A day in the life of a supply teacher begins with the sound of the alarm clock going off at 5.30am. The supply rises from bed, sinks into the hot bathtub or the dashes for the cold shower. After the ritual of cleansing yesterday’s school, the supply dresses. The male supply dresses in suit and tie, and the female supply wears nice clothes - no jeans, no trainers and no T-shirts for either. The supply prepares their lunchbox. There is no way of knowing whether school meals will be available or edible to your fancy or whether there will be food purchasing facilities near the school.
Halfway through preparing this lunch, the supply is interrupted by a phone call. The voice on the other end of the line, belongs to “The Consultant” from the supply agency or the Local Education Authority (LEA). Sometimes this happens the night beforehand but changes do happen at the last minute. The consultant murmurs down the line “I have School X, General Cover, no work prepared, one day supply assignment - will you take it?” You accept promptly and hang up the phone.
The supply day has begun: today you will be a maths teacher or maybe a geography teacher or maybe a PE teacher - general cover means jack of all trades, master of none. General cover means the regular teacher just called in sick so you will have to prepare the workj yourself in the half hour between arriving at school and the first lesson. The students need to be learning and you are their teacher for the day. Such is the daily supply teacher’s life. You will only accept long term supply if it is your speciality subject and if there are no good reasons for not going on contract directly with a school - the job is the same, but the obligations and the pay are different.
Around the country, over 20,000 other supply teachers are doing the same as you are. You are unique in your needs but by deciding to work as a supply teacher, you have joined a growing number of professionals attracted by the freedom and flexibility offered by this career option. As a supply teacher you decide when and where to work while expanding your range of hands-on experience, and confidently developing your long term career. Supply teaching is not restricted to teachers trained in the UK - those with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) - seeking a three day working week while tending the garden for two days, or those with young children who wish to spend more time with their own rather than other people’s children. Supply teaching also offers newly trained teachers (NQT) as well as those returning to the profession the opportunity to expereince a variety of schools before deciding on a permanent post. It also offers non-UK trained teachers a unique working holiday experience.
Never, in my experience, has the choice and variety been better for those who have chosen teaching as a career and supply teaching as a career option. Many professional journals, newspapers, the internet and even the Yellow Pages carry large advertisements enticing qualified teacheres into the world of supply teaching. The pay can be good if negotiated from the onset and the work is challenging. There is, nevertheless, a basic contradiction between the difficult roles that short term supply teachers are expected to fulfil, and the lack of support available to them in this situation. It is hardly surprising that some supply teachers find the job excessively difficult, giving rise to management’s concerns over the quality of students’ experience at their hands. To blame the unsatisfactory situation entirely on the supply teacher’s inadequacies is hardly fair, and ignores the employer’s responsibility to offer constructive professional development and support. The most awkward problem is how best to offer support to a supply teacher whose piecemeal type work pattern does not allow easy access to school-based support systems and professional development.
