Teachers for Supply

Safeguarding children is something that all teachers should be trained on and it’s important to keep up to date with the latest methods and advice to ensure that you are compliant with current legislation. This can be tricky however when you are in an unfamiliar school as a supply teacher.

Now some people may think that this is not an important aspect of supply work however it is essential that no matter how long or short you are responsible for that class you do your utmost to ensure that the safeguarding standards of the school are upheld.

The first thing to do is to familiarise yourself with the schools safeguarding standards and procedures so that you are equipped with the information should you need to use it. This is just as important as reading over the fire drill procedures and the first aid information so should not be overlooked.

As a new unknown adult in a position of responsibility, you may also actually be in a position where a child is more likely to approach you with an issue relating to safeguarding as there are less embarrassment and fear of judgment from someone who is completely unknown to them and they may not see again.

Teaching is a hugely stressful job and there are many aspects of teaching that people find difficult and can cause unnecessary pressure and stress. As a teacher there will be times when you may feel that you need a bit of help and advice. It may need that you need advice on how to deal with the behaviour or a certain individual or class of students or possibly how to teach a particular subject in an informative but fun way. There are a number of places that you can go to help seek out the answers to your queries and many teachers often start by asking the advice of fellow colleagues or the head teacher. You may even find that a colleague has been through a similar situation to you and can help you by suggesting things that you could try that seemed to work well for them. If it is a certain topic or element of the curriculum that you are worried about, why not see if anyone has copies of lesson plans that you can look through to help you plan your lesson.

Often there is a huge amount of information, worksheets and lesson plan ideas online, your school may have access to sites such as Twinkl which can give you a great place to start.

With the turnover of teachers so high at present and more and more leaving the profession entirely, we have to question what is going on in the world of education. After speaking to a number of teachers, it is easy to see what the most common reasons for leaving are and why many of them say teaching is not what it used to be.

Education has moved on a lot over the past decade and children who are now starting reception are doing work that maybe 20 years ago would have been done in years 4 or 5.  It is great that our children have the opportunity to learn more from a younger age but with this comes added pressure to students but also to teachers whose job it is not constantly checked that the children are at the level they need to be.

Teaching has become more targets and results-based and there is also a lot more paperwork for a teacher to complete. With teachers often having classes of 30 plus, lesson planning and marking now takes up a huge part of their working day, often meaning they are having to carry on working at home in the evenings.

Each teacher has their own style and a way in which they like to teach. This may have worked for years but if you change schools or have a new head teacher or head of the year start then you may be required to change your teaching style to some extent.

All schools have set rules that they need to follow that are set out by the department of education and they also will have in-house rules that are set by the county or that specific school. It is important to find these out before you start so you can ensure that you are teaching in the correct way for that school and you are advising pupils in the right way.

If you believe that something could be changed to improve a process at school, then be sure to speak to the head of the year or head teacher and express your views to see if they agree before you go ahead with any changes.

You can still put your own personality into teaching even if the school has strict guidelines that need to be adhered to.

Single-gender private schools have been around for many years, however, more recently public schools have also opted for this form of education.

There is much debate over the pros and cons of single-sex education with promoters stating that it allows teachers to specifically target the typical learning styles of either boys or girls as they can be very different. Even down to the temperature of the classroom, studies show that girls learn more effectively in a warm classroom whereas boys tend to do better in cooler classrooms.

Some parents feel that in single-gender classes their children are less likely to be distracted from their studies by the opposite sex especially in secondary schools.

People who are for mixed schools would argue that not all children fit into specific gender roles, therefore, adhering to one style of teaching would not be suitable for every member of a single-sex class.

Also, many parents believe that the social aspect of a mixed school environment is vitally important for general life education and should not be limited for the sake of single-gender education.

Either way, it’s an individual choice so each to their own!