How many staff in your DC's school are qualified teachers?

[ElfHire]

Do you know how many, (percentage) and if not do you know who to ask or how to find out?

[randomquicknamechange]

At DS's school there is one qualified teacher and one TA in each class. So 50% of staff in the classroom, the non teaching Head and Deputy are akso qualified teachers.
Of course the overall % of staff that are teachers is less than 50% as the admin staff, ICT support, dinner ladies, cooks and cleaners are all still school staff.

[AllIWantForChristmaaaasIsEWE]

Well, there's 16 classrooms at my dd's primary. So there's 16 teachers. Then the HT, 2x DHTs. So 19 in all?

For all i know, the janitorial/office/canteen staff could have teaching qualifications too but just aren't teaching.

[noblegiraffe]

No idea. All of them, I would expect, it's only a small primary, and not an academy.

[randomquicknamechange]

I have just remembered that my Aunt is a qualified teacher but she works as one to one one learning support assistant in a school, so yes it is feasible that some of the TAs are also qualified teachers.

[ElfHire]

I'm not sure that it matters whether the admin/caretakers etc... are QT's nor to a point whether the TA's hold QTS, perhaps what is most significant is the number of staff in a school that are teaching whom have QTS. And does it matter if they are or not?

[pancakesfortea]

Our one form entry primary school has 2.5 additional qualified teachers. One does booster work across key stage one (including supporting an NQT) one does RE, PHSE and p4c (philosophy for children) across the school, and the half does PE. I think that's more teaching staff than usual but it means that teachers' PPA (prep) time is normally covered by another teacher not a TA and they have flexibility to cover sickness/training without using agency staff.

There's also a non teaching deputy (part time) who occasionally does cover.

[OddBoots]

The only teacher in my dd's school teaching without QTS is a trainee in her final year and she is closely supervised. All teaching staff in ds's school have QTS.

Yes, it's important that teachers are suitably qualified to teach, not just to know about their subject.

[ElfHire]

Some re-assuring sounds so far, but how do you know that these staff have QTS?

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

I don't know about Latin, Music and Art but the rest have a PGCE or equivilant (nearly all) or QTS. This is a prep school and they publish the staff list with qualifications.

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

100% of the teaching staff. Some of the non-teaching staff too.

I know because it is published information on their website and in the parents' handbook.

[Norudeshitrequired]

100% of the teachers are qualified (one for each class), plus the PE teacher, the MFL teacher and the Arts teacher. But the TA's are not qualified teachers, although they all have at least level 2 (mostly level 3) teaching assistant qualifications or specialist special needs teaching assistant training.
None of the admin staff are qualified teachers.

[AntoinetteCosway]

Both independent senior schools I've worked in for the last ten years had a couple of unqualified teachers (usually in slightly different roles, like head of CCF) and everyone else was qualified.

[ElfHire]

would you be, (should I be) worried if the teaching staff weren't qualified?

[Ladymuck]

2 class teachers aren't (nursery and Year 5), and a couple of part-time teachers (French, Latin and music) don't appear to be.

The year 5 teacher is a recent convert to teaching and is amazing. He has totally transformed my child. It is a real shame that the state sector can't have him, and I'm planning to see whether I can persuade the senior school to headhunt him for KS3. I'm assuming at some point he will do whatever is necessary to get QTS - I know he was being assessed in his first year at the school.

[Ladymuck]

That was the prep school. For the senior school I can see that 6 staff (out of 100) have a PGCE or B. Ed/M. Ed. I'm assuming that more do in fact have QTS, but no idea as to how many.

[meditrina]

Whether you should be worried depends on whether those without formal qualifications are any good.

If they are older, and began teaching when the requirements were different, then there is unlikely to be a problem; ditto if they are if a nationality where their qualifications aren't automatically recognised (this was true of Antipodeans until very recently, and they're often excellent). They may be on a classroom-based teacher training course leading to QTS - also fine.

More common in secondary than primary - they might be experienced FE tutors who have moved down an age group; they might hold sports coaching qualifications and teach only PE; they might hold licentiates and teach only music.

[AntoinetteCosway]

I wouldn't be worried by unqualified staff. I might be worried by inexperienced, unqualified staff, but then, everyone has to start somewhere and all new teachers should have mentors. One of my friends is unqualified but is now Head of Department in one of the best schools in England. She's an amazing teacher.

[Buggedoff]

Dd1 is in an independent senior school. On the staff list, most have a PGCE listed in their qualifications. One PE teacher just lists her degree, plus the IT teacher. The Latin teacher also does not list PGCE but she has been teaching for many years. In general, the vast majority have PGCE, BEd or foreign teaching qualifications eg. Aussie Grad dip ed.

Dd2 is in a state primary, so all classroom teachers are qualified. Not sure about music specialists.

[sashh]

Define 'unqualified'.

I did a DTTLS teaching qualification, at the time it meant that I could teach children 14+ in a college but in a school I would be unqualified.

So the students sent over for 1/2 a day from a near by comp I was qualified to teach in the college but if I walked back to school with them I was suddenly not qualified.

There was going to be some sort of conversion course but have now decided that QTS and QTLS are equivalent so I am suddenly qualified to teach in schools.

Overseas trained teachers are classed as unqualified as well.

Someone qualified to teach something like dance or horse riding is also an unqualified teacher the moment they step foot in a school.