Supply Teaching--good agency to join?

[Arabica]

DH disliked the commute to his first job (he hates the school too but that's another story)and now wants to find a decent agency that'll give him work in central, N or E London. Any recommendations? He's a NQT, wants to teach nursery/reception/yr 1.

Tell him to take great care before he makes the jump into supply work. I don't know about Primary supply, but in secondary the call for supply teachers has really dried up, because of the use of cover supervisors.

He needs to find out how much supply he could expect.

he could also register with local LEAs as well
their rates of pay are comparable with agencies

Thanks martianbishop and hana. Schools he's been on placement in, and the one where he works now, are all using supply teachers from various agencies, so there seems to be work around. Anyone got experience of primary supply in London?

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He's only planning on doing it for the rest of this academic year, then he wants a permanent job.

No idea about London, but the availability of work for primary supply teachers round here (North) is very good. It is also good for secondary though as well. However it will dry up a little bit towards Christmas, and then pick p again afterwards.

Wise words from Martian bishop... similar here.
If he is early years then lots of schools are recruiting now on 1 or 2 term contracts. Do voluntary work, gey a foot in the door in ocal schools

This info is about 3 years out of date now, but my dh did some supply teaching as a stop-gap between finishing a PhD and deciding what to do with it! He was registered with Teaching Personnel, and found them OK, though they did have some bad publicity (for not checking up people's references). I'd imagine that, since that incident was widely publicised, they have seriously tightened up their procedures. The best thing about them was that they had a 'guaranteed payment' scheme, the details of which I can't quite remember now, but it was something like they guaranteed to find you work every day (or every day that you wanted it), and if they couldn't find you work on a particular day they paid half the amount you'd have been paid for working. Dh did this work for about 6 months and they never failed to find him work. (This wasn't in London, but in the home counties).

Dh is not a qualified teacher (no PGCE) though he did have some experience of teaching (at A'level) in a private school before doing the supply. He did a mixture of secondary and primary, but preferred the primary. In fact, he toyed with the idea of becoming a primary teacher through the Graduate Teaching Programme route, but having been a mature student and then having already done an MA and a PhD he just couldn't face having to do another qualification. I really don't know if the fact that Teaching Personnel take on people without the 'proper' qualifications makes them an untrustworthy agency, or whether all agencies will do it (... we only had experience of them). Despite his lack of a PGCE, dh had no problem finding work. And, I should say that at least three of the primary schools in which he worked offered him a job on the spot (and offered to back him to do the GTP), so supply could be a way into a 'proper' job. (Oh, and in one secondary school he was OFSTEDed while teaching English and got a really good report on his class, despite the fact that his various degrees are in Politics!)

I don't know if this is of any help...

I would recommend finihsing NQT year if at all possible.

Thank you for all the messages. Janeybop, he is going to do the NQT year, but if he had stayed in his current school he'd have had a nervous breakdown and so would I! So he wants to be extra sure that the next school he takes a permanent job at, is the right one. You're allowed to take up to 5 terms out before finishing the NQT year anyway. Ellbell, Teaching Personnel sounds interesting, I wonder if they are still around?
PSP thanks for the suggestion, although I don't think a NQT should have to do voluntary work (and we can't afford it anyway).

smartteachers

here you are Arabica. Good luck to your dh.

Thanks soapbox!

Thanks Ellbell too. Interestingly, their website now makes no claim about guaranteed work!

It was in 2001-02 that my dh worked for them, Arabica. Remember very clearly that he was on the phone to someone from Teaching Personnel trying to sort it all out when I flicked the telly on and saw the news of the events in New York... it was 11th September 2001. Will never forget when dh started working for TP because of that!

It was in 2001-02 that my dh worked for them, Arabica. Remember very clearly that he was on the phone to someone from Teaching Personnel trying to sort it all out when I flicked the telly on and saw the news of the events in New York... it was 11th September 2001. Will never forget when dh started working for TP because of that!

Aaargh, my computer keeps registering two clicks when I am sure I only hit 'post' once... very carefully now...