Can Head Teachers get supply teachers to cover classes if teachers strike?

[NoelEdmondshair]

Just wondering.

Oops1
No is the answer to the OP

If only that were true donki. I have done 2 covers this half term.

And I really couldn't teach, off the cuff, a German lesson for example. I can follow the teacher's instructions and manage the class, and so can our cover supervisors.

OK Basinstoke, they shouldn't ask teaching staff to cover for absent teachers.

Not that I am a fan of the new agreements wrt to CS - my job as a supply teacher disappeared.
And I was good - got lots of repeats and offers of long contracts.

Ohhh, this thread could turn into something completely different!

My cover supervisors are bloody marvellous. They are faculity based and therefore know their stuff. Even MFL! They know the kids, they know the rules, the kids know them. It's perfect!

Parents who think their kids are being sold short are sadly mistaken in my school! We could get a specialist supply teacher in for the day. What will the kids do? Fuck about. They don't give a damn! This teacher won't be here tomorrow. A cover however, will be there every,single day and knows your kids!

We may be cheap labour, but the students won't fool around for us! They will do far, far more than babysit, that's for sure!

In answer to Panzee no, we will not be covering for teachers that are taking action.

Maureen - I agree that lots of CS are good, and I understand the advantages for the schools.
Nevertheless there are rubbish CS too - and schools that fail to train and support them.
And there were good supply teachers - and bad ones that didn't give a toss.

I recall walking into a MFL lesson which had been started by a CS and was chaos. (I was late because the school had called late). The CS was gobsmacked when I took the initiative, and the students responded and engaged with the lesson - because whilst not an MFL teacher I nevertheless had better management skills, and MFL subject knowledge than he did.

We may be cheap labour, but the students won't fool around for us! They will do far, far more than babysit, that's for sure!

That's just crowd control. They aren't qualified to do any more than that.

I guess our school has got it right then. I have a team of 10 CS's and it works fantastically. If a teacher goes sick suddenly, my CS can literally walk into their lesson and know what to do. They have spent enough time in faculty, that they know what to do and how to do it, at the drop of a hat.

We will still not be covering o Thursday though!

Feenie I'm sorry you feel like that. Shame you don't work at my school. I promise you, we are not babysitters. We have as much power and as much clout in the classroom (if not more) than the teachers!

We don't claim to be better, or more important, than the teaching staff, we work well together and support each other.

But you can't teach Maureen so you are just babysitting aren't you

or should I say crowd control?

Are there cover supervisors in primary schools? Have you had bad experiences of them there? Perhaps it's different.

My school doesn't have cover supervisors (only qualified teachers ) but some primary schools do so I'm told.

But you aren't actually allowed to teach, Maureen, so you can't do any more than decent crowd control.

So not speaking from experience. I have covered for absent colleagues, seen supply teachers in action and also CSs, and for occasional absence, my preferred option would be a CS. But I also work with some very good unqualified teachers too, and some less good qualified ones, so I am coming from a quite different perspective.

What does that mean though? 'Can't teach' It's all a bit rules and regs really, isn't it?

My MFL Cover Supervisor, speaks fluent French and Spanish. She can deliver a lesson, set by the class teacher, with confidence and authority, because she knows the language. If the class finishes the task set or, god forbid, there is no cover set, she can still move the lesson on, because she knows what she's doing. She has spent many hours in that department. She knows the kids and she knows the SOW. Is that babysitting or teaching?

There are very few lessons that my CS's babysit.

Reasons I would like my school to have cover supervisors:

1. So I don't lose my precious free periods covering other teachers' lessons.
2. So I don't feel guilty if I am absent / on a course, that I am causing one of my colleagues lo lose one of their precious free periods.

When I cover another teacher's lesson, I do my best, but I cannot always teach the material. MFL, for example.

Maureen can you "do experiments" in science lessons? That is always hard, setting work that doesn't involve any practicals.

The point is a supply teacher can teach whereas a cover supervisor is in a holding role

No maureen it is the law not "a bit rules and regs"

It's babysitting

No practicals. Health and safety.

Unless the supply teacher is a subject specialist, no they can't. And don't, IME.

Why would a school employ a supply teacher to cover a subject they don't teach? Seems the problem is with administration ... cover supervisors can't teach

have to say i would rather have a cs than a supply teacher cover my classes - our faculty cs will deliver whatever lesson i leave, including practicals: supply teachers rarely will do unless booked for long term supply. Also they know the kids and rarely have any different discipline issues to the rest of the teaching staff.
To revert to the OP the guidelines i've been sent by the NASUWT appear to differ, i've cut and pasted a section in below as I can't seem toi find it on the website to link to :

Staff employed to provide cover

? If an NASUWT supply teacher is contracted-in to do supply work on the day of a strike by other unions, they will be subject to deployment by the headteacher and the NASUWT would not advise them to refuse to cover even if they are deployed to cover a class/group affected by the industrial action.

? If an NASUWT supply teacher is covering the timetable of someone on long-term absence, e.g. sickness or maternity leave, they should work their normal timetable.

? If an NASUWT member has a contract which is wholly to provide cover for absence, they will be subject to deployment by the headteacher and the NASUWT would advise them to provide cover even if it is for a class/group affected by the industrial action.

? If an NASUWT member has a contract of which only part is to provide cover for absence and they are asked to cover during their timetabled time for cover, the NASUWT would advise them to cover. If, however, they are asked to cover during their other timetabled time because the class/group they would normally have been timetabled to teach is not in school, they should decline to be reallocated to another class or group for the purposes of covering for a teacher who is taking industrial action.

They come in for a day. You get whoever is available. The teacher who is absent may not teach the whole of that day,so the supply teacher covers someone else too. Cover tends not to be 'taught' in a secondary unless it is longer term.