Author Archives: Sharon Wood

About Sharon Wood

Sharon Wood, aka NuttySupplier, launched the forum at SupplyBag.co.uk in 2005 whilst on supply. Having worked as a primary teacher for too many years, I chose supply teaching as a career, in order to achieve a good work / life balance.

Making an Impression

The 10 Commandments of Supply Teaching – in no particular order. by Sharon Wood

Making the right impression as a supply teacher

Work smart and you’ll be a great supply teacher!

  1. Be friendly to everyone right from the start – cleaners and secretaries are often closest to the Head Teacher!
  2. Leave the classroom tidy – but don’t mess too much with the teacher’s desk.
  3. Be confident – if a school thinks they can leave you to get on with it, without having to fuss around with you, they’re more likely to ask you to come back.
  4. Tell them you had a great day – flattery gets you everywhere remember! This works with the children too.
  5. Be prepared – for anything to happen!
  6. Learn names – staff and children, as quickly as possible, and remember them.
  7. Be smart – in your appearance and in your working. Leave plenty of information on how they day went for the class teacher. Remark on the children’s achievements, and any disappointments. Avoid making unnecessary derogatory remarks about the children! Think – would it be professional for you to tell the child’s parents? If not, don’t tell the child’s teacher either!
  8. Be efficient – If you need to sign time sheets etc., do this before the end of the day. Many secretaries and bursars do not work until the end of the school day, use your morning break to clear up any business which is not related to your teaching timetable.
  9. Mark the work – I’ve always been a diligent marker, sometimes seeing everyone leave bar the caretaker before I have left a school. Mark at every opportunity you have: break, lunchtime (I mark whilst eating, but if in a new school, I do make sure I leave time to pop into the staffroom at some point for five minutes) and during lessons. This does not mean sit and mark the numeracy while the children sit and do their literacy! I make it a policy not to use the teacher’s chair/desk during the day. I walk round with my red/green pen in hand while the children are working (KS2 – obviously this doesn’t apply so much in Hands-On KS1) and the children really do respond to this. While the children are on task, they very much appreciate a word or two every so often regarding their work. Take a few tours of the classroom while they are settled and mark their work as you go. It’s easy to think it’s unfair when it’s well after half four when you leave, and you were only officially paid until 3:45pm, but it doesn’t often go unnoticed, and it’s one way to help ensure the school contact you again offering work. And remember, those teachers who walked out half an hour after the children left, have probably taken home 64 books to mark, a policy to review, staff meeting notes to tweak, an assembly to write, and a parents’ evening to prepare for!
  10. Follow the lesson plans – It is no small feat managing to fit the current curriculum into a school year, along with Christmas panto’s, field trips and sports matches, so don’t make it any harder! Teachers will not specially request a supply teacher in whom they have no confidence that a) lesson plans are followed, and b) work is marked effectively.

What’s In Your Supply Bag?

So, the phone rings, or your diary tells you that you should be in Nice Primary School, you pick up your bag and head for the door, but what does that bag contain?

There are generally 2 schools of thought on this question, either a huge bag/a box in the boot of your car, or 2 pens in your pocket. We’ll consider both here and leave you to decide on the best way for you.

What's in Your Supply Bag

New to supply? You might want to reconsider taking the kitchen sink with you.

The first school of thought says, ‘you should be prepared for every eventuality and carry everything you need’. In this scenario, you carry files for all the subjects or key stages you teach, containing stand-alone lessons and time-fillers you have collected over the years from past classes, books and websites.

You also carry pens, pencils, rubbers, rulers, paper (lined and plain); P.E. kit; whistle; red, blue, black and green biros; reward stickers; glue; blue tak; board pens; whiteboards; a data stick containing interactive whiteboard presentations; a street atlas; water …

The second school of thought is a couple of pens, your phone, a diary and your lunch.

I freely admit I once belonged to the first school. I would lug a huge bag around on public transport and hardly ever opened it. It contained all of the above and more and – at most – I would use my whistle and pens.

