Ensuring our teaching and support staff
Thrive on Supply
justteachers is with you every step of the way to ensure you are always classroom ready!
Ensuring our teaching and support staff
Thrive on Supply
We are delighted to have you on board and are looking forward to finding you lots of opportunities within our partner schools. Whether you are looking for day-to-day supply or longer-term assignments, we have collated some useful information for you to review in order to ensure your supply goes as successfully as possible. We want to keep you as busy as you wish!
What we will cover each time you are given an assignment A thorough background about the school and the vacancy, the department/ position you will cover, start times, who's who and what to expect.
The name of the contact you will need to report to upon arrival, the name of the safeguarding lead, the route in to school and parking facilities.
Information about the class / classes in which you will be teaching and where applicable, the subject. We will also advise whether work has been set or not.
We will always remind you about our contact policy. Call us at the end of your supply to let us know how it went and whether you would be keen to go back!
Justteachers is the best teaching agency I have ever worked in during my 15 years of supply teaching. They are genuinely committed to the welfare of their staff. My contact regularly phones me to check in on me and always lends a warm and sympathetic ear whatever I say. Justteachers are a brilliant agency. Their ethos is one of compassion and concern for the teachers. Teacher, March 2026
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Keeping in touch There will be occasions where you will need to contact your dedicated consultant at short notice, for example; if there is a chance you might be late for your assignment, you need to notify us of sickness or cancellations of future cover, or you may need a reminder of whom to ask for upon arrival into the school. Make sure you save our contact details in your phone- you will find your Consultant's telephone number within a correspondence email or simply visit our website and select the 'Contact' tab at the top of our home page.
Getting paid All of our teaching and support staff are paid on a weekly basis- all monies owed will be paid into your account every Friday, following the week in which the assignment was completed. You can access all your pay slips on the Eezytime pay portal. https://onlinets.co.uk/meritportal/ If you need to reset your password at any stage, simply follow the steps accordingly. Our jt payroll team will contact you via email regarding your details to access payslips, P60s and pension information
Remember... It is our job to ensure you are getting the most out of your supply experience and that you thoroughly enjoy the schools we place you in. We value your feedback and encourage regular and transparent communication, so that we can keep doing what we do best...listening to our candidates! We will, from time to time, send surveys to you to complete- your input can help us shape the world of supply and also the CPD that we can offer to you in the future to keep your knowledge and skill set relevant and up to date.
Training for you to complete before you even enter the classroom Safeguarding and Safer Working Practice Training for all Safeguarding Safer Working Practice Training for allisadults adults workingand with children in an Education setting a working with in an setting is a critical part of critical part ofchildren preparing forEducation the classroom environment. for the classroom process, environment. of your Aspreparing part of your registration you As willpart have registrationyour process, youSafeguarding will have completed yourhowever online it is completed online training, Safeguarding training, however itfor is also a mandatory also a mandatory requirement all school and college staff to read: for all school and college staff to read part 1 requirement 1 of the DfE guidelines Keeping Children ofPart the DfE guidelines on Keepingon Children Safe in Safe in Education 2026 and for Safer Working Education 2024 and Guidance Guidance for Safer Working Practice. Practice. Before any assignment, ensure that you Before any assignment, ensure that youin have refreshed / referred to this guidance have refreshed / referred this order to monitor your ownto standards and guidance in order to monitor your own code of conduct. standards and code of conduct. You will also be required to do cyber secure training before you work in any education setting.
N.B. If you haven't already done so, view and complete our online Safer Working Practice Training course here, along with the downloadable DfE guidance documents to retain for your reference. Please also complete the Cyber Security training and quiz here, once completed please continue to the course completion form.
justteachers- Safer Working Guidelines justteachers is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff to share this commitment. Everyone working with children and young people in education settings has a responsibility to act professionally and to provide a safe and supportive environment which secures the well-being and best outcomes for the children in their care.
