Having spent the last few months in and out of different schools on a daily basis, I feel that I’m now well qualified to offer some advice to schools regarding their relationship with supply staff. As you might imagine, there’s a wide variety of experiences when it comes to how a supply teacher can be received when turning up for a day’s work. Just like the kids you’ll find yourself teaching, some schools get it right and some could benefit from an intervention session or two.

First impressions count

As with a teacher meeting a new class, how the school comes across in those crucial first moments can set the tone for the whole relationship. The old saying for NQTs was always “don’t smile ‘till Christmas,” presumably lest any sign of good humour might give anyone the impression that you’re an easy mark. I always thought this was a pessimistic stance to adopt, one which assumes that students need to be controlled by fear rather than brought along with a more collaborative approach to learning. Yes, some kids will always take advantage of perceived weakness, but to struggle through the first thirteen weeks of each year with a constantly miserable face will only make everyone else miserable. Set the tone you want. Model the behaviour you hope to see. And so it should be with the supply teacher signing into a new school.

The best schools give you a few minutes to get yourself together, look over the lessons plans and work out the timings of the day, rather than throwing you straight in front of a class of Year 9s. Five minutes is all you need. They also give you the information you actually need, like who to call when things go sideways and the kids start throwing stuff. At a recent school, the first piece of information I was given as I was handed my lanyard, was that it had a built-in “safety feature” - it came unclipped if anyone grabbed it. Enough said.

Don’t abandon us...

Of course, schools are busy places, and a supply teacher is never going to be a priority. But, taking a few minutes to check back with us to see if everything’s in order is really helpful. That way we can let you know if none of the lesson plans makes sense or if the login you gave us doesn’t work.

... but don’t do it for us

It can be a tricky balance in schools, ensuring teachers are doing their job properly without constant surveillance and interference. In good schools, the head of department or a senior leading will pop their head around the door to ask if there’s anything you need (and if you do, please introduce yourself; we have no idea who you are). But beware: in one school the deputy head came into the class I was teaching five times, each time berating the class for not working in silence. In the end, I had to take him aside and have a quiet word:

“Dude,” I said. “I understand that you have a certain way of doing things here, and I realise that I’m just the supply, but I do have over twenty years of teaching experience, and you bursting in every five minutes is only serving to undermine the little authority I already have. Kids are never going to behave with a cover teacher the way they would with their regular teacher. They’re just not. If you really want them to work in total silence, which is a bit weird anyway, then you would literally have to stay in the classroom for the whole lesson. Which would kind of defeat the point of me being here at all.”

Okay, I didn’t actually say that, but I really wanted to.

Try and give us a free lesson

I know schools should be trying to extract maximum value from the supply budget, and God knows the regular staff need a break, but teaching a full day is hard work. Of course, it won’t always be possible, but give it some thought. 

Don’t make us wear different coloured lanyards

It’s a hard enough job without literally hanging a label around our necks marking us out as the new kid.

As supply staff, we’re the last line of defence. If we have a bad time we can just choose not to come back, and believe me when I say that some schools are avoided like the last portion of Cod Mornay in the school canteen. It’s in everyone’s best interest that teachers on supply have a good experience, not least the kids we’re teaching. And don’t forget, if the school managers aren’t careful, the nightmare scenario might happen - one of them might end up in front of a class.

The writer has recently taken up supply teaching after 20 years in a full-time teaching job