Class teacher Ill, caretaker covering classes!!

[Annoyedparent]

Hello, I have name hanged for this as dont want to be 'outed' but am a longstanding regular.

My child attends a specialist ASD unit. It was a long hard battle to secure a place but until September the results have been amazing.

A new class teacher was appointed and started beginning of September. The class teacher is now on 3rd bout of sickness. The school are covering this by sending the caretaker in to lessons! Yes you did read it right! Now he is a lovely bloke and the children adore him, but surely there must be other ways of covering absence?!

The TAs are in the class too.

Myself and several other parents are horrified, we have also been told by non teaching staff that the class is chaos and the new teacher can't control the children.

We have complained to outside agencies, the head and chair of governors. Obviously we haven't said about what the staff have said about the teacher although we would like to.

Since the new teacher took over, the children's behaviour has worsened and many have regressed and there are a lot of physical fights resulting in injuries. It is a million miles away from the outstanding classroom it used to be.

Please can anyone advise us on next steps? The head is very Woolley and defensive :(

Name changed not hanged lol

Get a copy of the school's complaints policy, that should tell you the next steps. You could also complain to the LA: they are presumably spending a lot of money funding school places in this unit and it is being wasted if the children aren't being properly educated.

Sounds bizarre! Have you contacted the LEA? Ofsted? Your MP? Can't think who else!

Thanks well going to see who is teaching today. The children arrive via taxi as its not the "nearest suitable school" next steps going to have to be LEA or OFSTED if no improvement this week. Feel the head is fobbing us off and several of us have complained.

Two questions

Is the school your child goes to called 'Hogwarts'?

Is the new teachers name 'Mr Hagrid'?

It is beginning to seem that way. Until September the school was outstanding , couldn't have pep raised it enough. The last teacher unfortunately left....

Lol Wanda.

Annoyed - isn't there a law somewhere that says classroom must be in the control of a qualified teacher for at least a percentage of time?

Perhaps look at your Statement carefully. It probably does say something about qualified teachers etc. If it does, then perhaps you can write to the LA and say they are breaching the statement and ask what they are going to do to remedy that.

State school, Independent or Academy?
Only the first category are legally required to have qualified teachers.
It sounds appalling.

Hmm, our old caretaker was also employed as a TA/MDA (and was brilliant) are you sure that's not what's happening?

Is the issue with the caretaker being in class or has a new teacher been appointed now, but you're not happy with him?

Caretaker is not necessarily a bad thing in itself but obviously there does need to be a teacher too.

Can you list you complaints in such a way that the head can't be wooly? Ask closed questions