Teachers - in 'ere please

When i finished my PGCE i went on supply to start with, as we were relocating for OH's job and by the time he had his job confirmed and i knew what area we were moving to there weren't many job vacancies left.

Anyhoo.... i didn't have any work til the week before october half term and then it was 2 weeks as a TA, had 1 day actual supply teaching after half term, then nothing til end of Nov when i was asked to do supply as a lab tech (i'm a science teacher).

Thanks Claire. This is obviously going to depend upon area. I'm in Norfolk.

I also wonder if (no offence intended!) more experienced teachers are grabbed quicker? I work a fairly difficult school and we have a no NQT policy for supply teachers unless on fixed term contracts.

I don't know, I've never done supply, but I know my school are trying everything possible to cut back on supply cover. We get moved around a bit, we use HLTA's to cover short term (as in odd days) of staff illness rather than get a 1 day supply and the SMT cover us for courses if we get approved to go.

If the education budget is getting hit in the coming year as well, more schools might start thinking like this, so I have no idea how easy it will be to get ad hoc supply. If it is only a few days every so often you might be ok, it depends how much you would depend on that income I guess.

I did a few terms worth of supply inNorwich & other parts of Norfolk. I originally staed looking for supply work in summer term & it was sparse. But once I got known I had more work than I could do. Though it depends what kind of schools you're after as I worked in a few difficult schools as I really needed as much supply as I could get. If you get yourself known thats the best way. I also signed up with a few different places. I worked for the council, for select (who seemed to send me further out of norfolk) & I worked for a supply agency called Instant supply which was run by an ex teacher called Ian who got me into really nice schools. I'll see if I can find an email address or website for you. This was all a few years ago so I'm not sure what the current demand is. I suppose it depends on how much work you need.

Instant Supply website, Iain Little http://www.instantsupply.co.uk/home.aspx

Thanks Blackkat.

Hmmmm so not as prevelant maybe as I was hoping. I'd be best talking to my headteacher. he knows I will be going eventually but doesn't know I'm thinking ASAP. Our school have first day supply cover for sickness so we have a lot of supplies in a lot of the time. I could probably agee with them that I would be available but the thing is that I don't want to over commit myself.

Maybe I'm best just getting stuck back into it and see how long I can last.

Not a teacher but I did plenty of nursery/teaching assistant supply whilst pregnant. Ring a few agencies and ask them honestly how busy they are and register with as many as you can. I was registered with at least three which between them kept me quite comfortably off.

I did supply for my first term of teaching and loved it. I always got work whether through an agency or through local schools contacting me.

What you might need to do though is join an agency as well as contacting other schools. Even though the agency will probably be less pay, it's still money and if needed, you can use them. The thing with agencies though is you need to pester phone everyday to make sure they are looking for you.

Saying that, this was 5 years ago and as catarina said, a lot of schools are finding other ways to stop using supply teachers now. We use TA's at our school.

Oh and forgot to say, I'm primary and think it is easier to get supply work in primary schools. My friend was a secondary English teacher and struggled more than I did.

It might be different in other areas but we tend to rely on in school cover like HLTA's and if we do get supply in it's always the same people. You probably need to kind of get attached to a school so they will always call you first when supply is needed. Good luck if you go ahead with it and enjoy the rest of the hols x

I worked as a supply for about a year and half. and had enough work. I too was on more than companies books, and can really recommend Hays they were brilliant. I sometimes went on assured supply (or something like that) where i was paid for 5 full days just by promising to be free for all day every day and able to leave at a moments notice. Sometimes i worked 5 full days, other times i only worked half of that! Another thing to think about is that you dont get paid over the holidays at all. So that can sometimes as a bit of a shock. As someone else has said the start of terms can be slow as all teachers are refreshed and generally not ill and none of the courses have started. Once you get a couple of schools that ask for you in person you should be fine.