As a parent, what would you honestly think if your child's primary teacher said they were going job share?

[Caz10]

I always thought I was going back FT but now it looks like PT may be an option...due to various things like long term sick, NQTs etc our school staff has been a bit unstable for a few years - I feel guilty in adding to that and I got the impression it wasn't popular with the parents when it was announced I was pg. I know it shouldn't be my concern, but it is a worry to me...if your child's teacher changed to a job-share set up, what would you honestly think?

Ds1's Y2 class is taught by two job-sharers. There were a few mutters from some parents about it initially, worried about communication and continuity, but actually it has worked out very well. The teachers have different styles (one is more "cuddly" than the other), but they have divided up the work so that the max amount of continuity is achieved and that the children's progress is followed - for instance, one of them does the comprehension and grammar side of English and the other does creative writing. Any very occasional bits of communication that fall into the gap between then, as it were, are more than made up for by the class getting a fresh teacher, raring to go, every Thursday. It's great, and I'm sure parents could be persuaded of the benefits.

I would far rather have two teachers with a properly organised job share than a constant flow of different supply/student teachers which is what dd1 is having at present while her class teacher covers for the Deputy Head who is on maternity leave!

I think if my children were being taught by one teacher who then went part time on a job share I wouldn't be happy initailly. Our school has 2 classes - both taught by 2 teachers each on job share. It is fine this year - all teachers are good and they coordinate well. dcs very happy. However last year in my ds's class we had 2 not so good teachers - and it wasn't great.
However - that's realy down to teh teachers themselves rather than the fact they were job sharing, I suppose.

It really wouldnt bother me as long as my child was happy and the teachers communicated well with each other to ensure continuity of teaching.

This happens quite a lot in the school where DS goes and seems to work well, DS has a teacher one day that he doesnt like but I think that is more down to her being an older 'old fashioned' teacher iykwim and not of the touch feely school of teaching they are used to.

As for "not being popular" with the parents because you are pg b*ll&cks to them some parents just want to object to everything

My son's class has two job-share teachers and he loves them both. I don't think it's affected him negatively at all. (he's in year 1).

The teaching assiatant is full-time though so she provides the continuity.

When ds started reception last Sept, we were told that he'd have 2 teachers. I was sceptical, but knew and liked both teachers and so was ok with it.

In the main it has been ok, but one of the teachers got promoted to Deputy head 2mths ago and so now ds's class have a new teacher doing 2 days a week. For some reason best know to themselves, the school didn't even tell us this was happening, and 2 months on, and weren't told the name of the new teacher, what days she would be taking the class or anyhing at all.

I think if communication between school and parents is good, and between the two teachers, then it can work well, but when communication breaks down it all too quickly falls apart.

My ds is in year 1 and his teachers job share. 1 does 4 days and 1 does 1 day (she is the one who had a baby)

at first I was

but it works really well. All the kids love Friday when it is her 1 day.

dd1s teachers job share

I find it annoying actually but dd1 doesnt care and the teaching is generally very good.

everyone else can work part time, see no reason why teachers should not have it as well. if parents not happy, maybe should ask if any of them work part time...

I think I would be perfectly fine with the idea.
in dd1's class, there is one f/t teacher and two p/t TA's.
tbh I speak more to the TAs than the teacher.
I think the children benefit from being taught by a range of adults and any problems on communication can be ironed out and dealt with.

I would think it was a positive for yrs 1 and 2, for all the reasons other posters have mentioned. I would see it as a negative for reception - the children have enough trouble settling in anyway and I think a jobshare would make this worse.

I agree about reception - it's a period of huge adjustment so continuity is more important.

I had two job share teachers in primary/middle school (i.e. before 10 y.o. ).

I liked it. Second time in particular, I found one of the teachers a bit formidable, and her job share 'balanced' the experience.

Ds' experience of job dshare teachers was in P1 (equivalent to reception) and it wasn't an issue for the class. They were /are however two very pexerienced teachers who were also "promoted post" teachers in that they were also both "Senior teachers" (ie a memeber of the management team). I think they job shared that too! As a result they both worked Wedensdays (one Mon-Wed and the other Wed-Fri) so that there was always excellent communication betweenthe two of us.

