, the ones that management prefer tend to be elsewhere. Of course, some get placed in the middle years for reasons of work-life balance: Year 6 marking is pretty demanding even by teacher standards and KS1 needs so much resourcing. Every teacher coming back off mat leave in my school seems to automatically go to Y3 or Y4.

To be honest, where I work, if you're really awful they stick you in EYFS. Not because it's easier there, but because the stress of working in that team usually encourages people to jump ship.

The teacher might have asked to move for all sorts of reasons. Some Yr 6 teachers get fed up with SATS, some just fancy a change, some want experience of different years.
In our school a teacher getting pregnant meant a shuffle round of jobs, some teachers prefer KS1, others KS2.

We had an experienced teacher move from Y6 to nursery! Her choice and she’s excellent with both year groups.

@Meredusoleil

I'm going to go against the grain and say that I've heard in my school Y6 teachers get paid slightly more because of the fact its an exam year group and more stressful! No one really wants to be in Y6. Maybe that's why the OP means by demotion?

As a very experienced primary teacher, who has taught most year groups, I can assure you that this is utter bullshit.