Making Supply Work For You

Supply teaching can be a great resource when planning your next career move - if you know how to play the game and keep your head!

While for some, the thought of supply teaching or tutoring is furthest from their minds when deciding to leave their permanent teaching post, supply teaching can provide a lot of benefits.

Walking into a classroom can feel comfortable, and when you’re still feeling battered from full-time teaching, the known may be preferable to working in a completely new environment.

Supply can give you a financial cushion while you explore other options but there can be dangers (perhaps a bit of a strong word!) so using this option strategically is important.

Reflecting on experiences of members in the Adventures After Teaching Facebook group and those inside the Academy, here are my top tips for making supply teaching work for you and the benefits it can give us.

Your CV has no gaps

On any CV you’ll need to explain any periods of time when you’re out of work to prospective employers. The good thing about doing supply (whether this be planned or flexible) is that on your CV you can write something along the lines of “Supply/cover teacher - various dates between x and x”. You needn’t have be working full time but this handily covers you.

It also means you can add more experiences and skills to your CV, including:

Flexibility to changing priorities
An ability to form strong working relationships quickly
Adaptable to new environments and teams
Time/diary management

These are clearly all things you do in the classroom as a teacher anyway, but the ability to be parachuted in and make things run smoothly, can only be a plus for your CV.

You can continue to contribute to your pension

This will be more important to some than others and I’ll be writing another blog soon about choosing supply work as your new career change.

While you’re being paid by the local authority, school or academy in the UK, you can opt to pay into your Teacher’s Pension Scheme.

If you work for or through a supply agency, they are not allowed to contribute. Instead, agencies are required to offer access to workplace pension schemes to all teachers over the age of 22 earning £6,240 and £50,270 a year before tax.

Agencies will contribute a minimum of 3%, with the teacher contributing at least 5%; you can still opt into a scheme if you are earning less.

If you work for a number of different agencies, you may well end up with several ‘pension pots’ so it is worth asking them to explain their scheme when initially enquiring.

Supply give you flexibility

This one requires a little bit of a mindset shift!

We’re conditioned in school to give first and ask questions later and if you’ve suffered burnout and/or reduced self-esteem, there is a huge temptation to firstly take whatever we’re given, and secondly, put up with a lot before we complain or walk away.

If you’ve already been strong enough to leave you contract, it’s crucial you continue to respect yourself and your boundaries - otherwise you’re replacing one overwhelming environment for another!

Supply teaching gives you more power to say “no”.

If you’ve had an unpleasant experience in a school, ie lack if support or guidance, you can simply tell an agency you’ll not be returning. At the moment there is a high demand for reliable cover teachers so you can expect to have multiple options.

Secondly, you can walk away at the end of the day and say no to additional tasks - as long as you’ve followed their policy, for example marked work, left clear feedback for the teacher you’re covering, you can go home knowing there is nothing else to do part from make dinner and do something for you!

Go directly to the schools

Especially when working in known schools, booking in planned supply can be great when you’re easing out of the classroom.

I remember when I was finding work after coming home from traveling that simply phoning the schools and dropping off my CV meant they could book me in advance - often you’ll get planning sent to you before hand (it’s good to ask for this) or can ask them if it’s ok to plan something yourself.

What I liked about planned supply and just working with a handful of schools, is that you got to know the staff and children but could maintain that all important energetic distance.

Working directly with schools will often mean you are being paid a higher rate as they are not paying agency fees, so if you can be relied on, they’d rather liaise directly with you.

For those who have been burnt in their previous school but still enjoy teaching, visiting the same schools regularly is a good way of getting to know staff teams - you may find a school you would love to work with longer term.

Remember this is part of the exit plan, not the solution

This leads me onto a word of warning… When you’re supporting a school on a regular basis the relationship can soon turn a little familiar! You may be asked to do more, cover more, take stuff home, and, before you know it, you’re being propositioned with a two-term full time contract.

We can end up back in the same place, the comfort of knowing what we’re doing and the fear of the unknown keeping us in a role we no longer want.

Do not be convinced that you can't do anything else.

If you know you’re using supply teaching as a short term solution, keep focused on the end game.

Make sure you plan in time to research alternative careers or jobs, network on LinkedIn and allocate time to write your skills-based CV. If you need ongoing support and accountability to keep moving forward with this, do check out the support offered inside the Adventures After Teaching Academy.

Supply teaching can be a real gift if you can manage your energy - if you don’t get too involved in the politics and start taking the mental load home with you, it can give you the much needed time and mental space to explore your next steps.