Is there any way we can save our Reception teacher's job?

[FuriousGeorge]

We have had a letter from the dds school,stating that we will have to lose our Recption 'teacher'.Apparently because the intake for Reception is 15 children and will be for the next 2 years,OFSTED rules dictate that the school has to employ a trained teacher instead of our current one,who is a nursery nurse.

We are lucky,because our dds won't be affected,but we and all the other parents are gutted about it.She is a lovely lady,a very good teacher,no one has had any complaints,behaviour is excellent and the attainment of pupils is very high.In fact the school was recently rated Outstanding by OFSTED,so she can't be doing anything wrong.

I read with children who have just left her class,once a week and can see how confident they are after being under her care.I have emailed the school to let them know my feelings on the matter and another parent has suggested that there may be a way around it by employing a teacher alongside the current one as a job share [providing those involved are agreeable of course].

Does anyone have any advice or exerience of this.We'd be very grateful for any help.
Thankyou
fg

Government rules have always dictated that reception classes are taught by qualified teachers and your school is breaking the law using a nursery nurse to fill the role. This applies whether there is 1 child 15 children or 30 children.
The school must be laughing all the way to the bank with the money they have saved

Presumably she isn't prepared to upskill?

If you want to keep her she needs to complete her degree and gain QTS

My SIL trained as a primary teacher on the job - it was a lot of work (took a year) but you do need to be a graduate to do this.

However lovely she is she is unqualified to be a teacher and should never have had the job in the first place ! How on earth did they get through ofsted ? Is it a private school , not sure if the rules are different then ?

The rules are different for Independent schools

EYFS however does apply to Independent schools so reception needs a qualified teacher if there are 8 or more children and will need a level 6 in future

Actually,thinking about it,her predecessor was a nursery nurse too,and she'd been there about 10years +.Surely if it is such a huge no no, Ofsted woud have picked it up at the last inspection,or one of the inspections prior to that? I'm sure they wouldn't give an outstanding rating to a school that was acting illegally-in fact I'm looking at the report right now and it states,fot the EYFS 'The standards reached by them frequently meet and for some exceed,expectations for the end of the Reception Year.The children are well prepared for Year One.'

Well,we'll see what happens.I'm glad my dc had the chance to be taught by her.

I'm afraid the school is lying to you and have possibly lied to OFSTED to obtain outstanding (we mix R/Y1 children with teacher x and NN y...)

The rules have been in place since 1998
Infant classes are those in which the majority of children turn 5, 6 or 7 during the course of the school year i.e. reception and Key Stage 1 classes. Legislation limits the size of an infant class during an ordinary teaching session to 30 pupils per school teacher.

Definition of a ?school teacher? for infant class-size purposes

1. Schools will meet the infant class size requirements if an infant group of no more than 30 is taught by a ?school teacher?. School teachers include:

? Head teachers ? Qualified teachers ? Overseas trained teachers ? Instructors with special qualifications or experience ? Staff on an employment-based teacher training scheme ? Graduate teachers ? Registered teachers ? Student teachers ? Teacher trainees yet to pass the skills tests

1. ?School teachers? do not include teaching assistants, higher level teaching assistants or other support staff. However, support staff may carry out ?specified work?, such as delivering lessons to pupils, within infant classes in certain circumstances1. In each case:

? the headteacher must be satisfied of the support staff?s skills, expertise and experience to carry out such work; ? the work carried out must be in order to assist or support the work of a ?school teacher?; and ? s/he must be subject to the direction and supervision of a ?school teacher?.

1. In practice this means that, although a school with infant classes must have sufficient school teachers to be able to teach its infants in groups of 30 or fewer per teacher, support staff, providing they meet the above criteria, may ?teach? infant groups when teachers are not available (e.g. when a teacher is away from their class on their Planning, Preparation and Assessment time).
2. Support staff must not be the main ?teacher? for an infant group and, where support staff are undertaking the more demanding aspects of ?specified work? ? particularly where they are working with whole classes

If a school were to use support staff instead of teachers to lead its infant groups, either as a permanent arrangement or for the majority of the school week on a regular basis, it would be in default of its class size duty.
Consequently, a school must employ sufficient teachers to enable it to teach its infant classes in groups of no more than 30 per school teacher.

Thankyou mrz,but I'm still confused.This year will be the first year reception and year 1 have exceeded 30 pupils,prior to that reception has numbered 10 or less,mostly 4 year olds,so approx 20 children in total in year 1/reception.

Personally,I'm not bothered whether it is legal or not.I am happy that my children had a good start.I went to the same school and would have sent my own children there regardless of anything OFSTED says or doesn't say.It is a shame that they interfere so much,especially when things are working well.Its at times like this that I can see why parents set up their own schools.

FuriousGeorge if the class exceeded 8 children without a teacher then they were breaking the law.I think the fact that the school are blaming OFSTED for having to change when they have been breaking the law for 2 years says a great deal about the school.