What Makes a Good Supply Teaching Agency?

What’s a supply teacher agency?

A supply teacher agency is used to find both permanent and temporary jobs for teachers, tutors, and teaching assistants in schools. Most supply teaching agencies work with all kinds of schools, while others only specialise in finding jobs in primary, secondary, or special needs schools.

The work on offer generally varies from permanent and long-term jobs to supply teaching roles. If you’re considering signing up for a teaching agency, you should think about the type of work you are looking to do and the schools you want to work in.

What is supply teaching?

Supply teaching is essentially a generic word that refers to working as a temporary teacher in school. The work of a supply teacher may range from working a single day in school to covering for an absent teacher or member of staff for a year.

What is the work of a supply teacher?

Supply teachers usually have the same responsibilities as their full-time colleagues. They are tasked with planning lessons, managing their classrooms, differentiating work, and assessing pupils. Even if the supply teacher may be at school for only a day, their responsibilities stay the same, while the expectations around assessment and planning are reduced.

How do supply agencies work?

Supply agencies typically need to have a wide range of teaching assistants and teachers available for different schools. This usually means hiring and clearing people for work. Safeguard checks are also vital for schools, and most supply agencies take vetting and background checking their candidates very seriously.

The main job of a supply teaching agency is to help schools find the staff they need. With this in mind, schools are regularly in contact with their preferred supply teaching agencies, often discussing their current and expected staffing needs.

Sometimes, a school will need a teacher for that day. The school’s consultant will be tasked with finding the best match for the school depending on the experience, skills, availability, and locality. For the daily supply teachers, flexibility is crucial. The more age groups, subjects, and geographical areas the teacher can cover, the more job opportunities will be presented to them.

Supply agency teaching consultants essentially fill the booking with the most suitable available candidate, let the school know, and then brief the teacher about the details of the school and the day.

For the longer-term and permanent jobs, the process is a bit longer. Schools will identify the jobs they need to fill, and their agency gives them details of the suitable candidates. This could be through a CV, a video profile, or a written profile. When the school finds the people they are interested in, the agency will set up trial lessons or interviews, and the school can meet the teachers and hire their preferred candidate.