I’m a Cover Supervisor and I just walked out.

[tellmesomethingtrue]

At the end of my tether. Pupils have been shouting at me, arguing with me for 3 hours straight today. I’ve told HR that I can’t cope with the final lesson and I’ve gone to sit in my car. I welcome the classes pleasantly, I am organised and the kids know me. Just because “I’m a sub” they are disrespectful and just awful. As soon as another teacher comes in to support me, the kids are fine. Today, I’ve sent 9 pupils to work elsewhere and called SLT three times. On the verge of (another) panic attack, enough is enough. I don’t think employment should be like this. Usually half the class are absolutely fine, do the right thing and work. Surely their parents would be mortified.

Usually when they're that bad, it's because the lessons or your personality aren't good enough. Sorry, but it's true

Have you ever been a cover supervisor? If not, I don’t think you know what it’s like!

No, but I was in secondary school, and the decent supply staff did fine

It was usually those who weren't confident / engaging enough who struggled

That’s what PRUs are for.

Well we’ve all been secondary school students once, but unless you’ve worked with today’s youth in today’s educational system I don’t think you’re an authority on the subject.

That's like saying "I saw the GP last week so I'm now an expert on brain surgery and everyone else is doing it wrong".

Behaviour in secondary schools is horrific. I am an experienced teacher and I’ve been taken aback by how much behaviour has declined in the last few years. Add to that weak SLT and pastoral staff not following systems and undermining teaching staff by questioning decisions in front of the children, you’ve got a recipe for anarchy. And that’s what we are seeing in secondary schools at the moment.

I feel for you OP I work as a supply TA part time and no way would I do it full time. I've been to over 40 different primary schools in and around London and the level of disrespect I see towards teachers is genuinely terrifying. A lot of young kids these days really do not seem to give a shit so I can't imagine what it is like in secondary schools.
I worked for over 20 years running multi million pound construction contracts but teaching seems way more stressful to me.

I wonder why we bother training teachers. We all went to school, so we all know how to do it. Just like most of us have been on a plane, so it would be fine to let us loose in the cockpit. I could drive a train, no bother. I've been on countless trains. If it crashed, well, it wouldn't be my fault. I'm very confident and engaging.

Amen to that.
I was an English teacher for decades. Huge high school. New head six years ago, behaviour declined. Poor SLT, all the experienced teachers left, school appointed younger inexperienced teachers. Thrown in the deep end. SLT pressured teachers more rather than guiding and supporting. I was easily working a sixty hour week, and they gave me two new teachers to mentor. One actually did well, the other went off with stress, and took a completely different career path, good for him.

The system is broken.

I did not say it is ok. OP should not have to accept it. However the only tool under OP's control is to refuse to be put in that position and not do that work.

I won't bother to argue with that because it's bollocks but in this case the OP is a Cover Supervisor and won't be planning the lessons. She has to deliver what she's given.

That really depends on the standard of the cover work that has been set. In my experience, a lot of it is bollocks.

I’m curious re @tellmesomethingtrue plan for tomorrow am

Yes, PRUs have that role. Not sure we have enough to make a dent in the behaviour problem, however.

I’m sorry for you it is so unfair.I worked for years in a school non teacher and the kids would get so excited to know a supply teacher would be teaching them/well trying to teach:(.they would treat it exactly as a fun afternoon off and we’re going to wind the supply teacher up and misbehave.I don’t think kids will ever change being like that and will always do that.i would email their parents to be honest and let them know.some will care some won’t,but some will face consequences which is a good thing. xx

I had a similar experience at one in Elephant and Castle. Locked in with them while group of kids rampaged around the place trying to get into any classroom that hadn’t been locked. The police were already on site before the day started.

I have no idea what parents think a teacher's job is. It isn't making sure their little angel doesn't truant and pinch someone's mobile phone - though that should not happen, of course - teachers are not minders. They are passing on the knowledge of a culture not babysitting.

Oh, that canard! They misbehave because your boring and have no charisma. Year ? always behave for me. That is not true. The bad behaviour stems from the pupils who have no respect for authority. It also is a product of blaming teachers for bad behaviour along your lines. If the lesson was interesting - and not everything can be interesting - they would still misbehave. Education is not all singing and dancing, it is not entertaining the pupils (though occasionally that might happen). It is explicitly teaching the content of the lesson, engaging in dialogue with the students on the topic being taught. That can happen if the pupils know what is expected: silence when the teacher talks, engagement with the material whatever it is, turn taking in discussion of the topic, watching examples being done/events being explained, and doing the tasks that will fix the information in their long-term memory. That also requires that the school makes bloody clear that not doing any of that results in unpleasant consequences and permanent removal if required.

