Primary School Issues

[RIFF20]

Hello
We have just received a message from school head (new since 2016) another 5 teachers are leaving. Many of the original staff left several years after the new head started and since then many have come and gone.
Its actually shocking.
My daughter teacher left 2 weeks ago just randomly again wecwere notified via the school app. My daughter is struggling with the new teacher to the point its affecting her behaviour. I have no idea what to do or who to contact. I know another parent has contacted the council but they said to tske it up with the school. The head is very good with his words.
The school used to be ourstanding but now is merely good. It has also changed so year 3 and 4 are mixed together and year 5 and 6 together this is due to not having enough intake and so funding as also been cut. Funding is based on students apparently. The new head had no previous experiance working in a school and was from business sector. What can i do? What should i write to the school? Ofsted states to go through school complaints procedure. Will this effect my daughter.
Any help will be much appreciated. Sorry if this is all muddled up. I am very anxious.

I’m sorry to hear that, it must be really worrying. You could write to express your concerns - I’d hope that the governing body would be keeping a close eye on everything that’s going on, so you could ask to see the latest minutes of that to get a better sense if that would help?

I would write to the governors. It does sound like the new head is the problem. I bet the kids are struggling with even more change! What do other parents think?

Whilst it does sound worrying the same happened in my dc school. I was a governor so we found out the reasons. We lived in one of the most expensive university cities and rent/ homes were expensive. 3 were young teachers who were moving to a cheaper part of the county, another decided to be a sahm and the other had worked there for 25 years and decided to have a change of career.

The new head had no previous experiance working in a school and was from business sector.

I can't understand how this is allowed tbh. Someone with no experience of working in a school shouldn't be thrust into managing one. I bet that's the issue.

Poor staff, sounds like a really shit environment to work in.

If there is a head who is not a qualified teacher then presumably it’s an academy? There should be some trustees that you could raise a concern with,

She has been in place since 2016 so not a new Head.

Lots of teachers are leaving education this year as Covid for many was the last straw.

Stick to your own complaint and the problems you have. Follow the complaints policy. Many schools are not bound by the LA authority and although we are not an academy the LA can not overrule our complaints decisions.

Breathe and think about your complain

My daughter is struggling with the new teacher to the point its affecting her behaviour.

This is the only bit you need to be concerned about. There is staff turnover at most schools at this time of the year, ds's school had a list leaving too. If you go in complaining about other random things you'll do your dd a disservice by not focusing on resolving the problems she has.

Hello
Thank you all for your comments.
As a response no it is not a academy. I have no idea how he got the job. I have just gone over the messages and founds since easter holidays 9 teachers will have left by the end of academic year.

Thank you i will raise concern with governing body as speak to teachers re my daughter. Thank you again.

That is a lot of teachers in a primary school. There is probably an issue with management in some way. You should write to the governors and express concern that they are struggling to retain staff.

If it's gone that rotten and it's affecting your child, personally I'd be looking at alternative options. I also probably (and this is bitter experience here) would bide my time complaining to the governors as, if they back a head with that kind of management style, you're going to find your life as a parent very very difficult.

More than anything else if you start looking into the alternative schools (even if it means going on waiting lists) you may well get in before other families jump ship and spaces fill.

Unless it is a very small school there will be natural turn over - career progression, retirement, illness, difference of outlook. Normally it is a couple of years after a new head/deputy arrives. New staff may bring a different energy and dynamic, but could be positive in longer term.

Can I just ask what you mean by “merely good?”

It depends on the situation, as to whether it's actually a concern or not.

If I look at the infant school mine went to: (2 form entry so 6 teachers)
DD1 no teachers changed over the time there.
In DD2's first year 4 teachers, 3 TAs, 1 head and 1 receptionist left. There were all sorts of rumours. However dh was a governor and they all had separate good reasons for leaving (OH job changing and moving, maternity, taking on as carer for elderly parents, promotion, getting married and moving to them etc). It was just that they all did it at once.
Then they were static for a while.
When ds arrived he had 7 teachers over the 3 years. Again a mixture of job shares, maternity and promotions.

But I know with my DN their school seemed to be plagued by teachers never staying long. Then ofsted came in and it was suddenly clear-never seen such a dreadful report in all areas. Dn stuck it another year, by which time most of the classes (including theirs) were on 2 week supply teachers. Then they moved. I'd have moved them on seeing the ofsted report (and the head's/governors' responses-apparently it was all lies and she was now going on long term sick with stress entirely due to the report and the governors were "resigning in protest at the treatment") which had a number of facts (such as results) that showed how appallingly they were doing-and increasingly badly.

In all honesty, it sounds like the latter to me, so I'd look for other schools.

The turnover of staff does seem excessive but if as you say that the pupil numbers are decreasing then by default that means less classes therefore less teachers. So it really needs clarity on how many are getting out because they want to and how many had to because they were main redundant.
It is possible for any school to have a headteacher who is not a qualified teacher but there are very few to my knowledge. This maybe an inspired appointment in that their strengths may be in running the school structure but they have a very experienced qualified teacher who is organising all the staff and the work. But if they do not have that "head of teaching" then that may be very challenging.
The correct route of this is to go to the Chair of Governors but you do need to be clear about what your reasoning is to talk to them.

Sounds like completely normal churn of staff, so I’m not sure who you would complain to about that? If you are in the UK, surely you know we are critically short of teachers, and around 70%leave the profession within 5 years of qualifying.

Your daughters teacher probably went through the normal resignation procedure, then if she’s in a new school, sometimes heads get together and arrange an early start, so the new teacher has settled in before the new term. This isn’t something a teacher can expect, but is sometimes arranged between heads He/she would not have left ‘just randomly’ as they would have had applications, interviews, notice periods etc.

Not unusual to have schools run by business managers rather than teachers. As more and more of our staff went into self isolation last month, we had to actually enquire if our executive how many of them had teaching qualifications. None. We had to send year 10 home because we didn’t have enough teachers.

All in all, everything you are describing is pretty much standard. Your daughter is not getting on with her current teacher. That is the area you need to be working on.

Thank you once again alot of information and food for thought. I shall update you all accordingly. Thanks again