Safeguarding It is essential that everybody working in a school understands their safeguarding responsibilities. All candidates must read at least part one of Keeping Children Safe In Education (statutory guidance for schools and colleges). All our candidates are asked to provide evidence of annual safeguarding training through accredited CPD resources. We offer online safeguarding training to those candidates without the relevant training. Teachers and Support Staff working through justteachers must ensure they: • Protect children from maltreatment, neglect or harm • Provide a safe environment in which children can learn
Safer Working Practice & Expected Professional Standards Our candidates understand the following principles: The welfare of the child is paramount Their responsibility is to safeguard and promote the welfare of pupils They must use professional judgement to assess whether their actions are warranted, proportionate, safe and applied equitably. They are working in a Position of Trust and Authority and should always maintain appropriate professional boundaries They should adopt high standards of personal conduct in order to maintain public confidence in their ability to safeguard the welfare and best interests of children They should be aware that breaches of the law and other professional guidelines could result in disciplinary action being taken against them, criminal action and/or other proceedings including barring by the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) from working in regulated activity, or for acts of serious misconduct prohibition from teaching by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) They are responsible for their own actions and behaviour and should avoid any conduct which would lead any reasonable person to question their motivation and intentions
Please refer to Guidance for Safer Working Practice for those working with Children and young people in education by visiting our website.
justteachers CPD Hub Our fully-funded CPD Hub provides our registered educators with 24/7 access to high-quality training and development courses, allowing them to learn at their own pace, whenever and wherever it suits them. We know how important professional development is, but we also understand the challenges of finding time for training. That’s why we’ve designed our CPD Hub to be flexible - so you can develop your skills and knowledge without disrupting your work-life balance.
Our CPD Hub is built around key areas of professional growth, providing a broad mix of training that supports both your day-to-day work and long-term development. Courses include:
Behaviour Support De-escalation training Promoting Positive Behaviour Supporting Learners’ Wellbeing & Mental Health
Inclusion
Autism Awareness & Understanding Adaptive Teaching in Supply SEND: Inclusive by Design SEND TAs & Support
Wellbeing & Safeguarding
Prevent Training Wellbeing & Resilience for Educators for many more reviews Wellbeing Safeguarding Training for Educators Safer Working Practice & Professional Conduct
Support Role CPD Cover Supervisor Training Exam Invigilation Training
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS OUR CPD HUB AND START LEARNING TODAY! Our CPD Hub is continually being updated to ensure the content remains relevant, up-to-date, and offers an ever-growing variety of new courses. It’s shaped by valuable feedback we receive from our educators and schools. Using this insight, we develop learning resources focused on the topics that matter most, ensuring all of our valued supply staff have rich and meaningful opportunities for ongoing professional growth.
Please note, we strongly recommend completing all courses on a computer or laptop for the best user experience and full functionality.
As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting our educators' CPD, we will continue to add new training courses to the hub, guided by your valuable feedback. If there’s a specific topic you’d like us to cover, we’d love to hear your suggestions-just email us at marketing@justteachers.co.uk
justteachers- Behaviour Management Effective behaviour or classroom management is intrinsic to successful learning and is one of the major concerns of schools and supply teachers. As a supply teacher, it may be challenging to walk into a new classroom, full of pupils you have never met before, and to manage successfully the behaviour, and therefore the learning, of those pupils. There is no one way of effective teaching and learning - every teacher has their own particular style, approach or 'toolbag' of skills and techniques that they deploy in the classroom.
The following blogs around behaviour support and behaviour management in the classroom may be useful to review: Supporting positive behaviour in children and young people Top tips for behaviour management in the classroom Is poor vocabulary and behaviour closely linked? Mastering Classroom Management
6 Succinct tips for effective Behaviour Management You will find that every school has different behavioural policies. justteachers recommend that you familiarise yourself with the policies and procedures of the schools where you have been placed. Do not assume that all schools have the same behaviour policies, they do not. If for any reason you cannot familiarise yourself with the school's individual policies and procedures, justteachers recommend that you adopt a strategy to encourage good behaviour.
Please do not leave your class unattended for any reason.
Difficult children should be dealt with in a calm and firm manner. Please do not point or shout at a child, or have any physical contact with them.