I remember having a supply teacher for RE - and supply teachers were rare - and we treated her abominably, so that she ran out of the classroom, crying. The head of RE (that's Religious Education btw) came and read us the end of all lectures, made us ashamed (as we should have been) and left us feeling that we had not just been badly behaved but cruel, vicious girls. I think (it's a very, very long time ago) we lost various privileges and had to write lines (same sentence written e.g. 100 times neatly, takes ages and is boring) and apologies. We were the top set, too, usually well-behaved. But it can be stopped - on the rare event we had another supply teacher we behaved much better, knowing that there would be repurcussions if we did not.

I feel for those children in many of these classes who wish to learn. Sorry, OP. Standards in education are grim. Children expect to be entertained and learning is viewed as far too difficult.

20+ years since I went into teaching and I'm now a cover supervisor for the work-life balance. The school I'm in has a relatively high level of deprivation and lack of aspiration in much of the community. The better parts of catchment tend to brain-drain to other schools in the city. It's a tough gig with a strong "Whay! It's a sub (let's doss)" culture, but what keeps it managable is an engaged SLT and consistent, efficient systems.

Behaviour has shifted in the last 10 years. What was once a "tough" class is now standard (comparing similar schools). We get "double covers" in the hall/ canteen... 55 teenagers in a large space... add in two hard classes close in age, poor work and on-call being unresponsive (short-staffed, dealing with other crises) and frankly you can feel like you deserve a medal for surviving an hour with everyone alive. I've had 18 classes (rather than 10) in the last 2 days, and although they've been relatively smooth, that state of constantly being alert, reading the room and problem solving is draining.

I had a blow-out last month, just all the components stacked wrong. Penultimate week of a long term, lots of illness, immune system fending everything off. I did hold myself until the room was empty and vented. What tipped me was the lack of respect. They had time to tidy the disgusting state of the room and charged through the other door, flattening chairs as they mobbed out. I'd already done a lengthy list of detentions, but the only phone call I could face making was about the single lovely child who did try to tidy up and was least responsible for the carnage. Generally I can carry through remembering the nice kids in each room who deserve my effort and experience.

But most of the time most of our kids are lovely to know, just sods to teach. I feel myself in this school. I don't have to cos-play as a slick suit type as I have in some; I am firm, but human. I can have a laugh but with boundaries. It helps that I'm known in the community and already know some kids. As I get to know them better, it is easing. Getting to middle age and having my own teenagers helps too.

It's a tough job and one that many experienced teachers would quail at, and frankly anyone who judges a cover supervisor for struggling on a bad day can go and supervise 55 12-13 year olds on a wet and windy day themselves... bonus points for every named piece of work handed in at the end...

Please don't believe for a second that your personality or the lesson is an excuse for some of the behaviours you witness.

On my first day as a cover supervisor, a 6ft 16yo who I was speaking to outside the classroom about his misogyny, told me that I shouldn't be offended by his Andrew Tate hero worship as nobody would want to rape me. Complete with a snide once over and a lip curl. I'd been in the room for 3 minutes. An hour later and in a different lesson, I started the register, got 3 names in and one student threw a chair at another student and then tried to punch him. Nobody understands it until they've been there. I was a bloody good sub and I now teach full time, but there are a terrible number of students out there who simply do not care about the rules and have zero respect.

Don't know how old you were, but at one point they were only allowed to use qualified teachers for supply (there was a Guardian article some years back about the change, titled "No need to call in the professionals").
It was obviously cheaper, and some parents didn't even realise how things have changed, just as some patients don't know the difference between a doctor and a PA. This isn't the first post I've seen about the problems of being a cover supervisor.
I'm sorry for everyone involved, OP, I wouldn't want to do your job and I know it can be so hard to find work these days, but your mental health is important. I've got friends who are teachers and they say schools are so much worse than they used to be.

Maybe all Ofsted inspectors should have to work as supply teachers 50% of the time. Do you think that would help schools to improve?