»23rd December 2011

Supply

So it's been a minor age since I last updated this blog. Now I'm not one to break with convention if it will save me from thinking up something more intelligent. So here's a hotch potch 'state of the Union' address. Is this getting familiar yet?

Supply

As part of my continuing plan to stumble into whatever presents itself immediately in front of me, and to avoid filling out job applications, I signed up to some supply agencies. I had completely neglected sending off any real job applications whilst on my final placement since I wanted to make sure I actually passed the final placement so I started off September with a big, fat nothing to do on my schedule. In the grip of panic and doubt, I thought 'fuck it' and went ahead with my original 'plan' of doing supply teaching. I use the word 'plan' loosely since I had started saying 'I'm thinking of doing supply for a while' as a good way to diffuse any awkward 'so why haven't you got a job for September yet?' questions.

So after getting fed up of 'planning for Monday lol!' Failbook status updates I signed up with four supply agencies, since I was told by pretty much everyone with any experience of supply teaching that some will find you work whilst others will not, so you need to go with a few. Since I'm supposed to be very professional, JC, and because I probably overuse the redacted boxes elsewhere, I'll make up some thinly veiled pseudonyms for the various supply agencies. That way, if you know who I'm on about, then you'll know, and if you don't, then you can just imagine the supply agencies actually go by those names. I had picked up these names from my various sources, so I didn't have to take part in my least favourite activity ever: searching for jobs on the Internet. It's worth noting that I applied to all four agencies on the same day.

Bell-end

I'll get these out of the way first. I submitted my CV to these guys and either I did something wrong on their confusing website or they just didn't want to hire a newly qualified, male primary teacher; because they didn't get back in touch with me. Fuck these guys.

Can you see why I use pseudonyms now?

Bandstadt

This one came recomended from one of the teachers on my final placement, I even got a contact name. They were the quickest to reply back to me and sort out an interview. Once again I donned my fancypants Interview Suit of the Professional +3 and set off to Leeds. The interview wasn't really an interview, and was more of a 'chat' or something, which caught me off-guard. Either way, things seemed to go well, though there was a hold-up since I had to wait for a CRB check to be sent through or something. Hey, I'm trying to remember something that happened back in October here, give me a break.

There's nothing that I can really do to draw pictures of 'reviews' of supply agencies.

What followed from Bandstadt, were weeks of silence and inactivity. Had I somehow fucked up the interview? Were they waiting for me to do something before I'd start getting work? No, it just seemed to be normal practice for it to take six weeks from interveiw to finally get me on the books and ready for work. This was a shame as Bandstadt pay well, so I'd get the same equivalent pay as I would if I were in a permanent position. So due to their tardiness, Bandstadt haven't found me any work, since thanks to the next agency, I was kept pretty busy throughout November and December.

Treachery Bell

Although this agency was the last to contact me, they quickly sorted out an interview date. I had a slightly better idea what might happen in this interview, again it was a 'chat' where I went over my experience and when/where I'd be able to work. Treachery Bell are cheapskates and only pay £80 a day, compared to the Bandstadt rate that was about £110. After the interview, TB were the quickest to get me fully onto their books and have the distinction of being the only supply agency that has actually found me any work. They offer courses which is good as well since those are the sort of things you'd be getting if you were on contract at a school and which you'd otherwise be missing out on whilst on supply.

Having attended two of the courses, they both seemed of limited use, but they were free to attend and you get a certificate for turning up. Still though, £80 a day is a pretty rotten rate compared to what is considered the 'full rate', and it makes you wonder how big a cut TB are taking from whatever they charge schools per day. It is worth reiterating that they have been the only agency to find me work, although the other agencies didn't really get a look in later on for reasons I will explain later.

OSS

The OSS have been described to me as 'the best' by the deputy head at the school where I'll be at. They work exclusively in Kirklees, which is good as that's where I'd want to end up in a permanent position anyway, they also pay the full rate. The bursar at the school where I'm at had nothing good to say about them however, recomending I not go to the interview. You see, they're also the most expensive for schools. Still, it tells you something about a school if they're willing to pay the most for 'the best'. Either way, OSS came second in the race to arrange an interview, but came last in terms of getting me interviewed and ready for work since their interview for some reason was put all the way into the back end of November. This time there was a proper interview, which I wasn't expecting, thankfully my suit conferred enough bonuses and re-rolls onto me that I was able to pass all the checks.