After 4 terms of lugging the thing around, I decided to try School of Thought number 2. I now have an A5 wallet in which I carry a Morning Sheet to collect all those vital bits of information when I get to a new school, a Handover Sheet for the end of the day; blue, black, red and green biros; a whistle; reward stickers and certificates, and my “Mrs C says Well Done!” stamp for marking.

I carry some time-filler ideas round in my head, my favourite being to take the name of the school or a famous name and challenge the children to make as many words as they can using the letters. Handwriting and silent reading also serve.

[bctt tweet=”What should I put in my supply bag? #supplychat”]

Obviously, if a school tells me no planning will be left, I have stand alone lessons I can take, and if they don’t until I get there, I set a time filler and scour the classroom for lessons I can do.

The first time I left the giant bag behind I admit I was nervous, but I haven’t missed it yet. I’m not saying the minimalist approach is for everyone, but give it a try one day and see if it works for you!

Article submitted by Sarah Cruickshank, Education Writer and Supply Teacher.

Where next? There’s a great quick read here on Work Life Balance. Check out our resources area here too.

Preparation for a Day Supply Teaching

by Sharon Wood

So, you’ve had that call, and you have time, maybe a day, to prepare. What to do? Many teachers experience feelings of stress on supply, especially if it’s going to be their first day in a new school.

Here are some practical ideas to help your day run more smoothly, and to keep you busy while waiting to set off:

  1. Do you know where the school is? If not, take time to go there. It really does save a lot of anxiety on the morning of the supply day.
  2. Save the school’s telephone number on your mobile phone. You never know what’s going to happen that morning. Traffic, transport etc. and I’ve actually had to call the school once to ask them to let me in as no-one was answering the door!
  3. Get your clothes and lunch ready the night before. And then set two alarms.
  4. Look up the latest OFSTED report online.
  5. Get your bag ready. Include chocolate, a couple of bottles of water, half a dozen pencils and your trainers. Read Sarah’s article ‘What’s in your supply bag?‘ for more ideas.
  6. Have in mind how you are going to introduce yourself to the children, giving them your name and your expectations for the day.
  7. Be prepared to be faced with no planning. This should not happen if you have been pre-booked, but unfortunately sometimes it does. In which case, as long as you identify one literacy lesson, one numeracy lesson, one foundation lesson (don’t assume you’ll be let loose in the hall for gymnastics or in the ICT suite!) and one time-filler (circle time, personal research into their geography topic, etc.) which you can deliver with few resources, you’ll do okay! If there is planning, don’t enforce your own planning.
  8. Take time to learn the names of the Head Teacher, Deputy Head, Class Teacher you are covering and the Secretary etc., perhaps from the school website.
Preparation for a Day Supply Teaching

Tips and hints on how to make the most of the time you have before you arrive at school.

If you have any other ideas you would like to add to this list, please contact us.

Where next? There’s a great quick read here on preparing for the school year. Check out our resources area here too.

Early Morning Calls – Supply Teaching

7.30am, the phone rings, do you:

  • Answer within 2 rings, you’ve been up washed, suited and booted with a bag packed since 7 anyway?
  • Stick your hand out of a nice, warm bed, grunt a greeting, then run around like a headless chicken getting yourself sorted?
  • Put the pillow over your head and pretend the phone isn’t ringing, then feel guilty for the whole day … should you have picked it up?
  • You unplugged the phone last night, so you know it won’t ring?
  • You made the decision not to take early morning calls, so you have nothing to worry about?

As a supply teacher, you are a business, you may have an outside agency that markets you, or you might be doing that yourself, but whether or not to take early morning calls is a business decision that you must make.

Early Morning Calls - Supply Teaching

Sarah helps us learn how to arrive for a day’s supply teaching sunny side up!

