[Daisy Goat]

I am going to be careful here as I know there are members whose children go to the same school as my children.

I quite like the school my children go to but it has its bad elements as I am sure many schools do. I t has a new Headmaster who I think is working on increasing the "parental" discipline that seems to be lacking.

But I have been extremely disappointed in the teacher in the classroom changes. Preprimary ( FYOS) children are really adjusting to a new environment and the far more rigid rules than many have had previously. Especially if they did not attend the same school for their 15hrs of Kindergarten per week the year before.

I understood the DOTT day thing where the children ad a different teacher one day a week. I was able to tell the boys that this was the day they would have Miss X as a teacher.

But seriously I think they would have been lucky to have had one week this first term where they had the same people they expected in the classroom teach them.

One week they had 5 different teachers plus 3 different EAs. Sometimes there was two different teachers in one day. And added to that they were also then put in another room with another teacher to do the new National Cars and Stars reading and comprehension program.

Each morning I would have no idea who the teacher was and they would have no idea who my children were ( and being ID twins having someone who doesn't keep saying "which one are you" is important) I would come back at the end of the day and it would be a different teacher.

This means the teachers expectations of the children's behaviour was different to each other. How they were teaching was different and they had no understanding of the children's own behaviour issues.

I found it a really disappointing first term with no stability for the children and many mixed messages about expectations coming from teachers with different styles.

Is this normal for many schools. I am seriously thinking of changing schools if this continues for second term. I have been told it is the fault of the new NLC as the teacher shave to keep doing computer courses to learn how to do it. But this is insane. Constant relief teachers for 4,5 and 6 year olds in their first year of school is confusing them.

[howdo]

It probably doesn't comfort you to know that this is actually good for children to get used to different teachers?

I don't understand the reasons for the relief teachers. Was your child's teacher unwell? Were they attending PD? Is the regular teacher being released for OHS committee or something? When a teacher is unwell or needs time off for unwell family or other compassionate grounds it cannot be put off and it can be difficult to secure good and consistent relievers.

[bark]

Goodness, I found that really hard to follow!

What is the DOTT day thing?

[leebee26]

I just went through my old PM's to check and our children are at the same school. My DS is in year 1 now though so out of the junior area.
I'd not heard about this happening but I'd be really annoyed as well!!
Things haven't been as bad in DS's class but I'm not happy with the worksheet based learning going on in there so am planning to see the principal. More for an informal chat to see if that's how they will continue.
I would definitely suggest you go and see him, he should be able to confirm whether all the pd etc the teacher has been off for is going to continue.
Also, have you spoken with any of the P&C members? I've found them to be really helpful and can bring up any concerns at the meetings.
I'd love to know which class your boys are in, I did hear a bit about one class re EA's.

[Daisy Goat]

DOTT- duties other than teaching. This is the day the main teacher is at school but does other things.
Unfortunately this teacher appears to have had other things she needs to do on more than just that day.
She also just had a week off for personal stuff.
Lee bee it is probably best you PM me...lol. I won't comment about the P&C or the specific teachers online

[liveworkplay]

That seems very excessive. Our school has specialist teachers for Sport, library, music and drama so teahcers get some nearly time every day for other duties. So far this year DD1 (yr2) has not had a relief teacher and DD2 (FYOS) has had one twice when her teahcer was on PD.

[mumto3princesses]

I agree, that does seem very excessive.

We don't have specialist teachers for anything except the librarian. The older kids (Years 3-6) do sport and the ones picked for the school teams or the ones doing swimming lessons have to leave just before lunch. They do quite a few different sports and 1 teacher will take each sport. Some of the infants teachers take sport and some don't.

Our school does RFF (relief from face to face) which sounds like its the same as what you called DOTT.

