Absent Teacher

[Charliesunnysky10]

My daughter is about to go into Y11 in Sept, and her English (Lit & lang) teacher last year in Y10 was off sick for several months. As a result, my daughter says they have not covered as much as the classes taught by teachers who were present throughout the year, as she has compared notes with her friends in other classes.

3 of her friends in her own English class are having tutors to bring them up to speed, though it's unclear if they would have needed this anyway, quite apart from the teacher absence.

Prior to going on summer break, the other classes were set assignments, and given hard copies as well as the option to go online. My daughters class didn't receive hard copies, as it was a cover teacher taking them before they broke up and he said the work would be made available online by their absent teacher.

This hasn't been made available, despite several requests over the summer. In addition, the year group took end of year exams in Lit & Lang and her class haven't had the results & feedback, like all the others because the teacher was off sick, and the cover teachers were not asked, or couldn't do this.

My daughter is upset that she doesn't know how to improve if she needs to, and isn't being given the material to help. She's been visiting the library and using resources online and I'm doing my best to help support her, but both myself and husband are not equipped to mark her exams or set work - we would love to be able to pay for a tutor, but are struggling financially already - I work 2 jobs and my husband covers 60 hrs a week. We need to be here for our children in between those times too.

I really want the school to step up, but they say nobody is available until September, when they return to school and she will have to wait till then. My daughter is upset that she's trying so hard, and the school don't seem to care, and that she has time to do concentrate on English these remaining 2 weeks of the summer, if they can give her the work or some exam feedback, but in September she will be coping with 8 other subjects.

I'm also worried that she will be going into Y11 with the same absentee teacher, at such an important time in her education.

I'm wary of making a nuisance of myself, as I've emailed several times and been reminded that enquiries will be answered in term time only. What can I do to help her right now? It's so hard to see her struggle because she isn't getting the support from school.

@Fotophrame That's very reassuring - thank you. She's ordered some CGP books and feeling very upbeat and proactive now. It may even be that the adversity has galvanised her in a way that favourable conditions may not.

I hear that The Muppets Christmas Carol is a good adaptation. Watching adaptations of books or a good version of the Shakespeare helps quotes and plot go in almost by osmosis.

I teach and examine Lang and Lit. If she's aiming for top grades, the Oxford literature companions are much better than CGP guides. In fact, they're much better in general.
Massolit is superb.
The key things she needs to know are:

• the plots of the texts, including key quotations.
• how the writers are using language in the quotation
• the contexts of the texts
• how each part of each exam is assessed. Students drop marks all the time when they don't know those things.

Your local library should have the study guides - if nit they can order them in.

BBC bitesize is good on the texts as is Mr Bruff. Watch the old Bernard Hepton AIC on line - most accurate version.

There also used to be a BBC ‘In context’ series which was great for AIC.

Loads of stuff on line that is excellent. Good luck.

@clary Thank you for those suggestions - very helpful. She's aiming for an 8/9 in both, although it's not her strongest subject so I don't know how realistic that is - the end of year exam would have been a great indictor for her as they sat AQA past papers in both lit & lang.

How would you say that would affect the focus of her revision?

You're correct - 19c text is Christmas Carol.

@MrsHamlet SO useful - thank you!

Ah great, as she is a high achiever, she should find the issue wrt no teacher for year 10 less of an issue tbh than someone who struggles.

So for Eng lit she will need mastery of the structure and plot of the novel and plays; she will need to know the main characters and their importance; she will need to have a good grasp of the main themes, and be able to analyse and present all that succinctly and clearly.

For AQA, for Macbeth and ACC, in the exam she will have (she will know this) an extract from the text with a question – usually on a theme (so Macbeth – say the supernatural) or sometimes a character (the character of Lady Macbeth). She will need to show how the theme is presented in the extract and in the play/novel as a whole. No choice of question.

For AIC she will have a choice – usually one on a theme (responsibility, effect of our actions) and one on a character (Mr Birling, Mrs Birling). No extract there.

So to do well she needs to have something to say about all the themes that may come up, esp for Macbeth and ACC as there is no choice.

If I were her I would start to pull some revision work together – in whatever way suits her best – this might be mind maps, notes, revision cards, practice essays. Plenty of questions etc online on all these texts. Look at main themes, characters and what they do and why, find quotes from the text to back this up (they don’t need to be long and it’s more important to show their relevance and explain than it is to be able to quote five lines of Shakespeare), think about context (so for AIC this might be relating to when the play was written and what Priestley thought about the issues, for ACC it might be about poverty in Victorian times and Dickens’ own views). Appreciate that she hasn’t done ACC yet but she has probably finished the other two texts so revision is the way.

Useful to look at previous years and see what question has come up – tho there is no guarantee that it won’t come up again haha! Exam website will have past papers, mark schemes and also v useful examiner reports about what sort of answers students gave.

Eng Lang – that’s more about practice, but she needs to know about the parts of speech and how to use them (simile, metaphor) and how to analyse language. A key thing with Eng Lang (is this also AQA?) is as @MrsHamlet says to look at what the question wants, as that's where a lot of candiatdes come a cropper.