So here are some unrelated images.

So, unsurprisingly, being the last ones to get my application processed, they haven't been able to find me any work, which is a shame as they were the agency I most wanted to work for.

So basically, despite getting interviewed and signed up with three supply agencies, only one found me any work--TB. Here's a quick roundup of my experiences with supply.

Week 1

I got a call from TB on Sunday evening asking if I was available to do a day at a C of E school in Chapel Allerton, Leeds. It was going to be a Year Two class, the same year group as my first first placement class in Shitford a year earlier. I immediately went into a panic and threw together some Bonfire Night-themed generic lesson plans in case there was no work set. Next up I had to do some reconaissance which meant a drive to the other side of Leeds. The last time I had driven through Leeds, someone ran into the back of me, so this filled me with trepidation as well. After a rather tense drive through Leeds, where I was horribly confused and entirely reliant on the sat-nav, I found the school. 'Yeah, I'm definitely not driving here tomorrow.'

So I bus'd it into Leeds which meant getting up way too early. The day went well, I was somewhat pleased. Annoyingly, on the way back into the city centre I missed a call asking if I could do some work at Cawley Lane where I used to work as a teaching assistant. Whilst in Leeds I went to the cool second hand shop to talk to the man about drum machines.

Wednesday was a school in Rawthorpe (where?) in Huddersfield near to Dalton (seriously, where?) It was a Year Six class, so I went in expecting a full day of Year Six taking the piss because it was a supply teacher, and I was not disappointed. Irritatingly, the afternoon was a timetabling shambles where I found out 20 minutes before that I needed to teach a hockey lesson. The hockey lesson never even got off the ground since by this point Year 6 had completely checked out.

On Friday I was dispatched to a school in Castleford which I was warned would be tough. Again I had scouted out the school on the night before, it was in a council estate but it hardly looked like Mogadishu. It was Friday, I thought it might be busy, it had taken 35 minutes to get to the school in the evening, so I thought it might take an hour to get in come the morning. It took 40 minutes. Since I was so ridiculously early at the school I was shown to the class and given a rather worrying twenty minute run-down of all the various conditions and behavioural problems in the class. Apprehension gave way to relief when the class 'didn't seem so bad'. After lunch, order gave way to chaos and my loosening grip on the class was close to giving way by home time. Getting home was a ludicrous farce thanks to a chaotic M62. It took 90 minutes to get home. Yeah, I'm not going back to that school, or Cas Vegas, any time soon.

Week 2 and Beyond

So Week 2 began with a call at about 7:30 to get your ass to Mars- get your ass to Mars- get your ass to Mars- get your ass to Mars- get your ass to Mars- get your ass to Mars-

I was told to get my ass to Earlsheaton (where?) in Dewsbury (seriously, wh- oh, there) to teach a Reception/Year One class. Woah! Reception? Am I even qualified to teach that? At lunch the office lady asked me, 'Are you free the rest of the week?' 'Yes [rolling eyes suspiciously] I am.' 'Can you stay here for the rest of the week?' 'Yes [rolling eyes suspiciously] I can.' And so began my time in Reception/Year One.

Towards the end of the week I was asked if I could be booked for the next three weeks. No suspicious eye rolling this time, 'Oh yes, most certainly!'/'Heelll yeahh!'/'Erm, yeah I think I can do that.' What followed was my second longest period teaching any one class, which was pretty good to say I was a supply teacher. Another week followed after the third one (I think, it's been a while) and so I had quite a long time to get to know the class as well as the school.

Some time during the last week or two, the headteacher asked me if we could have a chat at lunch in her office ('Shit, shit, shit, what have I done now? Well they can't fire me if I'm supply right? Why does this always happen to me- 'As you probably know, I'm going on secondment to another school in January-' [shrug] 'and so the deputy head will take over from me as acting head. Do you think you could teach his class until the end of the year?' At this point any pretense of a calm, cool exterior melted and I blubbered my utter eagerness to have a proper job until the end of the year. Due to various technicalities I would technically be on long-term supply for one term(!) and would then be put on a one-term contract for the summer term (!!)