When my twins were in FYOS they were in seperate classes. I don't recall DD2's teacher being away sick at all the whole year. They had a teacher for RFF and either had a relief teacher or got split up into different classes every friday when the teacher took the older kids to sport. And had certain teachers when they went to the library or the computer lab. But DD3's teacher was away a fair bit. RFF and sport too but also because of her Deputy Principal duties (relieving the principal plus courses). At least the kids knew ahead of time when she was going to be away for relieving the principal or the courses and they tried to get the same teacher the whole time. I think she was sick too but not alot.

This year DD2 & DD3 have job-share teachers. (one 2 days and one 3 days a week) One has been sick and they had relief teachers for a few days. They have RFF as usual and there is a lot of student teachers at the school at the moment in most if not all of the classes. And there's no problem with their teacher going to sport this year as they get to do sport themselves. (Year 3)

[barrington]

DD1 is in FYOS. She has her usual classroom teacher, full time teachers aide, plus about 8 specialist teachers.

Because of the large number of specialist teachers, her teacher does not have any relief days. I can imagine it could be quite disconcerting to turn up to class every day and not know who your teacher is.

[howdo]

My kids have the classroom teacher, PE teacher, LOTE teacher and one other specialist teacher weekly. In SA this is called NIT - Non Instructional Time and teachers in state schools are entitled to 250 minutes NIT per week. This can have many forms in most schools it would take the form of 5 50 minutes lessons. To provide NIT time in this format most schools will need three NIT providers aka specialist teachers so at a minimum in SA schools, in any given week a student will see 4 teachers. I don't know if this NIT is the same as DOTT but it is normal for children from FYOS to see between 3 and 6 regular teachers in any given week.

Children may also have a 'jobshare classroom' or lessons with the librarian - hence the up to 6 teachers. If they are in any sort of intervention program they will see another teacher for that - who may sometimes take the class to release the teacher for admin or meetings - and if you have a relief teacher you could have students interacting with 7 or so teachers in any one week. Other reasons for seeing a random teacher in the classroom could be the teacher is running late (eg. flat tyre, traffic accident), teacher is in a meeting or conference regarding high needs behaviour management, writing NEP/IEP (Special Needs Education plans), writing ILP (in SA this is the ATSI Education Plan) or, the next few years in particular, National Curriculum T&D release.

The community of teaching and ancillary staff that make up a school are going to be in and out of student's classrooms and days and weeks during their time at school. It's a positive thing that they can build relationships with a variety of people.

I would speak to the Principal about what he/she is doing to encourage consistency with relief staff and student behaviour management. At work we work on behaviour management policy together so that it remains consistent for children. We also encourage children to be resilient when with relief teachers and seek to engage the same ones so that students have a chance to build relationships. We seek to support children to engage with relief staff and help them be successful. It is not that there are a number of teachers that is the issue, it's how these changes are managed for the best outcomes of the students.

[Julie3Girls]

The situation you have OP doesn't sound great. Particularly for FYOS.

Multiple teachers can work well, as long as things are consistant.

Our school tries pretty hard to keep consistancy with the kinders (FYOS NSW). Class teacher, with a regular teacher for RFF (which is only an hour or two, once a week), who usually has her own set work plan for her times - eg one of the RFF teachers does art. Time with the librarian. Sport is a shared activity, so all the kinders are used to all the kinder teachers.
My DD3 has job share teachers in her kinder class. One teacher does 4 days a week, the other does Wed. The Wednesday teacher also takes the class when the main teacher has RFF, so minimises disruption there.

DD2 also has job share teachers. Plus a couple of aides in and out of the room at different times. Plus RFF with a different teacher, library, different teachers for sport. It all seemed very muddled at the start of the year, but the kids adapted and it doesn't seem to bother them at all.

Substitute teachers at the school tend to be the same casuals so they get to know the kids and the kids know them.

Of course, staffing issues can be handled badly .. DD2 in year 1 had a teacher who was also deputy principal. As the principal was away a lot during term 1, she was out of the class a LOT, with a different substitute constantly - the need for substitutes was above the normal requirements so they were getting in new unknown teachers. It was a relief in Term 2 when the regular teacher went on long service leave, and was replaced by a single teacher for the duration.