@clary I can't begin to thank you for this insight and advice. I'll print it up for her and I'm sure it will really help. Thank you again!

You've had lots of excellent advice guidance already, but I just thought I would mention the official AQA videos on YouTube. They are quite short (20 mins or so) and narrated by a senior examiner who really lays out very clearly exactly how to tackle the high tariff English questions. I can't do links - maybe someone else on the thread can - but if you type in AQA English spotlight series you should find them. The guy is wearing a hipster cardi and standing in front of a wall that makes it look like a hostage video.

@NoHillsHere Hahaha...thank you for that - had me laughing as well as grateful for the recommendation! 😁

As a Senior Leader in a school who also spent 7 year before that as a HOD, I am surprised that her class has been left without a teacher for so long and that her class haven’t had their exams marked or work set.

In my school, the norm for long-term sick leave (and even shorter absences like jury duty or paternity leave) is for the HOD to work with the timetabler to reallocate that teacher’s exam classes to other members of the department so that the supply teacher teaches non-exam classes as far as is possible. I had to do it a few times as a HOD and I had my timetable changed temporarily this year to cover exam classes of a colleague who was unwell. I took someone’s GCSE class while they were off and the agency supply took my Year 8 class instead. When they returned the timetable was then changed back.

If she goes back in September and has the same teacher, who is unwell again, then I would write to the Head and ask them to consider reallocating their staff to ensure that the Year 11 class has a stable teacher for the duration of the absence.

@Takoneko Thank you. It's do helpful to get an insight into how things could and should be done. Someone earlier in the thread concurred that GCSE classes take priority and I'm surprised that this hasn't happened, given that it's clearly common (and best) practice.
I'm also surprised that other parents haven't piped up about it. Anyway, I will get in touch when the staff return if there's no response before then. Thanks again.

@Charliesunnysky10

If you don't already have some, I have some revision books for An Inspector Calls if you want them, would save me a trip to the charity shop. York Notes study guide and workbook and a graphic novel version of the play. Bought in hope but never used

Unfortunately my DC didn't do Macbeth or Christmas Carol, or I would no doubt have equally pristine resources for those too!

Anyway feel free to DM me your address if you want them.

Just to update, the support and advice I've received here has really motivated my daughter to keep studying - big thank you.

It's also come to light that the cover teachers have been mainly PE staff, who are merely supervising work set online for this absent teachers class. And my daughter has had NO work marked all year - the y10 class have been submitting work on a voluntary basis, and none of my daughter's work has been marked. Thinking back, on parents evening, which was via Zoom, the head of English gave us feedback which was very positive but looking at my notes also nondescript and very generalised.

I'm going to make an appointment to see the headteacher and/or head of English with the aim of getting some reassurance for a stable provision of a specialist English teacher in place for the class during their final GCSE exam year.

@pintery I've pm'd you about your incredibly kind offer. I'm really grateful for that.

One of the science teachers in my son's school (currently in Year 9 of Secondary) was absent for three months last school year and has been frequently absent this year as well, causing significant disruptions to the classrooms in question. I raised a concern with the school management, but no actions were taken. What is the allowable absence for a teacher to continue working? Are there any ways to persuade the school to let her go and hire someone else?

What is the allowable absence for a teacher to continue working? Are there any ways to persuade the school to let her go and hire someone else?

No.

You might want to start your own thread MikiMurphy but in a nutshell how the school manages a member of staff's absence is nothing to do with you.
Why on earth should you or anyone else think there'd be a mechanism for you to pressure the school to remove a member of staff?

The school would have hired an excellent cover teacher for the absence if they could. Unfortunately there's a shortage of teachers in many subjects, which is affecting many schools.

@MikiMurphy that is an awful attitude to take. The teacher could have cancer/had a serious op/all sorts of things wrong.

My god this is one of the worst things I’ve read on here in ages. You have absolutely no idea about the circumstances of this teacher and they are entitled to sick pay. Teachers are real people you know who have health issues, family issues etc and they should not be sacked just because their health is inconvenient for you. If you’re not happy with the cover provided that’s another matter and one you could take up with school, but you cannot ask them to sack a member of staff. Would you expect a teacher on maternity leave to be sacked because they were off school? Would you except to be sacked from your job if you needed time off?

@MikiMurphy The upshot of this situation was that absent teacher came back to school in September, and now teaches lower school, not GCSE classes. The lit & language exams were eventually marked and daughter was given 9's for both papers. This led her to think she was doing ok and she prioritised other subjects over English, thinking she only needed to do more of the same. Turns out those papers were sympathetically marked from the absentee teacher, because she ended up scoring 7 & 8 in the mocks (it was a similar pattern amongst her classmates too).

Anyway, she has plenty to work on in the next 6 weeks. The head of English took over daughter's class for Y11 as the school said they would seek to deliver the most steady, consistent provision for the final GCSE year.

I hope they are able to do the same at your son's school, though I agree that getting rid of the absent teacher isnt the answer - its providing stable teaching from an alternative source. I dont know if any of the thoughtful suggestions in this thread are useful?