Differences between primary and secondary subject leads

[Bakingwithmyboys]

So I'm really curious as to whether all secondary teachers would really need to ask this question.

Do you think your subject would be taught in primary by a subject specialist?

I was at an RE conference the other week put on by our local authority. We were talking about what secondary teachers would want to know about RE in primary and one of the biggest questions was

Is it taught by a subject specialist?

Now in my head I'm going "of course it's bloody not". A lot of schools are lucky if RE is taught by a teacher as it's one of the easiest subjects to give to HLTA's/TA's for cover.

Just wondered whether secondary really thought that?

Also I realised we were sat in a room full of primary RE subject leads who don't get paid extra and often leading another subject alongside and then the secondaries were a lot of head of departments which would give them extra money! (Although thinking about it head of department for RE could include history and geography I suppose).

I'm sure someone will come and spell out something obvious I'm missing. I do have my head very firmly in a primary world and need my view expanding sometimes.

I'm a secondary HoD (science) and no, I would not think my subject would be taught by specialists in primary.

To be honest, with recruitment the way it is, it isn't taught by specialists in some secondary schools!

I know for a fact that my subject (MFL) isn't taught by subject specialists because I spend this first term of Year 7 re-teaching the primary curriculum because they come up wildly inaccurate. However, I don't put blame on primary staff. I put the blame on the government for hyperinflating the importance of SATs so my subject is often just an afterthought, tied together with MFL being made compulsory from year 3 but without it being made compulsory as an entry requirement for PGCE or at GCSE meaning fewer are able to speak the language they are leading. I'm honestly just grateful if they come up with any kind of regular teaching that isn't just plonking them on an app for an hour.

Although tbf, we are struggling this year to recruit for the first time ever, despite being a good school in an affluent area, so plenty of our kids are just being plonked in front of an app with a non specialist crowd controlling.

This sounds like a bizarre question to ask?

My understanding of primary schools is that you may occasionally get a specialist teacher of PE, or Music or MFL- but that's becoming rarer. I assume that students coming up to me have never been taught science by a specialist before. To be honest, if they've done the full science NC in Y6, I view that as a bonus!

It's a bit embarrassing if secondary HoDs, who are presumably experienced teachers are asking this question!

I think having some specialist teachers that rove around, either large schools or a group of schools, could be a great idea.

Imagine a specialist coming in 1 or 2 sessions a week to do; MFL, RS, science, art, music. The class teacher can use the time for planning. Students get a specialist teacher who can focus on that subject.

But who would pay for that!

When my kids were at an international school in primary they had at least 1 period out of their regular classroom a day - library, MFL (twice a week) performing arts, visual arts, PE (also twice a week) so their class teacher had some time everyday for PPA.

This was why middle schools were such a great thing. We had subject specialists for most subjects from Yr5. I know Yr5 and 6 in primary school aren't taught by subject specialists, but I think they should be. I also know subject leaders in primary don't get TLRs, which is a total disgrace and if I were a primary teacher I'd be agitating for strike action about it.

I think the whole issue/problem with current obsessions with 'specialist' subject teachers in Primary is completely driven by Ofsted and the deep dive framework. It lays out a very clear and explicit expectation that whoever 'leads' a subject in a Primary is a 'specialist'.

In most cases this is, of course, a complete nonsense and is the elephant in the room for the entire Ofsted focus on Primary curriculum. And it causes untold stress and huge additional workloads.

In many small primary schools, the staff are multiple " subject leads", at one point I was maths, history, geography, RE and reading! I do have a Geography degree but North American Strip maps studied in 1982 isn't much use leading primary geography today!

This exists! My children have weekly music lessons with a specialist brought in from the local authority's music service, and one of their PE lessons is taught by a specialist coach rather than their class teacher. I know of a couple of MATs who employ an MFL specialist centrally to work across multiple schools.

But the specialists that come in are not the Lead for deep dives, there will still need to be a class teacher who is the subject lead.
We have one PE lesson covered by a sports specialist and one lesson covered by music tuition from the local music service but , in both cases the class teacher takes part in the lesson as CPD. Certainly, if sports premium is used to bring in a sports specialist, it shouldn't be used as time for PPA but as CPD.