Help for when supply covers your class

[BG2015]

I retired in the summer after 29 years teaching in primary schools and I've recently gone back on day to day supply.

Some teachers are great and leave everything ready but some are really poor and it makes the supply teachers job really hard.

As a supply teacher having the following would really help:
*a class list
*a run down of the day including times (this is really needed)
*any medical or safeguarding issues

Those 3 basic things would be so helpful even if they are just scrawled on a scrap bit of paper.

Surely that would depend on whether or not the absence is planned? If ever I need cover and know about it, I’ll leave copious notes. But when I needed a day off due to an out and out family emergency (my dm was seriously ill) I could send my cover but I really couldn’t do much more.

I completely understand how useful this would be
But I'm not allowed to leave a class list and medical or safeguarding information out, as this wouldn't be safeguarding the children's data.

Most of my work is pre booked so teachers know they are going to be out.

Medical info etc could be given via a TA or other staff member. And lots of teachers have class lists with first names pinned up on notice boards or in their store rooms. I suppose lots of schools have different policies.

No, pre-booked means the school know they'll need someone in. Individual teachers don't always know they'll need cover. And what they've planned for themselves to deliver isn't usually suitable to leave for cover. If they are ill or otherwise really need to leave, it's not for them to have to make anyone else's life easier. They shouldn't even have to work if ill.

Supply teachers, and cover supervisors, on the other hand, could stick to what they're asked to deliver instead of going off piste and thinking they know best. They could ensure the children aren't allowed to trash the room and destroy the teacher's equipment and workspace. They could actually check pupils are working and not just defacing each others exercise books.

I've been doing supply since October and not one teacher I've covered has been ill. They have either had PPA, been on a course, had management time or a meeting. Some of the teachers are present first thing and talk me through their notes or the day and show me their pre planned work they want me to cover.

Ive been a fulltime teacher for 29 years (24 in the same school) and have had to leave work and instruction for supply cover teachers all through my time as a teacher.

I know what it's like to teach fulltime, manage my own 2 children as a single parent and juggle all the other stuff teachers have to deal with.

As a supply teacher I leave the room I've been working in tidy, pick everything up off the floor, tuck chairs in and leave any worksheets on the desk or side. I make sure work is marked and leave a note ( or speak to other staff) briefly stating how the day has been.

THAT is what I was grateful for when I was teaching.

Im sorry your experience of supply teachers hasn't been good.

Things could be made so much more comfortable for supply teachers and I am one of the conscientious ones. I have been to one or two really good schools, with some thoughtful staff, but it's quite rare. Some things that arn't even thought about:

• Parking

If I get to a school promptly, before 8am, I am often stuck outside the car park gate, speaking to an intercom speaker and nobody answers, presumably because office staff don't arrive before 8 and sometimes this happens well after 8. I'm left in the cold, in the rain with no code to get in. Can the gates not be left open, if the school know supply is coming, or could I not be given a code, so that my car isn't sticking out into the road waiting for the gates to open? Sometimes, I get to schools and there is no parking at all. You need a pass to park on the road. Thanks for telling me! I have also been to a school, that was situated on a road that you can't use between 8am to 9am. I had a warning letter from the city council a few weeks later, saying that my car was seen passing through that road at 8:03am. Again, thanks for informing me!

Staff room / toilets-
Yes, some schools kindly say help yourself to tea and coffee. Some say nothing at all! Likewise some schools will show you where the adult toilets are, most schools I have to ask!

Stationery -
"Get them to glue in their sheets". Then the children don't have any glue! I ask the TA, who tells me they are like gold dust and she can only find two glue sticks. So what are you supposed to do??? I have had the same issue with pencils, rulers etc. Nearly every day of supply, a child finishes their book. They then don't know where the new ones are kept, so they end up writing on paper......

Behaviour System -
Most schools have no system of consequences at all, so what are you supposed to do, apart from ofcourse pile them with housepoints and rewards that mostly aren't deserved 🙄.

