Teacher only teaching class for morning. TA in afternoon. Is this acceptable?

[Notsurethisisok]

My Dd goes to a local prep school, She is going into y1 in September. Her class teacher is the head of pre prep and I’ve just found out from another mum (which is another point of contention, they don’t even bother telling us this stuff) that the teacher will only be taking the class in the morning and after lunch she will be off doing her head stuff and the class will be taken by a TA. I can’t get my head around this. Apparently the TA is qualified to teacher level but isn’t a teacher per se (not sure why). Am I being ridiculous to think that this is an issue or is it a common situation. No disrespect to the TA, but we are stretching ourselves to pay for this school and to expect the class teacher to teach the class all day doesn’t seem unreasonable at this age. Thoughts?

It is possible that if she is "qualified to teacher level" but working as a TA, she simply doesn't want the additional work and responsibility that goes with being an actual teacher. At DDs infant school, every single one of the TAs were qualified teachers who wanted a lower workload while their DC were small. Planning, marking etc may well still be being done by the actual teacher, just the TA is delivering lessons. If she is a qualified teacher happy to work for TA salary, then that's up to her really.

It is slightly odd that they haven't told you though.

Private schools are not required to employ nor provide qualified teachers at any point. Equally, they do not have to pay within pay scales for teachers so could, if they wanted, call the TA a teacher anyway.

As such, they could, if they wanted, claim that this is just a case of two members of staff and you have both on a morning and just one on an afternoon rather than a class teacher and a TA.

It's not what I'd want for my own child but the school can set what they are willing to offer and you can choose whether it's what you want to pay for.

In the private sector teachers don't have to be qualified so there are plenty of unqualified "teachers" who teach a class subject. Also in the prep system the English and maths is often taught in the morning and PE/Music/French/Science taught in the afternoon by a variety of people - often bright recent graduates in early 20's!

@OzonoffS thats a good way of looking at it actually, if she is willing to work for less, then that’s up to her. I’m more worried about the disruption and lack of consistency.
And no, their communication isn’t great!

DH once taught in a private secondary school and he was the only qualified teacher on the staff

In the state system this would probably means that she's qualified but she either doesn't want the responsibility of a class or she's not quite qualified because she dropped out or didn't get her QTS.

She is probably delivering the planned lessons that the teacher has prepared.

As pp's have already said, private schools can employ whoever they see fit.

I wouldn't worry about consistency if it is always one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I think I'd prefer that to a job share with alternate days, which would seem to be the alternative if she's also a head. Assuming she's an effective TA, a change of gear for the afternoon might be nice.

It’s normal for TAs to take classes but every afternoon is too much. I’m an HLTA that has a class on my own most afternoons to cover PPA, but the classes get their teacher every other afternoon. This is a state school. No way would I be willing to pay for a TA to teach my child for half of every school day, no matter how good they are. Even if they were a qualified teacher being paid as a TA, I wouldn’t go along with that kind of exploitation.

@Iamnotthe1 @hockeygrass I had absolutely no idea that this was the case! Really didn’t do my research properly. That’s shocking. We went into this naively thinking that this school would provide the best start for dd, slowly starting to think that this is not the case. Not necessarily because of this but they don’t seem to be as ‘on the ball’ as other schools in the area and as I mentioned, the communication is random and inconsistent. Potentially regretting my choice.

@ClocksGoingBackwards thanks for responding, interesting to hear from a TA perspective. This is kind of where my thoughts are at. Time for a meeting with the school (although technically, they think we don’t know, ridiculous!)

I can only offer my adjacent experience - in a previous job I worked closely in the same-ish sector as the head of a private college in London (starts with D). On leaving my job he asked me if I would consider joining the teaching staff. I didn't (and don't) have teaching quals but his response was that was fine! Completely changed my view of how these places operate.

"It is possible that if she is "qualified to teacher level" but working as a TA, she simply doesn't want the additional work and responsibility that goes with being an actual teacher. At DDs infant school, every single one of the TAs were qualified teachers who wanted a lower workload while their DC were small. Planning, marking etc may well still be being done by the actual teacher, just the TA is delivering lessons. If she is a qualified teacher happy to work for TA salary, then that's up to her really."

I have been both a teacher and ta and the person with the extra responsibility should be teaching the class. Even if the ta is qualified as a teacher, she doesn't spend her weekends thinking about targets for the children or anything like that and it's just not the same thing.

