Thinking about supply? Tempted by the seductive day rate, the lack of planning, marking and assessing, or the going home at the same time as the kids and without giving another thought to the job? Well stop - you need to think a few things through.

PAY

It sounds good. One hears of supplies costing pound;180 a day, but this figure is what agencies get. You’ll get just a fraction of that and you won’t be entitled to sick pay or paid leave. And even if you work for the 190 school days in a year, you’ll still need money to support you for 365 days. Supply agencies are not charities - they’re businesses that make profit and capitalise on staffing crises in schools by putting their prices up. Some are more exploitative than others, so shop around.

WORKLOAD

No writing plans, reports and assessments may seem like Nirvana after teaching practice, but again there are drawbacks. You’ll be expected to follow the planning left for you by class teachers. Gone are the days when you could turn up with lessons from your own private repertoire. Working from a plan that isn’t yours can be hard, so inevitably lessons don’t go so well and you’ll rarely get the buzz that comes from successful teaching. If you’re in a school for any length of time, you’ll be expected to slot into the same level of planning, assessment and reporting as permanent staff, so the workload will become comparable with theirs.

NO RESPONSIBILITIES

You may be scared at the thought of having to be responsible for the education of a whole class of children. This is a perfectly common feeling, which is probably made a whole lot worse by thinking about it too much.

Although not accountable for a whole year’s worth, you’ll still be responsible for children’s well-being and education on every day that you work - and that can be hard in a supply teacher role.

INDUCTION

They call it probation in Scotland, but either side of the border it helps new teachers. It’s not a hurdle to be dreaded. You’ll have a reduced timetable and someone in charge of supporting, monitoring and assessing you, which is very reassuring.

In England, there are specific rules for NQTs on supply, but some agencies don’t make them very clear. Remember these two rules: * If you’re going to be in a school for a term, you must be on induction and the school has to support, monitor and assess you as it would any other newly qualified teacher. You are entitled to 10 per cent non-contact time, which the local education authority funds.

* You can only do short-term supply for four calendar terms starting from your first day’s work. After that you must get a post where you can get induction otherwise you would not be allowed to teach.

Agencies vary greatly in terms of the support they give. There are many that will ignore the fact that you are newly qualified and not even tell the school to which they are sending you. Some offer what they call induction, which is actually aimed mostly at teachers from abroad. A few look after NQTs, find them a term’s position and offer some training.

In Recruit Education Services’ CareerStart programme, NQTs are assigned personal consultants. They find the young hopefuls termly placements and help monitor their development. They run courses on which NQTs on supply can meet others in the same boat.

Doing supply is tough for an experienced teacher, so the odds are stacked against an NQT succeeding. Controlling children you don’t know, who see a supply teacher as fair game, and in a school with unfamiliar systems, is hard - and teaching them something worthwhile may be impossible. So try to get a settled job as soon as possible so that you can get the induction support you need.

Sara Bubb is an induction tutor and TES agony aunt for NQTs