Student 'can only do' 8.30-3.30

[SpringisSpringing]

I'm fairly new to teaching so I really don't know what to do. I don't want to be responsible for failing someone.

It's just not enough time. I don't get the chance to talk to her properly.

She's okay. Not great- but if I actually had time to mentor her she might get better!

I teach and I work 8:15-3:35pm. I finish teaching at 3:30 and am in the car by 3:35pm to get to pick up DS.

I am secondary, I work through my lunch. I get one free period per week (I am part time 3 days per week) and work through that. Once DS is in bed I work 7:30-9:30pm every night prepping for the next day or marking.

It works fine for me that way. However our department meetings are in the school day and so my only after school sessions are CPD once every 6 weeks.

Blonde,

I think you misunderstand - or perhaps haven't appreciated - the role of the class teacher who has a trainee in primary.

IME, the school MENTOR does have time allocated to meet with students, but they have an overall and generally fairly hands-off role.

Day to day work with the trainee, in terms of planning, classroom management, knowledge of sopecific children, informal chats about what went well and what went badly, and the vast majority of formal and informal observations fall to the class teacher, who as a close relationship with both the trainee and the class because the trainee typically nly works with that 1 group of children and that 1 class teacher.

This is VERY different from secondary.

The class teacher typically has no allocated time to work with the trainee. For a good trainee, the initial 'heavy input' stage is counterbalanced later in a placement with a period when the trainee is capable of taking the class with quite minimal supervision / coaching. For a poor trainee, the heavy input / coaching stage continues throughout, and can be very time consuming.

Directed time always starts 10-15mins before the kids come in and ends 10-15mins after the bell.

I am not saying people don't stay, but that they can't be expected to.

Also meetings shouldn't happen in PPA time, that is protected. There should be another protected time on the timetable. The school receive funding, this is what it is for.

It used to be that the head, deputy etc would cover classes for a few hours a week.

It used to be that the head, deputy etc would cover classes for a few hours a week.

Most deputies teach full time, or very substantial part-time, class teacher timetables of their own.

Do I really think the head should teach my class every day for 15 minutes so i can have an informal chat with a trainee in my class? Or should the trainee be willing to stay 30 mins after the children leave? Which is the most obviously sensible, logical and proportionate response?

Hobnobsarenotfordunking
And that suits you as a qualified teacher and your meetings are during the day.
But I bet you wouldn't get a new job and then announce to your new school that you only stay on site til 335 regardless of what is actually on in school.

There is a massive difference between a qualified teacher selecting their hours and managing their work around the demands of their school/role & a trainee teacher on a full time course turning up at a placement school and dictating their hours.

tufted
Mine gets taken out of my leadership allowance.
The funding covers my time out of school at training as well as cover for my review meetings and external meetings with the ITT provider.
I still think it is entirely reasonable for trainees to catch up with class teachers and our training provider makes it explicit to trainees that they are expected to do this.
The only times I have had issues with trainees (secondary) is when they have not been checking in with class teachers. When that happens the first thing I ask (and the school lead for ITT and the ITT provider ask) is 'have you spoken to the class teacher? What's the class teacher's view?' If thr trainee hasn't bothered then that's on them for standard 8 (i think) aboit professional relationships.

[I say 30 mins because, let's face it, with the best will in the world there is usually at least 1 child / parent in my class at least until 15 mins after the end of the school day, even if it just finding a lost glove, or that no-one has come to pick up. 30 mins allows a genuine 15 minute chat time]

No school would ever take a trainee. Ever. The extra cost alone would put all schools off.

In the very short term. Then someone would have to say this is unsustainable. And policies would be changed.

No one is saying teacher shouldn't stay if they want to. Just that the way contracts are written mean that you can't expect them too. Therefore suitable provisions should be made within directed hours

In any profession there is give and take.

Regardless of my personal feelings about the workload issue, it is not unreasonable to expect trainees to be around a little after school.
It is unreasonable for a trainee to turn up at a place of work and dictate their hours.

I don't understand why, in primary, the mentor isn't the person who does the mentoring.

Thefallen,

It is common in larger primaries to have several trainees in at the same time, often from different years / courses (PCGE, BEd).

The mentor looks after them all - and will obviously get involved with trainees where there is a problem.

The class teachers each look after 1 (occasionally 2 as paired placements are not unknown in earlier placements).

Even in secondary, as Maisy says, the teachers whose lessons are being taken by the trainees are involved - just each has less involvement, as the trainee will typically be doing some of several teachers' teaching. The time given by each class teacher is therefore smaller than in primary, but still non-zero.

An overall mentor won't know the individual class as well as the class teacher, so won't necessarily be able to discuss e.g. lesson plans, differentiation, SEN pupils in as much detail as the class teacher. However, the class teacher won't have the same knowledge of e.g. the training provider, processes for raising concerns, overall requirements etc as the mentor.

A class teacher won't have a student every year, but a mentor will be a mentor every year.

Different, but complementary roles.

I am a secondary mentor. Secondaries generally have lots of trainees at once. Usually one per mentor, although I have mentored two per placement. The mentor role in primary sounds more like the professional tutor role in secondary.

Is there training for the class teacher?

Yes. There is an evening's training by the ITT institution before each placement, a moderation meeting for each placement, and the school mentor works with any class teacher needing support in the 'being class teacher for a trainee' role.

The mentor role in primary sounds more like the professional tutor role in secondary.
It sounds like that.
We have a school ITT lead who does the overview stuff.
Then mentors who are the subject specialists who oversee the bulk of tje training, placement, observations, visits with the ITT external people.
Then class teachers.

We expect our trainees to catch up with class teachers regularly as a basic part of their training.