Supply teachers- have you ever walked out of a class?

[user1483390742]

I did, today for the first time in 4 years of supplying. I was told it was a year 2 class, got there and it was year 6 post SATS, leaving school next week and not giving a s**t about anything or anyone.
They were running around the class, fighting, arguing, refusing to sit down and work and just being horrible. Every strategy i have used in 15 years of good teaching was ignored. Little or no support from SLT.
I went to the Head at lunchtime and said i was leaving and i walked out! Still can't believe i did it but could not have managed a 2.5 hour afternoon with them.
Anyone else ever done this?!

Good for you!!! Yr 6 post-SATs can be truly vile. Crowd control. It's shitty of a school to drop a supply teacher in there.

Yes.
Similar behaviour, I told the school it was a waste of my time and their money, I did finish the day, but cancelled the week. This is a school that often books supply for KS1, and when the supply gets there, they are told it’s Y6.

It is one of the plus points of supply, to not sugar-coat unacceptable behaviour and say ‘ I will not be subjected to this, and you have no power to force me to remain’ It’s very liberating after years of having a SLT boot on one’s neck.

I haven't left part way through the day but I have refused to return for the 2nd day of a several day booking due to behaviour and lack of support.

Good for you. I'd like to say it'll give the head food for thought but it's doubtful unfortunately.

You are so right JumblieGirl. It was around 11:20 when i thought 'f**k this, i don't get paid enough for this, i'm off!' and knew i wouldn't be there in the afternoon.
I texted a friend and met for lunch instead!

Oh I hate the year 6 fait accompli routine (I only tend to do up to Y4 supply unless it's a school I really really know).

I've not walked out yet - rang the agency a couple of times at lunchtime and told them I'd see out the day but do NOT think of sending me back here (in one case they did - to another year group who were lovely - the school were quite open about the fact the group I'd had previously were simply the cohort from hell).

Had a few times the head's been shocked I'm still there by lunchtime though so I suspect their walkout rate is fairly high. Also a few "this is the bottom set - just survive the hour - it's not you they're always this bad" notes on plans left for me!

No. I'm secondary supply and have faced some pretty appalling behaviour but have never walked out. I expect the odd class ti be bad though- it pretty much comes with the territory. Though admittedly in secondary you don't generally have to spend more than one hour with the same class!

It was totally unacceptable of them to lie to you about which class it was though - serves them right that you walked out! Maybe they'll think again about lying to supply staff in future.

No, but have refused to go back to one local school. Am secondary trained but supply in both. Maybe been lucky but on the whole, I’ e Not had problems.

I've not walked out but had done pretty shitty classes.
I survived by thinking of the money and the fact it was only for a day
"not my zoo. Not my monkeys"

Good for you. I've had some horrors in a few classes before but never like what you describe - I'd have been Team Walk Out, too. I'd like to think the head pulled in all the kids and maybe got in contact with the parents of the especially bold ones, but if there was no slt support then that might be wishful thinking.

I’m only 20 so fairly recent that I was at school, but we had LOADS of supply teachers walk out of lessons, and quite a few that cried, lots that never returned.

I went to a ‘good’ school too! We just used to piss about, switch names, switch seats etc, talk over the teacher, no one cared at the time but looking back as an adult I realise that all the kids were complete shits, me included.

Yes I did, once.

It was a year 5 class. I'd been left plans to do art.

They were truly awful, they got the print everywhere and then chased each other around the classroom with hands covered in it.

The TA sat there with her head in her hands and said they are airways like this and she wasn't going to intervene.

I walked out of the classroom, straight to the head's office, and said I was leaving.

It was about 11am.

The agency apologized profusely, two days later I got a letter from the head with flowers apologising for they're awful behaviour, that their teacher was signed off with stress and the class hadn't had a consistent teacher for the whole term.

At least they acknowledged they had a problem and it wasn't me.

I stopped supplying not long after that!

I haven't done supply but in my previous job, I did outreach and did actually walk out of one session in similar circumstances.

I knew I was doing Y6 post SATs but it was a school I really liked and did a huge amount of work in. I had taught the class before with no issues at all. On this particular day though, they were absolutely awful. Refused to listen/be quiet, messed about with the equipment and wouldn't do the task. Running round the room and going to the toilet without asking

Half way through, I got a TA to watch them while I went and told the head what they were doing and said it wasn't worth continuing the lesson as they were not getting anything out of it.

The head was lovely and she absolutely mortified. She sent me off to have a brew in the staffroom and went to the class herself to give them a good rollicking! The outreach sessions were supposed to be a treat for them but she moved me to another class as she said Y6 didn't deserve it.

Sadly, in some schools, you don't get that support.

l teach Secondary and like monkeysox and ohreally I've had to adopt the "it's just one day, this isn't my problem" mantra, or just say to the agency "please don't ask me to go there again." There's one school local to us where allegedly I am the only supply teacher in three years who went back more than twice. The last time I was there they gave me an IT cover (not my subject) with lower ability Year 10s in a remote Portakabin to which they didn't give me the key. I had to leave the kids on their own in the rain while I went to find a key. When I came back, panting and rain soaked, two of them were fighting in a hedge and then cannoned into and broke a plastic drainpipe, sending rain water down the windows of the Portakabin. I sent another child to fetch a senior teacher (who never came) but when the fighters overheard me, they both announced they were leaving and just ran away! I later found out that one of them had simply walked off site and gone home, the other took himself to sit in the sick room/welfare office. Once inside the IT room I discovered the water from the bust pipe was leaking on to a printer which I hastily unplugged.

Meanwhile, one boy logged on and immediately starting image searching 'tits' and 'bikinis' on Bing and then tried to make the girl sitting next to him look at the results by turning the monitor toward her and saying "these yours?" Obviously, whatever filters the school had in place weren't up to the job! When I went over to him with my best 'don't mess with me, lad' face on, he asked me if I'd had a boob job. I refused to be shocked, but he was quite surprised later to find that I told the Head about him and he to write me apology letter. In the staff room at lunch time one lady who'd been teaching 20 years told me she woke up every morning and cried under the duvet because she didn't want to come to work. I feel a mixture of guilt and relief that I'm not obligated to be somewhere that makes me so unhappy.

Cover supervisor here. I haven't actually walked out but have been pushed to my absolute limit and was so upset I was unable to cover my next lesson. A series of unfortunate circumstances out of my control and a well known difficult year 8 class, led to me enduring pupils throwing things around the classroom, running around and repeatedly calling me names. Fortunately my colleagues were suitably horrified and soon rounded up the worst offenders whilst I was mopped up and made tea. Horrible experience in a well regarded Ofsted outstanding school.

I walked out half way through a 3 week placement. I was writing on the board and a student threw an apple at me - hit my hand and was a pulp when it landed on the floor. The excuse was that he was trying to hit a student on the first row.

I didn't walk out but called principal and told her never to ask me again as they were so awful and said very inappropriate things to me. I was a very experienced sub.

I did once for the same reasons and the school refused to pay me despite my seeing things through until lunchtime

Primary supply .Promised I would not be given "that class" after a previous experience.When I arrived another supply teacher had engineered a swap .Heavily pregnant I was called a c*nt by the 2nd child in the register . I saw the day out but told the school never again.