If there are any incidents or accidents, however minor you think they are, please ensure that you report them to a member of school staff as well as to your assigned justteachers consultant, followed up with a written account. If you should encounter any extremely disruptive or violent behaviour, whether directed at yourself or another child/adult, please send for a member of staff immediately.
Teaching and Support Resources
Justteachers library of resources
Your Recruitment Consultant will support you every step of the way along your supply journey, providing you with information about the classroom you will be teaching / covering and what is expected of you. Due to the nature of supply, a granular level of detail is not always guaranteed, with some cover being organised with very little notice. We highly recommend you make use of additional resources we share with you from time to time and to keep an eye on our ongoing blog posts, which will signpost you to current affairs, CPD and useful hints and tips when working in supply.
We regularly share resources, content, hints and tips and links to free CPD via our social media platforms and blog section on our website. As well as signposting you towards external resources, we often keep our staff up to date with internal justteachers news, celebration days and much more! Our blog posts cover current affairs, as well as a plethora of historical content that you may find useful at some point in your supply journey.
Useful Websites for resources You may want to take work with you or require inspiration for activities to set should there be any pupils within the classroom without tasks already in place. There are many online platforms geared towards supporting teachers and their workload and below are some of the more popular sites we highly recommend: Teaching Ideas
JustteachersforFAQs / Blog many more reviews information The following blogs are our most frequently visited and likely to be most helpful in the early stages of your supply career:
FAQ for Supply Staff registering with an agency
Classroom Assistant
Interview and Trial Day Tips
Primary Resources
Overseas candidates: A guide to the UK classroom culture
Teach It
Tips for managing teacher workload
Gov.uk
SEND: Teacher and Support handbook
Prevent Awareness Training All schools, colleges and childcare providers are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 to have ‘due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’. This duty, known as the Prevent duty, should be seen as part of schools’, colleges’ and childcare providers’ wider safeguarding obligations. Prevent deals with all kinds of terrorist threats to the UK. This includes safeguarding children, young people and adult learners from extremist ideologies and radicalisation. In order for schools and childcare providers to fulfil the Prevent duty, it is essential that staff are able to identify children who may be vulnerable to radicalisation, and know what to do when they are identified. Protecting children from the risk of radicalisation should be seen as part of schools’ and childcare providers’ wider safeguarding duties, and is similar in nature to protecting children from other harms (e.g. drugs, gangs, neglect, sexual exploitation), whether these come from within their family or are the product of outside influences.
Prevent Objectives: Tackle the ideological causes of terrorism Intervene early to support people susceptible to radicalisation Enable people who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate The aim of Prevent is to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Prevent also extends to supporting the rehabilitation and disengagement of those already involved in terrorism.
We offer an online Prevent training course to all of our registered educators through our CPD Hub here, ensuring they have the knowledge and confidence to recognise and respond to potential risks.
Resources:
Prevent Awareness e-learning Educate Against Hate Let’s Talk About It
GDPR Awareness Training The Data Protection Act 2018 is the UK’s implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It regulates how and when information relating to individuals may be obtained, used and disclosed. Schools hold a vast array of personal data on children, parents and carers, staff and governors, which means there must be appropriate safeguards and procedures in place to ensure it is managed effectively and securely. Please ensure when on assignment that you familiarise yourself with the school’s data protection policy, every school will be different, do not assume what was permitted in one school will be permitted in a different school. All schools will have a Data Protection Officer, make sure you know who they are or how they can be contacted. All school staff including supply staff have a duty to protect and safeguard children and the processing of their data forms part of that. A personal data breach can be broadly defined as a security incident that has affected the confidentiality, integrity or availability of personal data. This generally refers to the possibility of affected individuals facing economic or social damage (such as bullying), reputational damage or financial losses. Data breaches are nearly always the result of human error. The most common data breaches occur when personal data is left on desks unsecured, or when paper files or USB sticks are lost. If you suspect a security risk or a personal data breach has taken place, then it is your duty to report it to the school’s designated data protection officer.
