To be a bit annoyed at Supply Teacher not having to do any planning?

[ioryou]

I am a Year 4 teacher in a 2 form entry primary school, my year group teacher left at Easter for a job in another school. Therefore, we have a long term supply in until the end of the school year and the school are advertising for a position with a September start. With my previous colleague we shared the planning between us, however I have been told by SLT that I will have to do all planning by myself as the supply only agreed to do the role if she was not required to do the planning. Supply also has been told she will not be subject to book scrutinies and will not need to attend staff meetings after school or INSET days.

AIBU to be a bit annoyed at having to all the planning now? I thought long term supply had the responsibility of planning?

Why is there always one?

I’m in a similar situation where I am having to do my workload and the workload of a colleague who has been off sick for months. I’m angry that SLT are throwing my mental and physical health to the wall, if you keep doing stuff over and above your normal workload of course management will let you crack on. But I’m literally lying awake in bed at 4am sobbing……it’s not good for you long term. And even if the OP isn’t currently being affected the chances are she will be down the line, unless of course she thinks her current workload is so light she can do it….but I’m suspecting she doesn’t hence the thread.

I’m sorry you’re having a hard time. I don’t think suggesting the go for sick was a proportionate response though. She didn’t say she was at breaking point, just wanted to know whether she was right to be annoyed.

sounds like you had it cushty only needing to do half of your planning until now. and now it is a ore normal work load.

Are there previous years plans you can use? Or published SOWs?

It is highly unlikely they are being paid to scale if hired through an agency and also, if you were a Y4 teacher in a 1-form entry school, you'd have to do all the planning anyway so I don't think you have an argument, especially if you get PPA. However, I can see why it would be annoying after the scenario you had before Easter.

Supply don’t need to do anything out of their contracted hours. They are paid to be in front of a class and that is that. I thought this was well known?
Some supply may do more, for example if they think there might be a permanent job coming up and want to make a good impression.
Worked in education for years and always gave the supply staff (even long term) lesson plans and materials and they only marked what they could do in their non-contact time.

They are probably not being paid the enhanced rate for someone who has to plan etc .

Probably not, but I’d certainly advise the OP to monitor the effect on her and put herself first if necessary.

Annoying, but imagine what it's like for us working in a one form entry school or less...

Yes no doubt. Schools never offer that, funnily enough.

OP, you took a job in a 2 form entry school, so it is not unreasonable that you expect to to do half the planning for the year group.
If you are now being asked to do all the planning for the year group, then that will obviously take you extra time, so you should be asking for extra PPA. You r Union rep should back you up on this.
For anyone who isn't quite understanding this, it is a bigger burden to plan for someone else to teach than it is to plan for yourself, you have to explain to someone else what to do, your boards need to be a lot more explicit, you don't know what their prior knowledge is, so you have to plan as if the supply might not know the steps/answers, even the printing & trimming takes twice as long. Every lesson has to be explained to someone else - even if you can do this in 5 minutes per lesson, that is most of your very limited spare time throughout the day - it can be the difference between being able to get to the loo or not. You definitely need extra time .

Depends what she's getting paid . Paid extra by the agency to do planning, attend meetings, have full responsibilities etc. Or paid to turn up to teach. I've done both types of long term supply. Your school is cheaping out, or the agency is . Take it up with them.

Planning just for your own class in a one (or half) form entry is completely different to planning in a two or more form entry when other teachers are expecting to be use your planning - the level of detail required is not comparable. I would far rather plan for just my own class in a one form entry that do half the planning in a two form entry. It's much quicker.

So, if the supply is expecting to use your planning, OP and you are being asked to plan in detail, every subject then no, that is completely unfair. You should be asking for twice as much PPA, at least.

Tricky one. Sometimes in a 2 form entry school you get a random 1 form year where that teacher is the only one doing all the planning. Equally, I'm in less than a half-form entry school and have had to plan for 2 and, at times, 3 year groups (and for many subjects, it is completely separate planning plus you spend more time doing inputs so far less live marking which also adds to your time) and I'm paid the same as I was in 2 form entry. I can see why you're unhappy but I think SLT would be pointing the above out. I suppose you could argue that you only need to do planning that is detailed enough you can follow it, rather than someone else being able to do so. You are only responsible for your own class, not two classes.

