Cover Supervisor Role

[Hexagonmum]

Has anyone any insight into this role? A number of these roles have popped up and am tempted to apply but then I remember my school days and when we had a supply teacher come in we just messed around!

Where I work (independent secondary) they just supervise the class.
The work is set by the teacher or head of department.

Well it will depend a lot on the school. At ours the work is set by a teacher, but it still means following a PowerPoint through with the class, discussing points, directing them to write responses, giving out and directing the use of consumable and non-consumable resources, reading from a textbook etc. And yes, sometimes it can be watching a video😀. But even then you need to manage behaviour, which again will vary wildly by school. Some departments or teachers set unclear or unrealistic work. I think it's a really tricky job and would hate it, and some C S look permanently stressed. Some enjoy the variety.

I did it before becoming a teacher so i must have liked it!

Agree that role differs a lot between schools...and not the easiest of jobs.

If you get on with teenagers and are confident at "winging it" its a fun and fast moving job and the day goes quickly.

You need to remain calm and have a few activities up your sleeve in case the actual work is slow to arrive or you have tech issues.

I had a friend who was a cover supervisor in a secondary school and I was extremely jealous of the amount of downtime she had where she could do her own uni work. Few years ago though pre covid. These days I believe they are tres tres busio!!

I'm currently training to be a teacher and worked as a cover supervisor prior to starting my PGCE. One thing I really disliked was not knowing what I was doing until 8.30 in the morning. Some people like that but I didn't. Behaviour management was tricky at times, very tricky.

What was set for cover varied wildly. I had to wing it often. Somehow I managed to avoid covering PE more than a handful of times - that was my absolute nemesis: "Go and lead a game of quick cricket with these y11s" (mercifully on that occasion I had a group of the nicest y11 lads you could want and they managed it themselves!).

I'm a cover manager with a team of 4 CS and I cover myself. In my last school I would cover on average 4 lessons a day. In my current school I start at 7am and finish around 4.30pm (secondary), because all 5 of us are covering 5 lessons a day every day. Those are not my actual hours but I can't organise cover and do the admin I need to do in my 'official' hours of 7.30 - 3.15. On the rare occasion we have a free, we go and help the SEN dept. I've had the same Y9 English group for months now and one of the others also has a form class. I love my job, but it's full on and poorly paid really. You need to be able to think on your feet and good behaviour management is absolutely essential.

I worked as a CS in secondary. The first year can be tough as you get yourself established and work out how different departments like to do things. The kids also need time to get to know you and that a lesson with you doesn’t mean an excuse to do nothing. The team I worked in had staff who favoured certain subjects. Getting to know the pupils is key to having an easier time. One of the advantages for a CS over supply teachers is that CS are employed by the school so know key staff, the behaviour system, rewards etc and the pupils are less likely to be able to pull the wool over your eyes. You learn to think on your feet and adapt work if necessary. One of the advantages is very regular hours, no overtime and nothing to prepare/mark. It’s a good job but definitely not for the faint hearted! I knew I’d cracked it when pupils were pleased to see me because they knew we’d actually be getting on with some work in the absence of their teacher (or watching a video if they were lucky!)