Break / lunch
I have to ask this every time. Do they line up, do they stand behind their chairs, do they have lunch bands, do the sandwiches go before the hot dinners?

Maths groups, reading groups etc -
The number of times the teacher says that they all know their maths groups, their reading spaces etc. They rarely do. My goodness the fussing that then occurs "I am not sure where my table is, I have moved groups". "My mum says I can't sit next to that child anymore, I normally do the red task now, I was allowed to yesterday".

The computer login -
Here are all the slides for the day. Great, I think. After 10 minutes of not being used, the computer goes into sleep mode, and needs a password put in. But it's the teacher's password and he / she has now left the building, and nobody knows their password 😬.

It's really difficult 😬

There are so many little things that teachers can't possibly tell us ( I find the TA's are helpful for these things ) but yeah the parking is often a nightmare.

Luckily I've been to good schools so far, I'm still waiting to go to a really bad one. I definitely draw on all of my experience doing supply. It's not for the faint hearted.

I have done a lot of supply in primary. Some schools excellent some Kafka could not have imagined.

Requirements
Class list
Lesson Plans
Worksheets for each lesson
Laptops (if the students are using them) that work !!!!
Break down of the day
A TA - generally TAs in primary are amazing

best experience - one of the reception team made me a coffee and a biscuit before school started.

Worst experiences - the class teacher (an NQR this was her PPA day) kept coming in and out and under mining me well checking up to see how I was getting on.

School the Yr 6 ended up throwing paper at me - the TA was on a half day. I refused to go back and the agency said I should give them another chance (I assume to see if their aim had improved)

I was covering a class for a member of staffs PPA and he made it very difficult, almost impossible for me to take the class. When he came back at the end of the lesson all he did was point out small pieces of paper on the classroom carpet

Funniest - just after covid I was in a school for 3 days 1st day excellent lesson plans, 2nd day following on form first day and on the 3rd ay. just blag it, your're experienced and that came form the Deputy Head

Best thing about supply - you do not have to go back the following day

…..and you just walk out at 3.30pm and that’s it!

Im usually home by 4pm (occasionally 3.45pm) with a brew sat on the sofa!

This was so helpful today. Certainly doesn’t need to be so detailed or even typed.

But brilliant

@BG2015 I'm the cover manager in a secondary school, so it's down to me to book supply either for known or unplanned absences. I give all supply staff lesson plans (normally given to me by the absent teacher), a seating plan marked with any SEN/medical needs, any resources for the lesson, lesson and break times and and a 'dos and don'ts' list for our school. It's really shit for supply staff and also for the pupils to just have someone shoved in a lesson for the day without having a clue what they're doing. I don't like it when it happens to me, so I make sure it doesn't happen to any supply staff that I book.

That's exactly what we need. Just a rough guide.

At my previous school, they made "supply packs" - each one had generic information about the school like staffroom, toilets, evacuation procedures etc, and then specific pages for the class - timetable, a class list, medical and SEND information, names and roles of other staff in the year group, and anything else the class teacher wanted to add about their class like routines or reward systems. Supply teachers seemed to find them very helpful! They lived in the office and were given out when supply teachers came in, and teachers were asked to update them at least every term.

Well done cover managers like @Makemineacosmo who make supply teachers’ lives easier, and @GetTheGoodLookingGuy ’s previous school.

I did some supply - because I really enjoy teaching - after retirement from a senior role in a school that did similar and was astonished at how badly organised some other schools were, particularly with respect to tech issues. I simply avoided going back to the bad ones - luckily for me I could afford to pick and choose.

such a shame they couldn't keep their xmas jumpers on all day!!!

for GDPR I have been told can't have personally identifiable data visible which is crazy when it's a severe allergy - now registers are online you can't even have a picture in the register to alert you.

as an experienced teacher you should be able to walk in and get going with just a few lines of objectives. sometimes the supply is booked for one class but then changes happen and they go to a class not expecting supply.