Was I wrong to complain about Y7 having inadequate cover for unwell teacher?

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DS is in Y7. School is clambering out of special measures. New head seemed determined to improve standards and Ofsted's most recent visit spoke of good improvement.

DS has 3 English teachers. One takes 4 out of 6 lessons. She is a fantastic teacher and unfortunately has been off school for six weeks. DS seems to think she has been in a car accident, but of course this is none of our business so I'm not sure if this is actually true.

Since her absence DS has had a series many different cover teachers. The pupils in his lessons often just read their book with no discussion or teaching, they have been asked to draw things on several occasions, yesterday they were allowed to do their French revision.

Their usual teacher gave them a booklet of weekly homework tasks at the start of the year. This has been unmarked in her absence and DS has struggled to complete it as they haven't covered the relevant material. He is claiming no one else has continued to do the homework.

I emailed DS's head of year yesterday to express my concerns. I was worried that I would sound uncaring, as I do realise that staff sickness is out of school's control and that teachers health is a priority. I just feel that these kids are being let down by poor cover arrangements.

The head of Year responded to say DS could do homework if he wished but would need to hand to Head of English to mark (DS has no classes with and has never met head of English). He also said the school made efforts to ensure cover was provided by English specialists (this has not been the case) , and that he would pass my concerns to the Head Teacher.

So today DS comes home and tells me English cover was provided by his PE teacher who asked them to do some more drawing, or colour in their most recent drawing.

I feel this is not good enough, but I don't want to complain unnecessarily, and give DS the label of having 'that parent'?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

You are absolutely within your rights to complain and the situation is not good enough.

However they cannot rustle up English teachers on the spot and it may take some time to find an adequate replacement. They may be expecting the original teacher back soon.

I think you could follow this up in a week or so if no response and no improvement and ask what the plan to catch up is.

I left teaching last academic year.

You were not wring to question but as a country we have a shortage of teachers so they may not be able to get an English specialists. If the teacher's GP is signing her off on a weekly basis then they won't this won't be an attractive offer to a supply teacher plus they will probably want to avoid a school in special measures.

This is a very unfortunate situation but is likely to be beyond the control of the school. If the teacher is being signed off on a week by week basis the school can't recruit any sort of permanent specialist cover as they don't know how long they'll be needed for. In that situation all they can do is find short term temporary supply staff with no guarantees of subject expertise. It's in the school's interest to do their very best to provide experienced cover as they are judged on their results.

Until the teacher is signed off long term the school’s Hands are tied-they can’t legally appoint long term supply. I’ll be surprised if the cover ‘teacher’ is actually a teacher.

Thank you for your responses. I'm not familiar with how all this works and reading your posts makes me feel even more concerned as I'm beginning to see that this is out of the school's control to some extent.

What a shame for these children. They are all children who perform really well in literacy and this all feels like a terrible waste for them.

It seems poor that they aren't being given work that is even remotely connected to English. Can the school not get an age-appropriate book and do something like "read a chapter in class and discuss it"?

As hard as it is to get English teachers to cover, I'm not sure their next years teacher is going to be thrilled at the prospect of having to teach them the Yr8 work PLUS everything they should have covered in Yr7 as well.

Storm that would be a good start. They are getting four lessons like this a week and there seems to be no planning or joined up thinking surrounding the lessons.

Should the Head of Department not have some responsibility for pulling together a plan of action in the interim with regard to a lesson plan at the very least?

I'm not a teacher so I apologise if I'm expecting too much but we are forever being told it's time for our DC to step up- however in this instance they just can't!

I'm supply.

I often get work in 'my' subject but if someone is ill then what was a free period becomes me teaching what ever subject that is.

Some lessons I have enough knowledge to teach, others I can wing a bit but sometimes it is just finding something to keep the kids occupied.

Finding English teachers is hard, the workload is huge, finding a supply English teacher is even harder.

If they do get a specialist then they will be putting them in with the older years who are approaching GCSE and A Levels.

Your ds sounds fab trying to continue the work. Please do let him hand it in to the head, it will be of benefit to him.