Early in my supply career, I decided that I wasn’t going to take early calls, I have a young son and a partner who works away from home, so that 7.30 call meant having to find someone to do the school runs and getting 2 people sorted. I let all my schools know that I couldn’t take early calls and they all respected that decision. Very occasionally, a school does call to ask if I could possibly go in … if I say ‘no’, they aren’t surprised, and if I say ‘yes’, they know I’m doing them a big favour and my stock rises a few points. Either way, this is a win-win situation for me and I don’t have to feel guilty about turning people down.
If you do decide to take early calls you MUST be ORGANISED, follow these tips to make the process as painless as possible:

  • Let your agencies and schools know that you will take early calls (either every day, or on certain days.)
  • Put your clothes out ready the night before.
  • Make a packed lunch the night before, or have things that you can grab easily if a call comes.
  • Have a bag packed with all your supply resources (see the article “What’s In Your Supply Bag?”)
  • Have a GPS or a good street atlas, so you can find your way.
  • Have a pad and pen by the phone to take down details of the school and your day.
  • Get up early and be washed, suited, booted and ready to go.
  • Set a time after which you’re not going to stay rooted to the spot, waiting for a call. Once that time comes, change out of your working clothes and enjoy a free day.
[bctt tweet="Anyone else waiting for a call? #supplychat"]

In the final analysis, the early morning call question is a simple yes/no one and as long as you make the decision, let every one know what it is and be consistent about your response to requests you’ll never have to feel guilty about a lie-in again!!!!

Article submitted by Sarah Cruickshank, Education Writer and Supply Teacher.

Where next? There’s a great quick read here on Education staffing solutions (ESS)
Check out our resources area here too.

Overseas Trained Teachers – Supply Teaching in England

by Sharon Wood

Overseas trained teachers can work in England as supply teachers. This article tries to clarify the process, and point you in the direction of further information. SupplyBag.co.uk has a wealth of information and resources for supply teachers.

There are different rules applicable depending on whether you qualified within the European Union or not. If you qualified as a teacher inside the EU, then you can apply for and gain a teaching contract in England in much the same way as a teacher who qualified in England. Obviously your fluency in English will be taken into consideration at interview.

If you qualified outside the European Economic Area, you can only work as an unqualified teacher, and then only for up to four years. Working as an unqualified teacher means considerably less income! As of 2007, the pay is roughly half of a qualified teacher’s pay. Starting at a little over £14,000 at the low end of the pay scale throughout England and Wales, it rises to just over £27,000 at the top of the pay scale in Inner London.

Overseas Trained Teachers - Supply Teaching

Teachers trained overseas can work in the UK… eventually!

However, once you have found a position as an unqualified teacher, you can join the Overseas Trained Teacher Programme (OTTP) which will help you gain qualified status in England.

The OTTP lasts for up to a year, depending on your needs, and provides you with training and assessment opportunities to ensure you meet the requirements to gain qualified teacher status (QTS) and therefore the ability to teach in England with full pay.

For further information, visit The Training and Development Agency for Schools and TeacherNet.

Where next? There’s a great quick read here on overseas teachers guide to UK taxation. Check out our resources area here too.

DBS Certificates (formerly CRB Checks)

by Sharon Wood

Information on DBS Certificates for supply teachers wishing to undertake work in England. [Please note: I keep this information as up-to-date as time will allow.]

A DBS Certificate is now a legal requirement whether you wish to work as a paid employee in a school, or whether you simply want to volunteer.

Currently, you cannot apply for a DBS Certificate for yourself. An Enhanced Disclosure must be requested by an agency, a Local Authority, or a school (predominantly through their Local Authority).

The DBS Certificate process poses many problems for people wishing to take on supply work.

[If you work through agencies, you will, in most cases, be asked to pay for your own. Working through multiple agencies often means paying for multiple CRB Checks. You must then place the onus on the agencies to find work for you in order to cover the cost of their requested CRB Check! There are some agencies who will accept a CRB Check requested by someone else. It is ultimately the organisation’s decision whether to accept any Enhanced Disclosure that you already hold. They will take into consideration the length of time you have held it for etc., but it is often company policy to have a new CRB Check for each new supply teacher. They can then use this as a selling point to schools.

If you wish to work directly through schools, you need to somehow obtain a CRB Check that the schools will accept before going into your first school. In September 2006, regulations were introduced which means CRB checks can be passed between employment agencies supplying staff to schools (including further education institutions) and schools themselves, so if you have had a check through an agency, they can pass it onto a school on your behalf. You may have a CRB Check from voluntary work that you undertake, from university still, from a previous employment. CRB Checks, although the older they are they less reliable they become, do not have a Use By Date! They are relevant at the time of issue, and have no formal period of validity.

