Year 2 - part time teachers - how did this work for your child?

[Crunchymum]

Hi,

Am looking for experiences regarding this. Y2 DC will have one teacher early week and a different teacher late week.

It's quite unusual in our school (this is the first time I've come across it in my decade long relationship with this school)

I'm a part time worker myself and its feels very unsavoury to even ask the question but after all the disruption of reception and Y1, I'm concerned about the effect if this teaching arrangement on my DC.

Any thoughts, experiences, practical advice appreciated and I'd love to hear for any PT teachers for reassurance.

This is an interesting arrangement. I have previously seen a class with one teacher working in the mornings and the other in the afternoons. This worked very well but part of that was the timetabling so for example only the morning teacher taught maths, I am guessing that in your situation both teachers would cover all subjects?

I have known this kind of arrangement to work very well in schools I've taught in. The teachers will work very closely together to ensure smooth transition every week. Not every school would accept a job share arrangement like this so the school have probably thought it through a lot.

It can be beneficial for children to have two slightly different approaches in the week, as one teacher may explain something in a different way or have fresh eyes on issues. Teachers may have strengths in different subject areas, so the children may get a slightly higher standard of, say, Science or Music teaching from one teacher for the whole year, rather than a single teacher trying to teach everything well even if their subject knowledge isn't great.

Very common in my DC school, I think DC1 had only one year at primary with a single teacher.
Generally works really well, if they work as a team staff can play to their strengths, the children get exposed to more than one teaching style which can be beneficial for lots of reasons.
DC have always enjoyed having more than one teacher. The only year I've not been happy was with a 4 day/1 day split where the main teacher was very inexperienced and the other teacher was changed several times during the year so overall things drifted a lot.
Try to meet both teachers early on, and ask them/ school to explain how the split will work.

Both my DC have experienced this at primary school and it worked very well.

I noticed that my children always performed and achieved best when in these classes, they really were a success.

I am a part time teacher and do 3 days in Y2 with my job share doing the other 2. It’ll be absolutely fine - the relationship is a really close one with a lot of communication. We split subjects so that we manage our own units of work with no risk of getting muddled crossing over, if that makes sense. Been doing it for a few years and it works really well.

My youngest has this set up and will next year too. Works well I have no concerns.

It's common at our school. DS1 has this in Y1 and Y2: teacher 1 was M-W and teacher 2 Th-F. It worked brilliantly. Both DS1 (y4) and DS2 (Y1) have two teachers next year.

I have several primary teacher friends who worked in schools that refused to allow them to go part time/only let them cover other teachers' PPA if they did so. Then ended up leaving teaching altogether. I'm glad my DC are at a school that value the staff and can see the positives of job sharing.

It's worked well for my kids - they benefit from more adults' interacting with them and from each teacher's own specific oassions/interest/talents.

Im sure its fine for your average child. Maybe not so much for tricky ones. (My eldest is one of those) and we are concerned as it's 2 very strict teachers for y5 and 1 dc1 has had before and ended up not meeting targets

We've had it twice. The first time was a disaster. I think that was probably down to either a falling out or one of the teachers being really difficult to work with. We've just been through another year of it with a different set of teachers and it was fine. They clearly communicate well. I think the only downside is that it took them a bit longer to get the measure of my slightly tricky DD than a single teacher would. But that depends on the single teacher.

I'm amazed it's uncommon at some schools. I've been through two primary schools and it was very common at both. It works really well - as others have said, it can be really beneficial to have two approaches. Also, be aware that all teachers are entitled to PPA time, so even a 'full time' teacher is likely to spend at last half a day out of the class (and sometimes more, if they have additional responsibilities). So no class is actually going to have the same teacher 100% of the time.

It’s common in DD’s school, she had 2, part time teachers in year one and she’ll have the same arrangement next year, in year 4. I haven’t heard anyone have any issues with it :)

The benefit to my DS was two much less tired teachers who didn’t feel so overworked. As long as they communicate well, I found it better tbh.

Really common in our area. I've been a part time teacher before and it worked well. We did parent's evening together and met regularly throughout the year to plan.

Both mine have had it more than once and the positives outweighed the negatives. Variety, energy, different styles etc Quite common at our large school

It is a very common arrangement. Am amazed you haven't come across it before. Not that many people want to work 60 hour weeks, so they go PT.
I've known dozens and dozens of jobshares, and overwhelmingly they are really positive years for the dc. BOth teachers come to their days with more energy and enthusiasm and you get the benefit of different teachers' skills and specialisms.

Every class in DS2 school has two PT teachers. It's ok I guess. I think I'd prefer one FT teacher but he's year5 and currently on teachers 15 and 16 owing to a complete f*wit of a HT.

It's not really as though you can change it even if you want to is it?

It is really really common these days. Always at least 2 classes and it's this arrangement at our 2 form entry school

No reason it would be more or less good than 1 FT teacher. It depends on the particular teachers involved really.

I'd say it's normal, it is what it is and not what worrying about.

DD had jobsharing teachers in Y2 and Y4. No issues.

We have this with a few year groups at our school, it works really well.

Some years it's worked better than others for my kids - depending on the staff involved and how well they communicate with each other.

The year it wasn't the greatest, DD1 clashed with the start-of-week teacher so it was quite common that she was through to changeover point in the week with the teacher who "got" her more (DD1 can be a pain in the arse - I'm not absolving her of this) and she'd gone through the warnings and losing minutes of golden time and was in a bit of a behaviour hole that the other teacher was left slightly with nowhere to go.

Other years it's worked brilliantly - in year 2 both of mine have had a teacher for part of the week who was absolutely passionate about science and did the most amazing experiments with them and another teacher who was brilliant with other areas of the curriculum and incredibly with things like emotional development and support as well. The one issue was that both teachers had exactly the same initials so the minutes for things like SEN review meetings are amusingly confusing looking back over them! (made me giggle)

It usually works really well IMO, and once they have sorted out how they are going to deal with daily lessons like maths and literacy, and shared out the other curriculum areas it is fine ( as long as both of them have similar expectations of classroom tidiness and organisation, messy and organised is a recipe for disaster).

Though I did work for a while in a school where the very peculiar heads wife came in to cover part time for a term and although it started off peachy the relationship between the two teachers ( they were both rather odd) deteriorated after about three weeks, I am sorry to say that some of us , who should have known better, used to sneak into their classroom and read the increasingly snippy remarks they left for each other in their daily diary -it was pre email days. Sorry, very unprofessional , but irresistible, if only we had had mobile phones with cameras...........

I am a pt teacher and can confidently say I put more effort and attention into my class than most of my ft teacher colleagues! I work pt because of family commitments as does the other teacher working pt. we work well together and talk a lot outside of school to ensure smooth transitions and communications.

DDs primary school do this, and she had this set up in Reception.

1 teacher does M-W and the other W-F with them team teaching Weds morning and both have PPA Weds afternoon. It worked really well.

I have a friend whose child has just finished reception in the same class DD was in and one of the teachers was ill for a few weeks, the other teacher temporarily stepped in then took her days "back" at a different point in the term when covered by the other teacher. It worked really well apparently,

Very common at our school. Both my children have been in shared teaching classes. Works great.