Best Practice

Supply teaching: Time for a different approach?

Teaching staff
SecEd’s supply teaching series continues. This week, we meet the exasperated supply teacher who set up her own ‘ethical’ supply agency and ask her for some ‘top tips’ as well

As schools across the country battle with teacher recruitment and retention, more and more heads are turning to supply teachers to fill the gap. Figures released earlier this year showed that school spending on supply teacher agencies jumped by a fifth between 2012 and 2016.

But many supply teachers are growing increasingly disillusioned with their pay and conditions. One of them, Leicester-based Samina Randall, became so exasperated that she decided to set up her own “ethical” online supply agency. She now has more than 100 supply teachers (primary and secondary) and teaching assistants on her books and received 1,140 bookings during her first academic year.

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