CRB Checks for supply teachers

I have no answer as yet as to how you go about getting a CRB Check for yourself, if you wish to work in schools without going through an agency. Personally, I worked in 13 schools before anyone asked to see my Disclosure. I’d not even thought about it as, unaware of legislation, I thought the CRB Check from the school I had worked in the previous term would cover me. It was in a different county, so didn’t cover me at all. I called my previous employer and requested a copy (unaware), which never arrived, but by then, I was a regular face at many schools. I finally went through the procedure when I accepted a 0.2 temporary position in a school – they had to then request a CRB Check before I could accept the job formally, despite having worked there on supply for over a year already. And yes, it was clear! Phew! ;o)

(The above paragraph is my story. It shouldn’t have happened like that but it did. I have had a complaint that I am being unprofessional by publishing it, almost that I am encouraging schools to take on supply teachers without a care over their CRB Check. I’m not, and I’m not. It’s just my story!)

 

Information for Teaching Supply Agencies

A plea on behalf of supply teachers everywhere! (Needs checking and updating – page in progress!)

The Portability Framework Guidance, as laid out by the Criminal Records Bureau, has been replaced it seems by this newsletter.

Many supply teachers do not join agencies as they hear about others paying for 6 different CRB Checks with 6 different agencies, where just one would do, then not getting any work from the agencies to help pay the bill!

Some agencies offer to pay for the checks; it is built into their recruitment costs. Others take a proportion out of the first few days of work that the supply teacher undertakes, thus ensuring that it is not wasted money as far as the supply teacher is concerned – if they receive no work from you, then they don’t pay for the Check.]

 

Links

Criminal Records Bureau – To work as a teacher, you need to hold the higher level ‘Enhanced Disclosure’. Find more information here.

The Times – A letter with notable signatories (including Chris Woodhead and Johnny Ball) regarding the current legislation surrounding CRB Checks.

CRB Checks Petition – CRB Checks are out of date as soon as they go to print. Many people are paying for multiple CRB Checks as organisations are reluctant to accept their portability. People are turning away from voluntary work in their droves as they are required to provide CRB Checks, at around £36 a time. Children and vulnerable adults are suffering through lack of volunteers (see letter to The Times above.)

Where next? There’s a great quick read here on early morning calls
Check out our resources area here too.

Visiting Schools Prospecting For Work

Visiting schools prospecting for supply teaching work

by Sharon Wood

Supply teachers often can find work without going through an agency. I did! If this is something you have thought about doing, read the following information, and also why not visit the forum to read about the experiences of other supply teachers?

Making visits to schools can be invaluable for many reasons.

  1. You find them in your own time. Some school buildings really do hide themselves away. Some schools have strange rituals about how you are admitted to the building. If you receive a call later that week at 8:45am asking you to come in and work as a supply teacher for the day, you’ll be glad you know where it is!
  2. You can decide whether or not you really would like to take on supply work there. During a first visit, you may notice all sorts of gremlins in the way the school is run, and decide after all that you can live without that money!
  3. You can make a great first impression. Seize the opportunity with both hands to show them how good a supply teacher you really are. It doesn’t matter who you meet, however briefly, word will get back to whoever books supply teachers for the school. Be smart, be nice, be open, be interested, be confident, be knowledgeable and be enthusiastic.
  4. You might get a booking for supply work right there and then: it happens! NuttySupplier visited 6 schools in one day and got 4 days of bookings whilst stood in the entrance hall of the second school she visited!

Visiting schools can be daunting, but ultimately in your best interest.

 

Where next? There’s a great quick read here on welcoming supply teachers. Check out our resources area here too.

Teaching Unions

As a supply teacher working in England, you do not have to belong to a teaching union or association. However, we highly recommend that you are a member of one. A teaching union or association can be like an invisible safety net. They offer support, information and guidance. They also can provide legal assistance. If you do not have membership, then please look into Professional Indemnity Insurance and make sure you have legal expense cover.

