Hmmm...
I work in a secondary school with some children with very challenging behaviour (like many secondary schools). I have only been doing my job for a few months, but there are two people there who've been doing it longer and are successful.
Scenario: Geography teacher is away on a course. She sets some work for her yr8 class to do - read a page of the textbook, then complete a worksheet on the watercycle.
Scenario a) This is covered by a supply teacher brought in for that day, who has no knowledge of the school and procedures, no knowledge of individual children, very possibly not a humanities specialist, and may or may not be an experienced teacher with good teaching and behaviour management skills.
Scenario b) The class is covered by a learning supervisor who is specifically attached to Humanities Department. She knows the school very well, and many of the children - especially the ones who are more likely to cause problems. She knows the school policies and procedure on discipline, including praise and rewards as well as punishments. She has specific knowledge of her department subject area (in some cases to degree level). She has had training in behaviour management and classroom management, and is having ongoing training. She has done a great deal of classroom observation work and reports (as PGCE students do), she has her class supervision work observed and assessed by other teachers on a regular basis, both formally and informally.
I don't know if this job is going to work out for me or not. I'll keep you posted. I certainly won't do it if I don't think I'm doing a good job. But I do think some of you are not really aware of the options available.
Existing teachers now have an agreement that they will not cover for colleagues on short-term absences (i.e. meetings, courses, and illnesses). Schools simply cannot afford to pay supply teachers to do this work. And good supply is very hard to find. And the results of bad supply can be disastrous.
I do not claim that my training is in any way equivalent to that of a teacher. I could go and do a PGCE now, or possibly GTP in a year or so; but at the moment that's not a route I want to go down because I don't want all the additional stress and responsibility of planning, preparing, and teaching.
And I am very clear as to what I can and cannot do. If a teacher leaves me work that I view is 'teaching', I will not deliver it; and will feedback to the teacher.
Sorry this is so long - I don't know how many of you have made it this far. I'm a bit surprised at my frankness. But I do find some of the attitudes on here a bit surprising. My school have introduced these roles for two reasons: One Yes, cost-cutting, but the other most definitely as a solution to the serious problem caused by short-notice/emergency supply.