Reception Teachers

[Rea]

What is the ratio of qualified teacher to children in reception? For september, the local primary has 1 definite teacher, 2 classroom assistants (one of whom is a newly qualified NVQ3) and a 4th staff which hasnt been decided but may well be another level 3. All staff are being called early years practitioners, and will be responsible for delivering the curriculum to a group. There is an intake of 42 which will be spilt into 4 groups. Parents are questioning me on why a level 3 can be classed as a teacher as this is how it is being promoted. One parent told me they are all early years practioners and was surprised when I said so was I. It's like the school are using long words to confound and confuse. I need some facts please on what is allowed and how much a level 3 should be doing in the classroom to give to parents.

 

 

PS -I'm not knocking NVQ's, just questioning the validity of using them to do a teachers job while at the same time questioning the right of all children to be taught by a qualified teacher who has spent years at university as against a year or so one day a week at college.

[Guest]

As far as I'm aware its a ratio of 1:30 unfortunately. When I was in a solid reception class we shared a TA between the 2 Reception classes and this year in my R/Y1 class I got 9 hours a week(!) I think that to provide the foundation stage curriculum I think you need to have at least 2 adults in the room at all times, but I know so many schools where this is not the case.

Hope that helps.

Nich

x

[mundia]

Hi rea.

the ratio is potentially 30:1 although many schools do have a better ratio than this with many chossing 15:1, which we would al like Im sure. With 42 chidlren, there should eb a second teacher. However, we have an unqualified teacher in one of our receptions, she intend to complete a schol based training route. Is it possible that the school is going down this path?

 

The schol has possibly not looked at the implcations for this cohort as they moev through the school, we went through this phase of having one and a half form entry over several years, meaning lots of split year groups. what happens when ther are 42 year 1s, year 2s etc?

 

The other possibility is that looking at the nmber of chidlren who are not yet 5 or wont be 5 unitl later in te year, that the Head has opted for a more nursery style ratio and here you coudl get up to 52 chidlren with one teacher. In mnay lEAs these younger chidlren would still be in nursery.

[Rea]

Thats taken care of something else too mundia. The head wants a 52 place nursery and now I think I know what he's up to. Sneaky little snake

Thanks for the replys, doesnt exactly give me confidence in the R year though, what a difference to what they have now.

[Guest]

Dear Rea

I think there is much confusion here too. I also know of a school that operates a state maintained nursery with nearly 35 children with only 2 qualified members of staff (who are not teachers) as the Head has nominated himself/herself as Head of Early Years and therefore can be classed as part of the ratio even though he/she is not in the classroom. Not too sure how this works or whether it is even legal but I do know that it happens. I believe I have read something somewhere about this and I am sure they would not be able to do this unless there were written guidelines somewhere. I was quite shocked - managing 35 children with 2 adults is a tall order for anyone - teacher or not. Even Mary Poppins would struggle. I even find it difficult to grasp the 1:13/15 ratio - one of the best things I like about the job is being able to spend time and talk to the children - we operate a 1:6 and even then I feel that sometimes I have not been able to have a good chat with some of the children over the course of a week.

Nikki

[Guest]

Dear Rea

Just ignore my last message as i misread it - you were talking about reception not nursery - so just ignore me - too late at night - too hot - must learn to read the question properly!!!

Nikki

[Rea]

It's all relevent nicola, Whether in school nursery or reception class the ratios are so different to what a lot of children are used to. We try to do 1:5 so it's a huge loss of interaction for them in R. Very sad, especially for the ones who arent 4 yet!