Some teachers unions and teaching associations have variable membership fees depending on how much you are expecting to work as a supply teacher and on part-time contracts. For example, the NUT for one, has one price for supply teachers (paid daily/hourly) and a pricing structure based on you working up to 30% of a week, 30% to 60%, or 60%+. I used to update my details once a term as contracts began and ended to make sure I wasn’t paying too much or too little.

Teaching Unions - Information for Supply Teachers

Please find below links to the main Teaching Unions in the UK:

Where next? There’s a great quick read here on Teaching your own child. Check out our resources area here too.

Paperwork for a job application

by Sharon Wood

SupplyBag.co.uk contains a wealth of information for supply teachers and prospective supply teachers. Here we look at your teacher’s job application.

I have included an example of a letter to send to schools prospecting for supply work here, but I am well aware that around 40%* of supply teachers are transitory: they are actively looking for a more long-term contract. I added this section to the website with you in mind.

Paperwork - CV, Supporting Statement, School's Application Form, where does it end?

Feel buried under a mountain of paperwork? Once you have a handle on it, it only needs a little re-working for each fresh application.

For NQTs who have yet to secure their first permanent teaching contract, for teachers returning to work after a period of absence (to raise a family, for example), and for those who have relocated, this section provides advice on securing a teaching position.

If, whilst out hunting for the perfect job, you are undertaking supply work, do not under-estimate the value of this work! Add it to your CV, include it in your supporting statement. Many gainfully employed teachers would quake and quiver at the prospect of teaching on day-to-day supply. You are doing it – successfully – and living to tell the glorious tale of how you enhance your teaching skills and the learning environment of the children you meet daily. If you would like help in showcasing your flexibility, your professionalism and your quick-thinking within your own personal statement, click here.

* I read it recently, haven’t remembered where yet!

Where next? There’s a great quick read here on part time teaching but full time parent. Check out our resources area here too.

Sample Cover Letter to Schools

by Sharon Wood

Sample cover letter to schools for supply teachersThis sample cover letter is loosely based on one I wrote in, ooh, many moons ago, and sent off to schools in the hope of winning some supply teaching work. It proved successful, and as you can see here, others have found it has helped too.

 

Letter Template

Dear Mrs Headteacher,

Re: Supply Teaching

May I take this opportunity to indicate my wish to undertake some supply work at Nitsville Junior School. Though I am self-employed, I am able to carry out a small amount of teaching. I have compiled a brief history of my experience, below, for your perusal and have also enclosed my curriculum vitae.

In 1900 I completed a P.G.C.E. (Key Stage II) at Smallville University before working with a full-time, permanent contract at ABC Junior School, County. I taught Year 45 and was given the role of First-Aid box Co-ordinator upon appointment. I left due to ***** in July 1904 despite having been offered the position of Head of Year 45 for the forthcoming September. However, I continued to teach as much as possible whilst in recovery, on a supply basis at ABC, and at St Kayleigh’s CofE Junior School, County, where I had previously completed my first teaching practice obtaining the highest grades awarded by that school in 330 years.

In May 1914 I secured a full-time permanent contract at Thebest Junior School, County where I taught consecutively in Years 3, 4 and 6, and again, was appointed First-Aid box Co-ordinator. I left Thebest in July 1917 to relocate and join my partner in Nicecounty. Both ABC and Thebest were three-form entry schools.

I have since experienced two very different, exciting, yet steep learning curves: the first improving my Design & Technology skills during the complete full-time renovation of a house with my partner; and the second, the daunting task of holding the position of Manager at Fawlty Hotel Ltd, Crumpold, for a year.

I currently have three clients for whom I perform consultancy and accountancy work, research projects, administrations and bookkeeping duties, mainly on an ad hoc basis. This work enables me to employ the skills gained in my first degree at Scrummy University, BA (Hons) The Disney Economics.

I appreciate your consideration and time, and very much hope I am given the opportunity to work with you in due course.

Yours Sincerely,
Nutty

Where next? There’s a great quick read here on sample curriculum vitae.  Check out our resources area here too.