Resources Time to
SPRINGinto step as supply teacher demand increases
Randstad Education’s top three planning tips
• Don’t correlate supply teacher requirements to your budget. Despite income and funding cuts in UK schools of £6bn (9%) between 2010 and 2012 – supply teacher usage is increasing.
D
id you know that the second half of spring term is the busiest time of year for supply teachers? This trend and valuable insight is helping schools plan for the months ahead, ensuring head teachers can prepare and manage supply teacher requirements and ultimately ensure the quality of teaching and standards of education are maintained.
In Randstad Education’s inaugural Supply Teacher Tracker, to be published termly, figures show that the second half of the spring term has been the point in the year when the highest demand for supply teachers occurs. Since 2009, the number of supply teachers in employment each week has risen by an average of 37% between the first and second half of the spring term.
Cause of the trend
So why is this and what do schools need to be mindful of? Many schools find that they need to bolster their workforce in preparation for summer exams. This trend is just as prevalent in primary schools. Randstad Education’s experience in this sector has seen more staff drafted in to help with a final push to boost literacy and numeracy levels before the SATS in May and in secondary schools where invigilation requirements increase. Sickness levels remain high amongst permanent members of staff and are often linked to the stress and fatigue of preparing for the crucial exam period - a factor which is likely to be exacerbated as GCSEs move back to more intensive exams rather than coursework. The impact sickness can have on supply teacher requirements shouldn’t be underestimated; the Norovirus outbreak caused a 35% rise in supply teacher jobs at the end of 2012. This meant that the number of supply teachers working each week in the build up to Christmas rose by a fifth
March 2013
compared to 2011. When schools are challenged by absenteeism due to illness, they are increasingly focussed on ensuring the quality of pupils’ education does not suffer as a direct result. This stance becomes ever more important in the run-up to the exam period. Jenny Rollinson, Managing Director of Randstad Education, comments: “We were particularly pleased to see more schools replacing ‘like with like’ when their qualified teachers were out of action. In previous years the use of teaching assistants to cover short-term sickness has, we feel, been detrimental to the quality of education provision that parents would expect as a plan B in these circumstances.”
uwww.randstadeducation.co.uk
• Don’t see supply teachers as a distress purchase. Be prepared for all eventualities by ensuring you have a good relationship with a local supply teacher provider. Randstad Education consultants spend a lot of time getting to know their schools, teachers and pupils to ensure they can find and place the right supply teacher when the time comes.
• Look at the key supply teacher trends. Randstad Education’s supply teacher tracker is published termly and is a great source of planning information for schools. Please visit
www.randstadeducation.co.uk for more details or speak to your local branch to ensure you receive details when the next findings are circulated.
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