2 class teachers in year 2

Savvy_Sue

cottonhead wrote: »

I guess I just need to keep doing extra bit with my son to ghet him up to speed. He is a bit behind and I am worried that 2 two teachers the problem might worsen rather than improve.

My starting point would be with his current teacher: are they concerned, do they think he's behind, and if so what strategies 'work' and have these been recorded to pass on to the incoming teachers?

Even if the right noises are made about any concerns having been passed on, I might want to check early next year that both teachers are aware that his teacher last year had noticed ... and had found that ... was helpful.

Savvy_Sue

BTW, DS2 had two teachers in Y2, no problem at all. Meanwhile, DS3 had a succession of supply teachers for both R and the start of Y1, after his class teacher went sick near the start of both years. Can't tell you how happy I was when she finally resigned! I don't know if my letter setting out some of her inappropriate comments to me about other people's children helped with that, but the Head asked me to write it, so draw your own conclusions ...

Griizelda

My daughter had job-share teachers and a mixed year group (2/3) last year and she had no problems at all. As others have said, it really does depend on the teachers and on how well they communicate with each other.

I_wanna_live_for_free

My daughter had 2 teachers in year 2, too. The teacher hated each other and refused to communicate with each other so they would begin on Monday learning fractions (for example) , come Wednesday teacher #2 would say "oh, we're not doing that yet" and begin them on shape and measure (for example). Come Monday teacher #1 would say "lets go back over the fractions" and so on and so forth.

Both teachers refused to budge from their ideas resulting in the class losing confidence in their Maths abilities and they struggled in year 3 to catch up.

We had to complain to the school after my daughter's home-school liasion book (and others in her class, too) had comments in from teacher #1 and teacher #2 would frequently cross them out with her red pen (and vice versa) and in the end there were so many complaints that the head teacher had to come in and take over the class. Very unprofessional behaviour.

Sammie_03

My ds1 had 2 teachers when he was in year 2 and he is fine, he thinks he is Michael Jackson and constantly moon walks and thrusts around the house but I put that down to being an 8 year old nutter not having 2 teachers in year 2 !!!!

Strapped

It's the usual situation at our local school. It didn't suit my elder son, who is autistic, because he needs routine but it seems fine for my younger child. Even when there is one full-time teacher, your child is taught by someone else for some of the time (say one afternoon a week) because of teacher lesson prep time.

I'm more worried about the fact that my younger child will be in a class of 35 next year.

FunWithFlags

Having seen it from the inside as a student teacher, I agree that it depends on the teachers' attitudes and communication. One school I was at had two teachers in the Y2 class with one doing Mon, Tues and Weds and the other doing Thurs and Fri. The teachers were so different in their discipline styles that the children didn't seem to know whether they were coming or going. As the student teacher, I would be asked to arrange an activity by one teacher and the other teacher would act like the other teacher was ridiculous for asking me to do it when she heard about it. I'd be told one rule by one teacher then the opposite by the other. I didn't know what I was meant to be doing after a month of it lol. If it was that confusing for me, I think it could have been pretty difficult for the children to feel secure too.

But, on the other hand, one of my other placements had a different type of job share. It was two Y1 classes but with one classroom due to overcrowding. The teachers took in turns to teach different subjects etc and they were always checking with each other what was happening and both followed the same discipline and class rules etc. They also split the subjects to ensure consistency with one doing English and certain secondary subjects and the other doing Maths and other secondary subjects. It seemed to work really well!

I think sometimes it comes down to age too. From talking to other people who were on my course about their placements in job shares, it was often the older teachers who struggled most with a job share maybe because they were used to doing it all alone. The younger ones just seemed to adapt more and be more flexible about things.

As long as the teachers your son has act professionally and communicate, I think it will be more of a benefit than anything negative