Cover situation

[Feart]

The cover situation in my school is becoming a massive issue in my school and I am wondering if this is the same elsewhere?
Teachers are having their PPA taken on a regular basis and the latest now is that we are being asked to arrange our own cover for medical appointments school have been informed about weeks in advance. I have serious issues with asking my already overworked colleagues to cover my lessons. Is this just my school?

Context - It’s a large secondary school with someone employed full time as a cover manager. Also the email informing me that I should have arranged my own cover was sent after school the day before the hospital appointment! Another colleague was sent a list of teachers across the the school who were on PPA at the times she needed and she was advised to ‘ask one of them because they were free’ Turnover is high in our school so we probably only know about 50% of staff in other departments. Some of the people on the list didn’t even work on the day she needed cover and my poor colleague spent hours attempting to find cover for an important hospital appointment.

No this is not normal. Things have calmed down at our school recently but up until last term we were regularly being taken for cover but very rarely in our ppa time. Those under on their timetable taken first and SLT taking lessons when possible. Medical appointments covered and cover manager deciders who does what. Please speak to your union rep.

That is a crazy situation, no that's not normal. It's been mad at our place with Cover, and staff aren't happy about it (staff covering regularly in PPA), but I think asking us to actually sort out own cover would be the final straw, everyone would quit!

Thanks, I have already contacted the union rep to set up a meeting. The problem is that there is a culture of fear in my school and staff are too scared to speak up. Then if you do speak up then you’re viewed as a trouble maker. The last time I mentioned an issue with covering in my PPA I was told ‘Well somebody else covered 8 lessons last week and they aren’t complaining’.