I think one thing you could do is make sure your ds has a reading book on him at all times, from home or the school library and he could ask to read in the English classes. It is not a substitute for an English teacher but will build vocabulary and fluency in reading.

Yes, the Head of Department should be setting proper cover work

Hmmmm maybe I should have aimed my email at Head of Department, rather than Head of Year?!

Dd has a cover teacher for sociology once. His grasp of the subject was so poor, and his theories (women cannot use power tools as they are not designed for female hands, women are the ones who should stay at home and raise children etc) she noted it all down and raised it as a training issue.

They don’t have that cover teacher now......

Oh - and this was Him teaching instead of giving out the prepared work

Yes speak to the head of English. They may have non specialists teaching the cover lessons, but a specialist teacher should be setting the work.

The head of English should be providing cover work. I don't know why any teacher or cover person couldn't supervise year 7 literacy skills working from a text book or worksheets provided by the head of English.

Also, any teacher could do English work based on their subject e.g. research a sport and make a brochure to attract more people to take up the sport. Include e.g. the rules, equipment, pitch/court requirements, clothing, a famous person from the sport. Or they could make notes and write a profile of a famous sports person. They could make a poster for a new gym/sports shop using the language of advertisements.

I don't think YABU. I have a degree in literature and have done Cover Supervising in the past - essentially standing at the front following a list of instructions and keeping control of the class. Some schools left excellent instructions and had a senior member of staff pop into lessons regularly. However, some schools weren't so great.

So what have you decided to do?

I've decided to give the Head of Year time to respond again. His most recent email said DS can take his homework to Head of Dept to mark if he wants to. I've asked how DS will find this teacher- he has never come across her.....

He also said they have made efforts to ensure lessons are covered by English teachers where possible- I replied to say that this did not seem to be the case.

I hope to receive a reply over next few days- depending on the content of this reply along with how things go over next week or so I'll then try to decide what best to do next....

Good luck with it all.

Your son shouldn’t have any trouble finding the Head of Department really- just ask around the English rooms and he’ll find them!

Cover is a bit of a contentious issue. Teachers should ‘rarely’ covering, but decent supply can be hard to find. I work in a school in special measures- we burn through supply -sometimes they don’t want to come back, sometimes they’re no good and we won’t have them back. I’ve been the teacher who has had to pick a class up in Year 8 when they’ve had no consistency in year 7. It’s hard, but no lasting damage (as long as you get a good teacher!)

Hope you get it sorted!

We’ve had similar. I think it’s called ‘Welcome to the world of secondary School in modern times’ unfortunately.

I agree that I'd expect some English worksheets at the very least given to Y7 pupils to complete in the lesson, organised by the Head of Department and therefore probably just supervised by a qualified teacher. Even doing a load of worksheets is better than nothing.

They don't have to be taught by an English supply teacher but they should at least be being supervised while doing English work of some description.

Ah. There is a gap here, unfortunately, between what is best practice and what is officially allowed to happen, and that's before considering things like budgets, hr policies, etc etc

1. there is no requirement for a subject to be taught by a person with a degree in that subject, particularly in y7, at all, let alone when covering.
2. as pp said, school can't get in long-term supply unless the teacher is signed off on long-term sick.
3. the other English teachers in the school will have very, very few spaces on their time tables where they could cover your ds' lessons. I've no doubt that the school are always looking to get their English teachers to cover the lessons if they can, it's just not possible.
4. supply is really expensive - 3-4x the cost of an employed teacher, and they don't know the school policies and procedures, don't do before or after school duties, even if they are subject specialists won't know the school's own schemes of work, etc etc.
5. long term English supply is a fool's errand. All the planning, all the marking, all the stress, on a minuscule daily rate. There's good reasons there's not many of them about.

Who should be setting the work in the event of teacher sickness is a controversial topic that varies between schools.

Overall, the English HoD is the best person to contact regarding this. If no luck with them, then go to the Head. The Head of Year is more a pastoral role. It's a bit like complaining to the butcher in the supermarket about a problem in the fruit and veg section.

I'm so glad I left teaching.