I do long term supply in schools. Usually I do my own planning but won't put anywhere near the time and effort I used to when permanent.

On supply you are nowhere near scale, obviously have no security and are technically paid only specific number if hours per day e.g. 8 am to 3:30. You are also subject to performance management unless on a contract. Most schools don't offer this but some do.

I'm quite open that the whole reason I went supply was for work life balance so refuse to work weekends and evenings unless paid e.g for parents evening. You are not subject to directed time so can refuse meetings etc. I'm quite open with the school about this.

Right now school struggle to get supply so school make far more allowance than they did pre pandemic.

The final thing I'd say is that supply staff are not usually trusted to do long term schemes of work exactly because they are seem as a stop gap until someone is permanently hired. If you are expecting someone who could be fired at no notice to put the same level of effort or commitment into the planning as you do then you are deluding yourself. Would you really want to base your lessons on the planning from someone who doesn't want to do it and has no incentive to perform?

Are they getting PPA time? Surely they shouldn't be getting that. Your school will have had a plan in place to cover the PPA of the previous teacher so could you have both slots?

You are being unreasonable.

As an experienced teacher in Scotland, my DD moved to England last year and now does short term supply over a large area. She is enjoying the freedom of taking short term supply, experiencing many different schools, classes, stages and ages, and has no interest in anything longer than a week.

She expects basic lesson plans to be in place when she arrives to take a class. Occasionally a badly run school will throw her into a class with no planning, no advance warnings of 'issues' and no support. As an experienced teacher she makes the best of this and still provides appropriate lessons to the stage/class, but tells the agency she will not accept supply to that school again.

She doesn't have to put up with a poor school environment, that is the real bonus of supply. My DD would not take on any supply if she was expected to do planning. Why should she?

I planned on long term supply. Including when I was supposed to be 4 days p/w (with head having the class on Fridays). Every week he would ask me to do Friday too. There were 2 weeks I couldn't - and he got me to plan for that day 🤦‍♀️

That said, supply teachers are often paid less than their contracted colleagues, don't have access to TPS, don't have proper sick pay, and have no job security. Being expected to take on full time responsibilities when all the above applies is the worst of both worlds - so good on them for sticking to their guns.

That doesn’t seem fair. Not sure what you can do about it aside from vote with your feet though, or go sick.

Is it any more work planning for both classes then it would be planning for just your own class? If not then I don’t think you can argue this, as supply don’t usually do planning and it’s not more work then if you just had your 1 class anyway. If it is more work then complain and ask their plan as you can’t do it all yourself.

Short term supply never plan.

Long term it's a matter of negotiation and because it's extra work that usually people went into supply to get rid of they either won't do it or charge extra.

These days the school is lucky to have long term supply.

Can you negotiate with SLT to share it out/use old planning/ use schemes?

Sorry, it's shit for the permiies who need to plan etc.

The friends I have who do supply are experienced teachers and are reporting schools wanting to pay no more than M4. Other people I know are being offered cover jobs as cover supervisors and then the school seems to think they can get all the benefits of an experienced teacher for cover supervisor pay. There's also no sick pay, worse terms and conditions, no TPS too and no guarantee of work.

Your SLT need to find a way to manage the workload for you though. This isn't a supply teacher issue. It's an SLT issue.

I’m sure supply teachers used to plan but they don’t now. It’s standard.

I'm a supply teacher. I've only ever planned once in a long term cover and I got PPA and I was paid to scale which was £50 a day more than my ordinary daily rate.

We've got long term supply teachers (secondary maths) who refuse to plan or mark, so their marking gets shared out between the department.

It's them or no one though, so beggars can't be choosers.

I think you should ask to have at least some of their PPA time transferred to you.

What's happening about reports? They're going to be a harder job for the supply teacher, unless the outgoing teacher was asked to do an initial draft for them to add to.