endless supply teachers

[insideout2016]

This is one of those annoying things that can't be helped I guess.

Ds is in a new school coming up to the end of 4th week. He's only seen his proper class teacher for 8 days of those. He's had a menagerie of supply teachers on the others.

School say teacher has been signed off with a cold but should of been back 2 days ago and isn't so I guess a new sick note has been issued (none of my business though) just means it's probably not a quick fix problem.

Teachers get ill, I'm not bothered about that, I'm just worried about the lack of continuity. He's had about 5 / 6 different teachers covering and he can't even remember their names. He's struggling to settle in anyway as it's a new school and he's becoming bored with the supply type activities.

I guess there's nothing I can do and just hope for the best??

I can understand your frustration, but teachers are only human.
It happened to my ds's teacher once, and she was SLT so she wasn't there a lot of times anyway.

Think positive. All those supply teacher must have great strength for something others haven't got.
If you are worried, just find out what they should be learning this term/half term(my ds's school has list on their website) and keep working on it if you want. Otherwise, just relax, and trust teachers.

he's becoming bored with the supply type activities.

Now, that is an issue. Whilst the school cannot help a member of staff being ill, they can and should ensure that "proper" work is covered during that absence. Procedures should be in place. How do you know what he's doing? Are you purely going on what he is reporting? If so, check out your facts, but I think you would be within your rights to ask the Head what provision is being made for continuity during what looks like a prolonged absence.

Moving him was really difficult and he loved his previous school. The first week was great and he loved his new teacher but it's all gone downhill and he's getting upset and wanting to go back. It's just very frustrating like you said!

Clam - they started term off having a fairly routine timetable of the days activities. He said today he had 2 supply teachers (1 am 1 pm) and they spent most of the day on circle time doing the same thing over and over etc. hard to get a full picture but I can tell the difference in him and when he talks about school.

Hmm, so you probably do need to ask for clarification from someone at the school. How many classes per year group are there? If there are 2 or more, ask to speak to the Head of Year (or whoever you think is most senior or approachable). If it's one-form entry, then speak to either the Deputy or the Head Teacher.

In my experience having lots of different supply teachers happens when the school or class is very difficult and they refuse to go back. I have done this myself - I was once booked for a week, but after one day with the particular class decided that I didn't want to teach that class again...

Good, experienced supply teachers, such as myself, are able to pick and choose where we want to work.