Top 10 Tips for Supply Teachers

by | Jan 4, 2025 | Top 10 Tips for Supply Teachers | 0 comments

Top 10 Tips for Supply Teachers.

Supply Teaching can be a tough gig so any little tips and pointers that can help you out are invaluable. I asked a selection of teachers to give me their top tips for supply teachers and in no particular order here is what they came up with.

  1. Arrive Early! – Get to your assignment as soon as you can, even if it means sitting in your car for 10 mins waiting to be let in or finishing a cuppa. Starting the day in a calm and relaxed manner will hopefully mean the day continues that way. Sometimes when you take a last minute booking or if you are having to travel further than you usually would this is not always possible. They tend to be the days that end up being the most tricky. You end up chasing your tail and often never catch up!
  2. Always Have a Back Up Plan – 99 times out of 100 there will be a full set of plans and resources ready for you to help your day go as smoothly as if the Class teacher where there themselves. If not there should be a year group partner or member of SLT to ask. If that fails have something in your bag or on a memory stick that you can use as a last resort.
  3. Be Nice to People – Usually the contacts in a school will be very pleased to see you as you are helping them out. Always smile to the person in the office, they usually make the bookings! Make an effort to get along with your classroom support, TA’s, LSA’s they will be watching and seeing how you get on with the class and will feed it back to the class teacher, office manager or even the Head Teacher. Acknowledge those in charge if you see the head say Hello and tell them who you are, where you are from and how wonderful the class is! They will remember you and request you next time.
  4. Feedback – Leaving a couple of paragraphs of notes feeding back how the day went. What went well? What did not go well?. Who worked hard? Who was helpful? Who was a pain? Remember to write these like a report sandwiching the negatives between two positives.
  5. Have a Supply Teacher Toolkit – When I was a supply teacher I used to take a builders toolbox with me full of the things I might need in the classroom. Pencils, Rubbers Rulers, Stickers, Stamps, Scissors, Glue Sticks, Blue Tac, Sharpeners, Stapler, Tea Bags! I could go on. It was a good talking point and conversation starter with the pupils as well as meaning I didn’t have to hunt around the classroom for things
  6. Stick to the Plans – Nothing infuriates a teacher more than coming pack to their classroom the next day to find that plans have not been followed or the children are not where they should be for the following days lesson. If you are unsure ask somebody before deviating from the plan.
  7. Leave the Classroom Tidy – Make sure you finish the afternoons work with a few minutes to spare to make sure that the children tidy the classroom and leave it how you found it. The School Cleaners and or the Class Teacher will pick up on this!
  8. Mark the Days Work – Make sure that you look at all the work that has been produced that day and either mark to the objective or if required leave more detailed marking.
  9. Have a few Tricks up your sleeve! – I used to take a few modelling balloons with me and would make something at the start of the day and explain that if everybody worked hard we would make time for one or two more at the end of the day. If you are not an expert balloonologist have a few fun games up your sleeve like Heads Down Thumbs up, Tomato Ketchup or Bingo. These are always a nice way to end the day.
  10. Sign out and Check with your contact – Quite often when you check in with your contact at the end of the day they ask if you can come back again the next day because the teacher has just called to say they won’t be back. If you walk out of the door they will ring the agency and ask them to book somebody, that might not be you!

I could of added many more things to this Blog and I am sure you will have ideas of your own but I hope that this has been helpful and if it makes your work as a supply teacher just a little bit easier, productive or enjoyable then I have achieved my goal.