Teach Secondary - Issue 14.6

Supply and DEMANDS One anonymous supply teacher shares their recent experiences of the classroom, and explains why school leaders should pay closer attention to a student-driven culture shift taking place right in front of them... O ver the several decades of my teaching career, there have been a number of times when I’ve wanted to move on from a school but not found a suitable replacement. It’s during these periods that I’ve taken up supply teaching for a time, until a suitable and more appealing vacancy comes along. I’ve got to admit, this isn’t a decision for the faint- hearted. It takes some chutzpah. The sweet spot – a short-term contract – doesn’t come along overnight, so in the meantime, you’ll have to put up with a fair amount of uncertainty. Waking up not knowing if you’re going to get any work that day. Or, if you do, where it might be. If you’re to get there before morning registration, should you have already left by now? And will it turn out be a day in heaven or hell? Negotiating the minefields To misquote an old blues song, nobody knows you when you’re on supply. Nor will you knowwhere to find the toilets, or the staff room, or the removal room. You won’t always be able to spot the troublemaker kids hiding among the angels, be aware of whether loo trips are allowed during lessons, or know if a pupil really was seeing their form tutor, instead of just skiving. Then there are the minefields involved with taking a register blind, negotiating the sanctions ladder as a noob and dealing with that old chestnut of ‘ We did this last week! ’ Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to assume control and start building positive relationships within 15 seconds of entering a room containing that most deadly foe – schoolkids hunting supply prey . Parachuted into the unknown and expected to function instantly, you’re a teaching commando. Just like the SAS, you have to think flexibly and improvise under pressure, or else you won’t stay standing. It’s all about making rapid decisions in highly unpredictable situations, minute-by- minute, for eight hours. That demands reserves of resilience, mental toughness and emotional regulation, without losing your professionalism or letting your standards of excellence slip. Or your senses of humour and humility, for that matter. All while remembering to hydrate. I guess what I’m saying is it’s not for everybody… Life in academicNo Man’s Land Another similarity with the SAS is that you have to ‘go equipped’. Your kit bag will require a survival pack consisting of reams of paper, board markers and wipers, pens, tissues, notebooks, a selection of printed worksheets and a USB stick stuffed with subject content. You’ll also need to be sufficiently literate in about a dozen or so subjects in order to get any given lesson started with complete confidence, while you wait for the set cover work to arrive – if indeed it ever does… You’ll further need instant recall of access codes to a menagerie of learning websites, so that you can get something interactive up on the board while simultaneously dealing with multiple attempts at fleeing your classroom by well- practised escape artists. Doing a stint on daily supply every few years is to be highly commended, as it’s an acid test of your own raw skills. Sure, we all believe we’re really good teachers when surveying the intricacies of our latest seating plan, with well- crafted lesson plans to hand, in the cosy familiarity of our own classroom. It’s a whole other ball game when you’re out there getting shelled to bits in academic No Man’s Land, with nought but an expired Kahoot! login for backup... Being the bellwether As Morpheus says to Neo in TheMatrix , ‘ Don’t think you are. Know you are. ’ There’s nothing quite like the validation, not to mention the thrill, of turning a zoo-like free-for-all in the drama studio into a quiet, but engaging lesson. Especially if it ends with students and departmental staff alike warmly asking if you’ll be coming back in again tomorrow. It’s more than an ego boost, though. You get to travel comprehensively outside of a single school’s echo chamber or MAT silo. You get to see how the other half lives, in settings that perhaps you wouldn’t have gone to, if you’d had the choice. Travel broadens the mind, and traversing a wider educational terrain can open up your knowledge of what’s really going on out there, while firing your imagination for how things could be done differently. The humble supply teacher is a bellwether for the wider education system. You can always judge a school’s systems, curriculum and behaviour policies by the experiences of its supply teachers. Morpheus’ injunction applies equally to headteachers. You can’t really say that your school’s doing well until a complete outsider – someone who actually has to use your “Parachuted into the unknownandexpected to function instantly,you’rea teaching commando” 12 teachwire.net/secondary