To think that as much as you want to be patient....

[ChocolateIsAlwaysTheAnswer]

It is not easy dealing with agency staff?
I work in a nursery and we have a large number of agency staff in everyday. They don't know where anything is, have to be directed to do things and do not know the children. Had one in a while ago who kept doing really silly things like being unable to open a cupboard, put on a child's sleepsuit and even how to mop the floor correctly. It's really frustrating and feels like we often have another kid to look after, aibu to feel like this and to be only human in thinking this way?

Not really sure what you are asking.
Obviously if someone has just walked in to the Nursery they won't know where things are. Why does that surprise you ?

Ditto, they obviously won't know the children.
they won't know the routine.
They won't know the expectations in terms of how much the dc are expected to follow instructions and how much the staff follow their lead. (You know all Nurseries are different??)

I don't think it is the agency staff you should be frustrated with - more the situation that means you are missing so many staff so much of the time.

Why do you have a large number of agency staff in every day? Can your nursery not attract permanent staff, or is there a lot of covid isolation absences or - what?

Also work In a nursery some agency people are really good with the kids but its a given they don't know where anything is kept, the routine of the kids etc. So surely it is then your job to either show or tell them what you would like them to do. It however is not their fault the nursery you work in don't have enough staff for the ratio of the children.

Didn't you post about this before? And everybody slated you as the one who was unreasonable??

I feel your pain but I don’t know what the solution is.

Agency staff have been absolutely awful since covid. To everyone being snippy, there is absolutely no one out there. It’s a mixture of covid absence and teacher recruitment crisis leading to all of the good supplies being snapped up on long term contracts to fill staffing issues.

We have started to not take in supply staff, and instead pay TAs the cover rate because they have been so bad. Rude to the TAs, no imitative, treat lesson plans as scripts. We say to all our supply to read the plans, see the learning objective and as long as the outcome is the same- to have the freedom to teach in the way they fancy. They are utterly incapable of doing this and either read blankly from the plans in the most bland way possible or refuse to do them. We had one utter dickhead who just sang songs to class all morning and had them reading books from the book corner as he didn’t ‘get’ the science (qualified primary teacher- simple year 1 animal lesson).

Agency has never been so bad. We used to have a really good stream of supply TAs and teachers.

I cannot emphasise enough how miserable permanent staff can be to deal with as an agency supply. I often covered when the agency was desperate and have been left humiliated and in tears some days out of sheer frustration at having to deal with the nasty pettiness of ‘permanent’ staff.

Give them a break. Doing agency during covid - how easy do you think it is for them? All you have to do is show them the ropes. The reason you probably have so many is because agency staff talk about schools/nurseries and often don’t want to go back if the existing staff have been unhelpful.

*initiative

@Suprima

. We say to all our supply to read the plans, see the learning objective and as long as the outcome is the same- to have the freedom to teach in the way they fancy. They are utterly incapable of doing this and either read blankly from the plans in the most bland way possible or refuse to do them.

I guarantee that is because the moment they go off script the TAs go berserk. Interrupting, undermining the lot. Until you have been a fly on the wall or supplied and witnessed the dynamics of ‘normal teacher away’ days, then it really is wrong to blame supply. And with classes they don’t know, routines the TAs insist on keeping they do well to make it through the day. You know how supply have been treated and during covid, there was no support - not a phone call or text or anything to check we were ok.

They're agency how would they know where anything is or any of the kids?

I am discussing nursery supply workers, not school supply teachers.
It's just frustrating and I feel it should be taken into account when permanent staff are already so stretched as it is.

but what do you mean by 'taken into account' ?

Surely the permanent staff, if anything, should be taking into account how challenging it is for an agency staff member trying to get the job done when they aren't familiar with the children, the routines, the premises, etc, not the other way round.

Really not sure what you are wanting from this thread.

@ChocolateIsAlwaysTheAnswer

I am discussing nursery supply workers, not school supply teachers. It's just frustrating and I feel it should be taken into account when permanent staff are already so stretched as it is.

“Taken into account” how, exactly?! What do you actually think anyone here can do about this?

I mean that as permanent staff our jobs actually become harder with supply workers as we have to teach them and show them what to do. The job is already stressful enough without adding that on.