Yanbu op and I find the arrangement especially outrageous if you're paying for it! The children deserve one class teacher who is devoted to them completely.

Just take her out if you aren't happy, I once taught in a very prestigious prep school. It was very behind the times. (Understatement).

Some private schools are fantastic, I went to one myself. Some rely on what I call the glitter effect. Cute uniforms, dance lessons with former ballerinas, French lessons. But their reading books are from the nineties and nobody has been on a training course on anything at all for five years because of budgetary restrictions.

A different perspective on the independents don’t have to hire any qualified teachers scenario - this isn’t usually a case of wanting poor quality or inexperienced teachers. It is often because they want to hire people who have done more training in their specialist subjects and then lead them in their preferred methods of pedagogy rather than whatever is on the current state education agenda, which would be taught at PGCE. I started teaching this way - only one teacher in my team there had done a PGCE and had traditional QTS, but all of us had at least a masters in our subject. I did eventually go to the state side and get my qualification, and I was sometimes startled by traits of good practice that were completely ignored in a state set up.

Much of it comes from the difference in class size. There are teaching methods that are great with 24 in the room but nigh on impossible with 32.

Back to your original question: I wouldn’t be worried at this point. Working part-time at a lovely prep school without the ‘teacher’ responsibilities of reports, exams, etc sounds like a dream job to me, and that means lots of quite talented people will have applied for that position I should think. And I don’t think the lead teacher would want to work with someone they didn’t trust. It may well be an excellent combination. Let it be and if things seem a hash by October half-term, then raise it with the school.

(Aside: that independent school was by far the best random lunch time conversations of anywhere I’ve worked because everyone knew so much about something! Like sitting down with a really chatty University Challenge team every day.)

Well this has been an eye opener. Thanks so much for all of your responses. I can’t believe I have been so ignorant about teaching staff in the private sector. Having said that, I wonder how many of my fellow mum friends in the class know about this. Also made me wonder about the subject teachers, I will definitely be doing some digging. Thanks again

Normal at state primary from experience although not every day. Our deputy heads with have their classes covered by TAs when they are doing managerial stuff.
If I was paying for a private education and that was happening every afternoon I’d be well peed off. Get your facts straight though, it may not be every day and the TA may be more qualified as others have said. Is the mum a bit of a stirrer? That also may be a factor

@CatatonicLadybug ahh, also a very good way of looking at this. So a lot of practical experience in the field before going into teaching the subject.
you’re right, I should probably just see how it pans out and then make a judgement. It’s more the idea if this being a cost cutting exercise by the school that bothers me, but I guess they are a business, certainly knew that going in!

Yes - a bit of research into teacher qualifications is in order.

At the state primary where I am governor we set great store by our TAs who do a great job. If there is a (hopefully qualified) teacher doing the core subjects in the morning I would not worry about the TA being in charge in the afternoons, which are often spent with sport, swimming lessons, art etc. I also would not worry that there might be a lack of continuity as often these afternoon subjects are taught by a non-teacher anyway - e.g. a sports specialist.

You don't need to be a qualified teacher to be able to teach French or art to a small class of maybe 16 pupils aged 8. OP , I would be careful re how you approach the school re teacher qualifications and don't compare to the state primary system where its a class of 30.

Are afternoon lessons things like PE and Art? I'd be fine with a HLTA being in charge of lessons like that since out if school, adults manage to teach clubs like sport, music etc without a specific teaching qualification.

Afternoon lessons tend to be: art, P.E., music, history, geography, computing, design technology, R.E., P.S.H.E. and modern foreign languages.

My kids went to state schools but they had a specialist PE teacher (not a class teacher) who taught all years and HLTA were often left in charge of sessions like DT.

I think you should try and find out what happens further up the school. I'd have no problems with a French speaking HLTA doing French with year 1 but I'd expect a French teacher for children approaching exam years.

How much does the mum who told you about this know about the actual situation? She may be basing her claim on the fact that the person involved was working as a TA last term. It may turn out that this year she will be working and paid as a teacher in the afternoons.

I think you need to be very clear about the facts first. Perhaps see what happens for the first week or so, and then ask to meet the class teacher (who is a senior leader too) for reassurance and clarity about the situation. As others have said, this wouldn’t happen, or be acceptable, in a state school (long term), but private schools aren’t bound by the same rules.