Life comes at you fast. It doesn’t seem like any time at all since I was a Head of Department at Boroughmuir High School in Edinburgh. I knew all the teachers. I knew just about all the pupils. Most of the parents too. Quite a few famous ones at that. My hair was brown then. My waist was 34”. It wasn’t yesterday! Now I’m back as a sub.
Schools, even in Edinburgh state schools which are a heck of a lot more egalitarian than some others, are hierarchical organisations. The heidi is at the top. Below him or her are the Deputies. Then there’s the faculty heads. Then the unpromoted teachers. Then supply teachers. The lowest. That’s me now. A ‘sub’ as the kids put it. They all speak in American accents now. “You our sub today, sir?” “Aye.”
I actually quite enjoy it. I’m at a stage in life where doing supply gets me out of the house. I get called in when it suits a school. I take the call when it suits me. And I only do it in places that I enjoy going into. Edinburgh is good.
Maybe it’s living in the big city. In Edinburgh the kids seem more at ease with adults. Coming in to stand in for their regular teacher isn’t that big a deal to them. So long as you make an effort to engage with them, be it on an individual level or getting involved (without messing things up) in the lesson, your time is quite fulfilling. I don’t know about History. Don’t know much Biology but I’ve a sophisticated Bluffer’s Guide that can fool most of them some of the time. The other week, two periods of S2 Drama last thing on a Friday wasn’t what I was hoping for on the cover sheet. To my surprise though, once I’d convinced myself I was a Drama teacher, which took some very strong coffee and a pep talk, sorry, a wind up from my pals in the Modern Studies department, I got stuck in and their one act plays were almost River Cityesque.
I’m also lucky in the Edinburgh schools I’ve been in. Craigmount is a very short journey across the bridge. I can nip out to Thorne Records at lunchtime when I’m at Boroughmuir. There’s a nice (but hilly) walk down to Granton harbour when I’m at Trinity Academy, great fun on a crispy winters day. It’s a great cycle there too from Haymarket on the Edinburgh cycle path. The Royal High has a Costa shop down the road and my routine there is get over the bridge sharp, park at at 7am & have my breakfast over the morning paper.
Another criteria is knowing some of the staff. It’s great when I know a few teachers in the school. When I get the offer I scan the staff list on the website hoping for a friendly name. This a massive antidote to sitting in the staffroom being John no mates. (A lot of teachers look heck of a young these days!) Largely you’re invisible. The proper teachers are all very busy. Unless you’re a sub in their department, they won’t stop to talk to you, which is understandable. I was often the same when I was in their shoes.
Being given classes to cover in your own subject is actually quite difficult. Usually a subject teacher is off for a day or two so the last thing you want to do is rock the boat and take the class in a different direction or give them different advice their usual teacher would give them. This annoys the teacher and confuses the kids. Still, its good when you are on familiar territory. The downside is you rarely get the chance to know the kids personally, which is critical in teaching. The upside is that you walk out the door not carrying the responsibility with you. You may never see that class again.
One thing that has surprised me is how little use schools do make of supply teachers. In most schools I’ve been in I’ve never met the head teacher. This includes schools I’d been in semi regularly. When I was an employer and had temporary staff or suppliers in I wanted to meet them all. I’d love it if a head teacher greeted me on arrival or came to see me at some point in the day to tell me about their school and the role (however small) there was for me in it. I’m at the top of the main scale (£50,589) which is a decent hourly rate. I get paid more subbing than I did lecturing at Glasgow uni. I’d be happy to contribute more. I’ve a fair bit of experience and contacts in and out of education which I’d be happy to put to the public good. That’s the added value I could offer, as well as helping out with any extra curricular stuff if asked. Maybe heidies are too busy (probably) or don’t want to burden you but I’m not just doing this for the money, I genuinely enjoy being back in a school community, however fleeting that may be. Being a sub is fine but I’d rather be a super sub!