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Primary education

Teacher off sick - a lot. Different supply teachers almost every day...HELP

17 replies

sockmonkey · 18/03/2009 11:19

DS1 is in year 1. His Teacher is lovely, the children all love her.
She has been off sick for the last 2 months. She is human, people get sick, and kids do carry a lot of diseases. Prior to this, she has been very hit and miss, in for a few days, off a week.

The thing is, the children in the class are getting very distressed about it. Every day they have a different supply teacher, there are children sobbing and clinging to parents.
It's not the supply teachers fault either, they have all been pretty nice, it's just there is no continuity IYKWIM. DS1 used to love school, but is getting increasingly reluctant to go, and his behaviour is getting worse.

Is there anything I can do about the situation? Would writing to the head help? What should I say? I've had a word with the TA, and she said she was getting fed up of it too.

Any tips on helping DS? he is obviously stressed about the whole situation.

OP posts:

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Flyonthewindscreen · 18/03/2009 11:33

Maybe you could speak to head, making it clear that you aren't criticing the class teacher but could there be a more regular supply teacher arrangement as the children are being affected by the lack of continuity. If your DS's teacher has been off sick for 2 months it should be possible surely to have a long term supply teacher in place?

bigTillyMint · 18/03/2009 11:35

I am very surprised that the school have not managed to get a long-term supply teacher.

Definitely go in and ask (in the nicest possible way, of course!) if this is possible, and if not, why not!

sockmonkey · 18/03/2009 11:43

I hate making a fuss, but DS is getting more & more misersble about it.
I guess speaking to the head is the only way.

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ABetaDad · 18/03/2009 11:52

sockmonkey - you have my sincere sympathy and understanding. DS2 had this all last year the teacher was off a lot and it affected him badly in Year 1 with just TA or supply teacher cover all the time.

His reading dropped off and he used to come home saying he just did not like school. He is happy now he has a fill time teacher and he has recovered very quickly.

Not sure I have a solution but the Head and Governors really are your first port of call on this.

ICANDOTHAT · 18/03/2009 11:56

Safety in numbers ... so get a group of parents, not just mums - dads too, and wright a collective letter to the Chair of Governors and head teacher. Otherwise, nothing will be done. They will have to reply to a letter.

WowOoo · 18/03/2009 12:03

Agree with Icandothat.
Awful for all involved really. To get long term supply the school would have to say 'how long are you going to be ill for?', which is hard to answer.
Hope she gets better soon or you get a good long term supply soon. So unsettling for the poor loves.

sockmonkey · 18/03/2009 12:03

Ooh, the chair of Govs scares me...
I must be brave!

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wannaBe · 18/03/2009 12:12

firstly, the TA should not be speaking out of class and telling parents that she is fed up with the situation. Even if she is (and tbh I can understand that she might be), it's not her place to be saying that to the parents.

Secondly, I would approach the head and say that you think that having so many different supply teachers means that the children in the class have no continuity and therefore would it not be possible to have a long-term teacher in to fill in for the one who is off sick.

Perhaps even justify it further and say that you understand that after two months off sick she may find it harder to return straight to work, so a long-term supply could be there to aid her transition back to work as well once that happens.

Make it sound like a good thing for not only the children, but for the teacher who is off ill as well...

sockmonkey · 18/03/2009 12:22

Thank you all for the replies. I need to take DS2 to nursery now.
I will pop into DS1s school and see if I can make an appointment to see the head... or chicken out & write a letter. Must be brave!!

OP posts:

sockmonkey · 18/03/2009 16:23

Just as an update, the supply teacher DS1 had today will be staying for the rest of this week, and for next week too. Phew. Will see how this goes.

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WowOoo · 18/03/2009 19:40

Ah good. At least you didn't need to speak to head or govs.
See, semi sorted for short term without you having to do a thing. Nice!

Littlefish · 25/03/2009 19:46

The difficulty for the Head may be that the classteacher is being signed off for a week at a time. This means that the Head can't bring in a long-term supply teacher. If the head is only able to book supply for a week at a time, he/she may not know until the end of the week whether they need someone for the following week, by which time, the current supply teacher may have been booked out elsewhere.

Sorry, that doesn't help the situation at all, but may help to explain why things seem so disjointed at the moment.

Good news that the class is sorted for a couple of weeks anyway.

scienceteacher · 25/03/2009 19:49

They should be able to book the same daily supply teacher. It might be a bit of a gamble for them - eg to book her for 3 weeks and be willing to keep her on should the main teacher return early. It's bad management to be greedy and just do each day as it comes.

Littlefish · 25/03/2009 20:03

It's not about being greedy, it's about balancing the budget of the school. I don't know of any state schools which could afford to book a supply teacher when they didn't actually know if they needed them or not. If the main teacher returned early, they could be contracted to pay the supply teacher/agency something in the region of £180.00 per day.

scienceteacher · 25/03/2009 20:12

If they are managing well, they should have a contingency budget to cover situations such as long-term staff sickness.

It is wrong to jeopardise children's education for the sake a few hundred pounds.

Littlefish · 25/03/2009 20:20

In this case, it sounds like the teacher has some intermittant health problems. The school may not know when she's coming back until the last minute.

Many schools, particularly at this stage in the year (just before the new funding in April), are balancing on a knife edge.

Due to previously low numbers in the school where I work, we are waaaaaaay over our budget already. The stock cupboards are empty and no-one has been able to go on courses since November because of the cost of arranging cover.

I think you're being a bit idealistic to be honest scienceteacher. Schools simply will not book supplyteachers unless they're sure they're going to use them.

clam · 25/03/2009 20:52

The Head will be acutely aware of the situation, so I'm not sure how necessary it is for the OP to go in and give helpful suggestions as to how s/he might organise cover. No-one is going to be more interested in trying to get continuity of cover for the class than the Head.

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