Floating /spare teachers with no class?

[teacherteacherss]

As per the title does this exist? I found out today about my sons new teacher and apparently Altho she's been at the school a few years, this academic year just finishing she wasn't in charge of a class. She didn't get assigned to a year eyc.

It sent my mind into overdrive thinking why wasn't she given a class? Why was she floating?

Anyone got insight to this

I had my own class for 24 years. Now I do PPA cover. I move all over from Y6 to EYFS. I love it - I like the variety, I only plan for my sessions, I no longer have to write reports, stay late marking, spend my Sundays doing lesson prep...

It's definitely common because employing a floating teacher actually ends up cheaper and easier than getting supply a lot of the time. The person who gets the job can vary, it is a bit easier than having your own class so it can be given to somebody good who's temporarily struggling in some way or it could be given to somebody with a specific management area that needs a lot of attention. Or it can just be luck of the draw 🤷🏽‍♀️
It definitely doesn't imply that there's something "wrong" with the teacher.

She’s most probably a HLTA or a TA. Schools can’t afford qualified teachers come September.

We have 2 in our school. One full time one part time. They are employed in a role that's needed rather than changing their original role in to this and have applied as they fancied it.

It’s good to see these teachers still exist. In many place budgets don’t allow for this anymore.

They are great though. They give a school much more staffing flexibility and allow for expert teaching of children more often.

@AppleKatie

I have only ever known PPA time to be filled by HLTAs. But appreciate some schools will still budget for a QT.

It’s possible that now this teacher has taken on a class that they can no longer afford a QT to do PPA, and this teacher is filling a vacancy and a TA will now cover PPA time

@toomuchlaundry

A likely scenario. My sons head teacher is also his class teacher come September. Things are dire.

If she has very young children, perhaps she was still on maternity leave at the start of last year - another reason why it might have been best for her to have the floating role, rather than a class have a change of main teacher in October.

My kids school have (seemingly) loads of floating staff…PE teacher, science teacher, music teacher plus 3 part-time teachers…
it means PPA is always covered by the same teacher, they often step in for supply and sickness too if there is any…
I think it will change next year as some take on classes/fill vacancies due to budget restrictions etc…
I wouldn’t worry at all - I’m expecting “new to having a class” teachers for some of mine next year…

@loopyloopster part-time teachers are usual, many schools will have classes with job shares. Also not all adults teaching a class are qualified teachers

All the ones I mentioned are definitely fully qualified teachers…the part-timers were previously full time class teachers who came back part-time and were used as floats this last year - I expect they will be job share this year for a class…I think music and PE will stay as those as they take every year group for those subjects…
There is also a myriad of TAs who help out with PPA and intervention groups…I assume that will increase for PPA cover as the part-time teachers become job shares…

The school seems to have very high staff ratios and detainment (majority are long serving)….It will be interesting to see how tighter budgets affect this is the coming years…

oh my - retainment!! Hopefully not detaining their staff…

When I worked in Primary they were used for interventions and they were variously, a very good teacher the school didn't want to lose so gave her a nice cushy role, which they knew she could really make a difference in or a not so good teacher who couldn't manage a whole class.

With tightening school budgets, I imagine those roles don't exist so much and everyone is having to take on a class.

A lot of those people probably aren't teachers.

As mentioned above - the 3 part-time teachers definitely are (class teachers before recent maternity)…science teacher also definitely is and historically had a class….I believe that is the case for the music teacher also but is before my time at the school…I could be mistaken and the PE teacher may be a TA…
there are also multiple TAs some fixed in classes and some float/intervention TAs….

As I mentioned they are staff heavy and I suspect this will change in the next couple of years due to budgets…

I am aware of the differences between teachers, TAs and HLTAs…I recognise our school is “unusual” in having this set-up and that it will almost certainly change in the current climate…I was simply sharing my experience and that similar things are happening in my school with the OP…

@loopyloopster have the school advised you of the staffing for September, I would be amazed if they could keep this level of staffing long term?

My DC school has this. They have a regular rota of teachers to cover PPA time. Usually it's one day a week in the class, they have this other teacher. The school also use them for maternity and sickness cover.

Classes are being confirmed this week…I know that 1 teacher is retiring and 1 moving away so my prediction is that at least some of the above will be job share class teachers for those 2 classes….I can’t see how it would be affordable otherwise!

Also echo what other says I think come September, DC school can no longer afford having QT to cover PPA. I know they have made redundancies.

I've done that before. RCCT was my main role. It's not a job I enjoyed!

I've since heard they she of very good. Deffo a teacher not a TA, great at her job but she was in maternity within the last couple of years, not sure exactly when but I think that indicates why this floating role suites her for now

The reason I'm so anxious is cos firstly I'm an anxious person and secondly my son has sen so I'm always extra aware of his needs and fighting for the best for him

@teacherteacherss how would you have felt if you had a teacher new to the school so would know nothing about them?

An ex colleague of mine did PPA cover and did all the art lessons. I was in Reception and did other art too but in older year groups she followed the National Curriculum. It suited her as she had been to art college before going into primary.

We have three teachers employed in this type of role. (Primary school)