This was of course splendid news and I proceeded to walk around school trying to hide a huge grin since I didn't particularly know how/when it would be made 'public'. It's nice to land a job without having to go through all that rigmarole of applying and interviewing etc. Plus, I'd be able to get two terms of my NQT year done and would be secure in the knowledge I'd be getting a steady income right up to August. I'm not really emphasising how spectacular this news was and how right time/right place the whole situation had been, especially considering my utter inability to take looking for a job at all seriously up until mid-way through September, 'So what are you doing next week when the schools start back?' [shrug]

Wrapping Up

So in the last couple of weeks before Christmas (do you see what I did there?) I had the odd day of supply here and there and had two days where I went back to the school to get acquainted with the class and get my shit together(tm) for January.

I now approached the odd day of supply with a particular lack of enthusiasm. Fortunately, the two schools I was sent to for individual days were both around Dewsbury and so relatively easy to get to. My penultimate single day of supply was in Year 4 at an EAL-heavy school in Dewsbury which reminded me a lot of Cawley Lane. The morning was a symphony of maths and literacy/ICT which gave way to a disastrous afternoon of attempting to teach a second lesson of dance with only the vaguest of planning available.

The final day of supply was a shambolic day in Chickenley where I arrived later than I would have liked due to snow to find that no work had been set. There was confusion over when assembly was, I was told it was at ten, so bang on ten o' clock I marched the class down to an empty hall, 'Oh, I think assembly is at quarter past,' said a wandering member of staff. Back to class. Back to the hall at quarter past, 'Yep, looks like it's going to be half past,' by now hangman was wearing very thin. Half past came at about the same time that I had realised the children were supposed to have had a break at quarter past. I didn't see anyone going outside supposedly due to the patchy and almost completely melted 'covering' of slush in one of the playgrounds. So far, so bad.

Okay, so maybe I could have drawn another related picture here.

Assembly was one of the tiresome twenty-minute-long certificate assemblies where various attendence and good work awards were given out. Meanwhile I was trying to think what the hell I was going to make up to do once we got back from assembly since I'd already read a Christmas story and got them to make Christmas trees. Earlier on, I was baffled and amazed when key stage co-ordinator said 'Yeah, you can just put a DVD on or something. It's Christmas!' ('What, a DVD all day? Seriously, you want me to just stick DVDs on?') After assembly was a ninety minute (I shit ye not) Christmas singing practice where the whole school was sat down in the hall right up to lunch, singing Christmas songs. My Year 2 class were getting restless and uncomfortable. You're asking for trouble if you keep children that age sat any longer than twenty minutes, so this was just ridiculous. Uncomfortable children were asking me when we were going back to class, and I had no idea since I didn't even know there was going to be a singing practice.

Lunch was a disappointing affair where, unlike previous schools, no one made any effort to talk to me during lunch. Ever more perplexingly, the children had been kept in during lunch as well despite the complete thawing of anything even vaguely similar to snow. Naturally, the Year 2 class, who by now had missed their break, had been sat in the hall for ninety minutes, were absolute nutters throughout the indoor playtime. I had a reasonable idea for a paper snowflake making activity for the afternoon despite the complete lack of assistance from the teaching assistant. Of course, I found out that actually there was going to be a singing assembly in the hall, 'What, another one?' So Year 2 got to sit in the hall for another hour, only breaking to stand up and sing a song with the keen singing teacher.

Back in class, increasingly frustrated, and mindful that Year 2 had basically done nothing but sit down since morning 'break' I finally gave in and put a DVD on: Cars. Things got noisier and noisier, I began clock-watching, and come home time I was all too eager to get the class out of the door, mark tick-and-'well-done' the books, and leave.

It was Thursday and I had no intention of being asked back to that school so I filled out my online calendar for the following day to say I was busy.

Supply over. Christmas.

Extar, over, out.

Pinky, tell me, are you laughing? Or you're crying?