Imagine taking on a new post after 19 years teaching experience which made you so unhappy you would rather throw in the towel than carry on. If you had put this to me at the beginning of 1994, I would have smiled smugly, quietly confident that this would not be happening to me.
But I did throw in the towel and became a casual supply teacher, a job I thought would mean arriving in disorganised classrooms with little guidance and suspiciously frequent playground duties. I was wrong. I have been treated professionally wherever I have been and haven’t enjoyed my work so much in years.
The experience has also made me reconsider how schools are staffed. One teacher for one class for the whole year is no longer the best way to deliver the curriculum in primary schools. Last term I taught a class for half the week, while another teacher covered the other half, basing the timetable on our respective curricular strengths. This was a Year 3 class, at an age when I always visualise children with question marks and light bulbs popping out of their heads. The pleasure of working with them was greatly enhanced by teaching in areas in which I was particularly confident.
There are also clear social advantages to having more than one teacher. There will always be personality clashes between staff and children a change of teacher can alleviate this perennial problem.
Meanwhile, I’m dependent on the needs and finances of individual schools, so at this time of year I’m hopefully anticipating your seasonal run of coughs and colds. Nothing serious, you understand, just enough for a few extra days to help me pay the bills.
Joy Wetton is a supply teacher in Dudley, west Midlands.
