Can I ask teachers to be a bit kinder to supply staff working in schools?

[HufflepuffPride]

I’m supply TA and have done the job for the last few years, however since the pandemic started I’ve noticed a definite change in attitude towards us from a lot of schools. In fact in some instances I’ve encountered downright rudeness.

It’s really difficult going in and out of different places, with different rules and ways of doing things and not knowing the pupils names, lunch times etc. I get things are tough, but it’s really not our fault that you don’t have enough staff. Likewise it’s not our fault the agency don’t have enough people on their books, please take that up with them and not us. Although I believe they are also doing their very best in tough circumstances. We get sick as well, if the agency have sent a different person everyday once again take it up with them and not us.

Finally thanks to all of you who are warm and welcoming and appreciate what we do.

Sorry you've experienced this. Unfortunately a lot of the teaching profession are at breaking point so I suspect that's why this is happening. That doesn't make it any nicer for you though.

It’s not really our fault that you are at breaking point though, and taking it out on the people trying to help you is unacceptable. The teacher who I’m with this doesn’t seem to be able to grasp why she can’t keep any supply with her long term, well maybe if you spoke to them a bit better and didn’t treat them like skivvies ( she actually told me to put her hand bag away for her yesterday).

Raise it with head teachers or agency

I don't do much supply teaching any more because of this.

I get fed up with being referred to as 'the supply', even to my face, and being spoken to like an idiot because (strangely enough) I dodnt know all the children's names or wasn't aware of some system or rule in a school I'd never been to before.

I was a class teacher for years and I was always genuinely grateful to any supply teacher or TA as long as they came in, did what I'd asked as well as possible, and didn't leave a mess. I might well have cursed inwardly about a few but was never rude to their faces, no matter how stressed I was.

There are a huge number of school staff who are rude , self important, and seem to enjoy making other people feel like wastes of space.

I have raised it with the agency, they even apologized to me after one jobs worth of a ‘school business manager’ had a go at me for being late. I’d not had the phone call until 8.15, had to drive from one side of town to the other and got stuck in road works I didn’t know were there. This was also during rush hour, so it was gridlocked. I did manage to arrive before 9am but apparently I was still late as I should have been there at 8.45 which I didn’t know. I was supposed to do two days there, but told the agency I’d complete the shit but wouldn’t be returning the following day due to this woman’s rudeness. The agency apologized and said I wasn’t the first candidate to complain about this woman’s attitude.

At another school I also had a secretary be rude to me because I said I’d need to pop out and get some lunch because I’d only been booked for the morning and they then decided they needed me all day (at 10am, I’d been there since 8.30). They needed someone to do the lunch duty and apparently this was far more important than me getting something to eat. Bare in mind I was helping them out by agreeing to stay.

I find that places like that feel like they are doing you a favour and not vice versa. The previous poster is right in saying a lot of school staff are just bloody rude and have a superiority complex.

I'm sorry you've experienced this. We're over the moon if we even manage to get a supply teacher at the moment. Being horrible to them would be so counter productive I just can't imagine what these horrid people are thinking.

Good on you for standing up for yourself and not returning to a school that treated you like crap or agreeing to work all day without a lunch. Gives me the rage how some school staff treat TAs in particular. I used to work supply so I know what that's like too. So disrespectful to treat someone who has come in at short notice to help out.

Oh I’m with you OP (as a supply TA)

I was booked for a day at school and I left at 11am. Yes the teacher could possibly be at breaking point but I’m not there to be treated like a piece of shit.

I rang my agency and I was booked immediately into a school that afternoon. Thankfully a better afternoon was had and I would never return to that classroom.

Another school rather (sorry I was typing in a rush and a little too enthusiastically).

It’s counter productive if teachers do this as TAs simply will not return. I literally have the pick of schools and I’ve had great feedback and schools ask for me to return, so I simply will not tolerate rudeness hence me leaving a booked assignment at 11am (and swiftly being booked again for that afternoon in another school).

I have a related education based degree, I am respectful and I do whatever is asked of me. The moment I’m spoken to like a child/skivvy though I’ll be off 👋 😂.

Exactly @HariboMaroon we can be really picky at the moment as schools are so short staffed and are practically begging for any help. I should stress that some schools are lovely, and they are the ones you still drop anything to go back to. It’s just a shame that so many lack the awareness to see why some people don’t want to go back there.