I think someoen else made the point that there are other staff in the classroom too who will provide continuity. In ds' case there are two other classroom memmers - both a teaching assistant and a Bi-lingual teacher, plsu the depute head takes an active role in the Infants School.

Wouldn't have a problem with it. Our school has 3 sets of job-share (i.e. 6 teachers) and it works brilliantly. Two of my children have had job-share teachers and loved it.

As long as the teachers work well together, communicate and hand an effective 'handover' it's not a problem. It can work brilliantly in reception too.

Let's face it, children don't just have one teacher anyway in most schools. For example, all children except reception are set for maths and English at our school, so most children would have two teachers every morning, one for maths, one for English. Then they have teachers to cover PPA time, we have specialist music and P.E. teachers who cover most of this. Then children might work with a TA for varying amounts of time. And some classes have French or German taught by visiting teachers from a local secondary school.

Children do adapt. As long as their routines are fairly consistent and teachers communicate well, it works.

Actually DD2 has a pretty dazzling succession of reception teachers at the moment - her main teacher doesn't seem to be there much at all. I would ideally like more continuity but tbh she seems remarkably undamaged by the experience.

I honestly think there are other things in life to worry about.

Hmm. Depends where you are. Here (Scotland), my ds2 has a fab P3 teacher. Because of McCrone, he has her 4 days per week with two half days taken by two other teachers (one half day each). Throw into the mix the drama teacher, the PE teacher and the music teacher and suddenly that's a lot of different people, different rules (not majorly, but bound to be subtle differences). I'm not sure that I would be thrilled at there being 2 'main' teachers. However, there are many PT primary teachers here and I guess I would be willing to go with the flow in the short term to see.

My ds2 is in yr one and he has a job share, he has one teacher for mon and tues, they both come in on wednesday and then the other one does thu and friday, it was sad when one of them left but we had a fill in for a term and now we have a new lady.

i didnt mind the job share but was worried when i found out one teacher was leaving and they had two different fill in teachers, but ds2 has been fine and likes all the teachers he has had

i guess some children may have issues with continuity but in my experience my child has been fine and if anything he thrives on having two teachers.

Thank you all it's very interesting to hear the responses, and great that they are mainly positive.

Our school has a good reputation for communicating with parents etc, they are always kept up to date with staff changes so I can't see that being a problem.

I know that tbh (& sorry!) the parents' reaction should not be a concern to me at all, esp when I know how successful my job-share was in the past, but it is still a bit of a thought...I think work will be hard enough with a new baby without having to fend off angry parents!

It is generally better because if you job share you end up doing a lot more than the actual hours! The difficult part is getting the right job share partner. I have done it several times but I made sure that it was someone with a similar style of teaching and someone that I could get on with easily.It can be a nightmare with the wrong person!

I personally wouldn't be happy, particularly in early years. Sorry. I don't know what stage you teach (haven't read through full thread) but I think that it's potentially too disruptive for children who are only just getting used to being at school.
My ds had job share teachers in Primary 1 (roughly equvialent to Reception in England). Job share teacher no 1 took seriously ill immediately before term started; job share teacher got pregnant and went on Maternity Leave halfway through year. Result, a series of fill-in teachers; supply teachers and the head teacher teaching them when she could. Complete disruption and lack of continuity for the class.
In saying that, my eldest dd had job share teachers in Primary 6 and 7 and it worked brilliantly.
But I don't think it's suitable for younger children and I do think it has to very carefully thought out and managed.

I have to say that parents are never too keen but it is becoming more and more usual these days.I think that full time teaching is just too much with a family.I was stressed to almost tears when I was doing it. I was in school by 7.30am home by 5pm then cooked the meal, sorted out children and worked until bedtime. I had Saturday free and worked all Sunday-and I was still two steps behind! The long holidays that everyone quotes are a joke! By the time you have taken whole chunks out for planning and caught up with housework etc there isn't much left. I either do job shares, part time work or supply and I can then do a work/ life balance.

I was discussing this with a friend who is a teacher, she said it's worked fantastically when both teachers are prepared to go the extra mile and meet up in their unpaid time for a proper handover. She's also seen it be absolutely awful where the different teachers haven't communicated etc.