Written by Helen Sinclair, Cover Supervisor

The role of Cover Supervisor can be quite a contentious one, as many teachers feel that every classroom should have a qualified teaching professional present at all times, and Cover Supervisors are often unqualified teachers, lacking Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). That said, there are some important differences between the role of a Cover Supervisor and that of a Supply Teacher. Essentially, the role of Cover Supervisor is intended to provide short term, day-to-day classroom supervision in the absence of the usual teaching staff; whereas a Supply Teacher is someone with QTS, who can take on longer term cover contracts (for instance, to cover maternity leave or other long term absences) in order to fill a teaching role that will be empty for longer than a few days or weeks. 

The positions Cover Supervisors are engaged to cover can be both planned and unplanned absence: either to cover ‘PPA’ (Planning, Preparation and Assessment) or ‘CPD’ (Continued Professional Development) time, or an unexpected staff absence due to sickness or a last minute emergency. This therefore often entails a level of last-minute availability and can definitely keep you on your toes if you decide to take on the position! Depending on the school and whether the absence was planned or not, you can typically expect to encounter anything: from a well-planned lesson with resources and hints/tips, with a well prepared class who know about the absence in advance; to absolute mayhem and nothing in the way of teaching materials to work from except the class subject, the year group, and your own ingenuity!

Typical Lesson

Many schools use a specific template for planning cover lessons, which provide: details of the class, room and subject; any required instructions for the lesson; a list of materials provided and their location; whether the work should be handed in or taken home by the pupils at the end of the lesson and any homework that should be set. These sometimes also provide a space for the Cover Supervisor to report back any issues encountered, including pupil behaviour, any outstanding work that was not finished and suchlike, so that the returning teaching staff will be able to keep abreast of any issues when they return to their post.

The last minute nature of Cover Supervision can sometimes lead to a certain amount of confusion about what level of ‘teaching’ is appropriate to provide as a Cover Supervisor, and this confusion can come from both the school and from other teaching staff. In essence, a Cover Supervisor is NOT a teaching role in any shape or form, but a support role; and rather than actively educating the pupils, one should instead be supervising pupils to behave in line with their school’s code of conduct; distributing and disseminating teaching materials as provided by the school; and keeping pupils on task throughout the lesson. The nature of Cover Supervising is that it is to provide explicitly short term cover, and there is therefore no requirement for any active teaching to take place, as the cover work that has been left by the post holder you are covering for, should provide everything the pupils require to complete their lesson in the allotted time period. 

Resources

Due to the many possible scenarios of why Cover Supervision is required, you may find that the work either has not been set, or that what has been set is not sufficient for the full period. This is where it can be useful to be a little more resourceful, so that you can possibly find extra work that you can give pupils: either as stretch and challenge tasks if they have finished ahead of their class or, if the whole class have finished sooner than expected, some simple games like Heads-Down-Thumbs-Up can be very useful. If you feel confident to facilitate such a thing, I have found it useful at times to conduct a whole class question and answer session about the subject they have been learning.

Expectations

Because of the blurring of distinction between the roles of Cover Supervisor and Supply Teacher, one may arrive at a school and be presented with teaching materials and the expectation that you will actively lead the class through the set work as a trained teacher would be expected to. This is outside the role of a Cover Supervisor, and should be pointed out as such. If you are offered a Cover Supervisor role and you already have a teaching qualification, you should be seeking the position of supply teacher, which commands a higher daily rate than that of a Cover Supervisor, in line with your advanced qualifications and experience.

Cover Supervisors can be employed directly by a school, or they can work through agencies or local authorities on a temporary/contract basis. There are innumerable education-specific agencies who provide the services of Cover Supervisor and Supply Teachers to schools, and they will often have a range of piecemeal and long term work available, depending on their local schools’ needs. Depending on the reason for needing a Cover Supervisor, you may find oneself covering the same subject all day, just one or two periods, or a range of different subjects all in one day. 

First thing in the morning

Education agencies typically begin work from around 7 am, as they will often get last minute work to cover illness or unexpected absences, and will need their Cover Supervisors to be available to get into the school in time for morning registration. This means you should expect a call from your consultant from around 7:30 am onwards and ideally, you should be available to get on the road straight away. As with anything, good timekeeping is absolutely paramount to success as a Cover Supervisor and, espeically if you’re working with a new school, being early is usually better than getting in just in time! In my experience, agencies will often tell you the time your first period starts, but will often neglect to advise you whether you are required to take a morning register, or if the school needs you to arrive early so that they can take copies of your paperwork and show you around the school before you start covering lessons!

It is a very good idea to have a folder with all your necessary documents with you at all times, to ensure that these are available to provide the school when you arrive. I keep a plastic wallet with my most up to date DBS certificate and my ID documents (passport/driving licence) in my ‘school bag’, so that I don’t have to remember to pick it up in the morning or struggle to find the documents before leaving the house! I also like to keep a small container with a few tea bags, a spare mug or flask and a refillable water bottle in my kit, as not all schools will have these items available for their supply staff to use. Milk can also be something that causes friction in staff rooms, so if you take milk in your caffeinated beverage of choice, taking a small bottle of milk with you is also a good idea! If you are in a school for the whole day, do make sure that you’ve brought a packed lunch with you as well: unless you are 100% sure that you can either leave the site to get lunch and get back in time for afternoon registration or that you can purchase food on the premises. If you will need crockery (i.e. a bowl for soup, or similar), don’t rely on there being crockery available at school for you to use.

If you have time to do so before leaving for the school run, it can be a very good idea to research the parking situation before heading out, as many schools don’t even have sufficient on-site parking for the entirety of their full-time staff, never mind supply! If you have a medical need for closer parking I would definitely recommend that you make this known to the school (or agency) in advance. I have a chronic illness, so I often find having to walk a long distance overly tiring, so I always make my agency aware of this when I sign up with them, so that they can advise the school in advance of any possible issues before I arrive. As yet, I have not had any issues on site with being provided with the access arrangements I need.

Once you are on site, the first port of call should always be the school reception, unless you are advised otherwise by your agency or the LA that have engaged you. Depending on the school’s background checking procedure, you may be asked for your most recent DBS certificate, and proof of ID upon arrival, so that photocopies may be made for their records. You will be asked to sign onto site, and will probably need to take a ‘mug shot’ for your visitor badge. Depending on the school, either the receptionist or another administrative lead will provide you with a site map and your cover timetable from SIMS. This will show you which classes you will be covering, and the name and/or initials of the absent teacher.

Behaviour

I have found that it has been very helpful to me, to have a note at the back of my bullet journal for the timetables of schools I visit regularly, which breaks down the school timetable, my main point of contact and the basic information about the school’s behavioural policy. Not all schools will give you any documents about their specific behavioural policy when you arrive on site, but it is important to ask for this information, so that you can be consistent with the expectations that the school sets for their pupils. This can be particularly important for pupils who have SEND, as they will require a consistent approach and it is useful for them to know in advance what boundaries are there, and that these still apply for any staff they encounter throughout their school day. It also means that pupils cannot ‘catch you out’, which can be a popular pastime for pupils in supply lessons! If you are able to confidently apply the behavioural policy from the off, it is much easier to maintain good classroom control.