Steps to minimise risks of data loss:
Treat other people’s data like you would your own Perform anonymisation by replacing personal information with non-personal identifiers where personal information is no longer required. Get in to good habits. Always log out of your computer when you leave the room at work or home Keep anything that identifies children and others in locked drawers Use a shredder or confidential waste bit where data is no longer needed Have a clear desk policy Encrypt removable media USBs (memory sticks), so that if they are lost they cannot be accessed Password protect documents, especially before you send them by email and if the data is sensitive Before sending an email, double-check that the ‘to’ recipient is correct When sending an email to different people externally, use the Bcc option not the Cc option
General Interview Tips for all Supply Staff Securing an interview is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate that you have the right knowledge, skillset and experience required for the role. Preparation is the key to interview success and with that in mind we have put together questions that, from our experience, are likely to come up depending upon the role you are interviewing for and insights as to what responses the interviewer will be looking for. You also need to remember to have a list of questions prepared to ask the school to demonstrate your interest in the position.
Dress appropriately Dress appropriately and be aware of your body language and eye contact. If you are unsure what to wear then dress smartly and don’t wear trainers or jeans. Go into the interview or trial day with a smile and present yourself confidently and professionally. Make sure to maintain good eye contact, whilst speaking clearly and not too fast, during your interview.
Be positive Use positive words in the interview - avoid words such as Don’t, didn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t, haven’t, no and can’t and replace with ‘developing’, ‘looking forward to adapting my experience to’. Use positive examples to illustrate your individual potential. Describe your enthusiasm for the post - ask positive questions about the school and the extra-curricular activities that you would be happy to help with.
Promote yourself It is paramount to promote yourself through personal examples of your success. Have some stories ready and explain how you could adapt these methods to suit the school. Think about your difference, your individuality – why you versus someone else with the same qualifications deserves the post. It may be your coaching / extra-curricular activities / your experience / your life experience, etc.
Demonstrate commitment Showing commitment in your interview or on your trial day is equally as important to the school as your subject knowledge and experience. If you do not sound committed to the role, you will not get offered the position. By now you should feel more prepared and have information on the role and school from your consultant, have done your own research and have a few examples of your previous successes and answers for interview questions in mind.
Demonstrate you have done your research The interviewer is looking for you to demonstrate your background research about their school and that you are able to discuss why the way they work appeals to you. This may be through reviewing Ofsted reports, progress data reports, reviewing their website and social media platforms (which will communicate their mission statement and ethos/ culture) and learning about the staff.
Preparing for your interview Make sure you have reviewed and make reference to: -The school's last OFSTED report -School Progress Data -Research schools in the local area -Familiarise yourself with the School context- size, location, % FSM, % EAL, etc.
Things you should be able to answer, if asked, about the school What do you think makes a school successful? What is your impression of the school? What will you contribute to this school? Why do you want to work at this school?
Safeguarding: Example questions you may be asked Safeguarding children is an important part of our work. Can you give me some examples of how you would contribute to making the school a safe environment for children? Tell me about a time when a child or young person behaved in a way that caused you concern. How did you deal with that? Who else did you involve? Why do you want to work with children? What do you think you have to offer? Give an example of how children have benefitted from contact with you. Why did you train to become a teacher/teaching assistant/ Support staff? What was your inspiration?
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How do you ensure you are keeping abreast of legislations and government updates consistently?
Preparing for your Supply Planning your journey Teachers who are not punctual are less likely to be asked back for future assignments. Check the directions before setting off to a booking. For last-minute bookings and day-to-day supply, schools are quite often happy to accommodate a slightly later start if they are given a realistic estimated time of arrival. If you get lost, contact us as soon as possible, providing it is safe for you to do so.
Arrive in good time Where possible, please arrive at school at least 30 minutes before school starts. There are a few key things that you will need to be familiar with once you arrive at the school, so it makes sense to arrive there in good time wherever possible. This might include: the school’s behaviour policy, the teacher’s written plans, staff toilets, tea and coffee-making facilities and where you can prepare resources.
Bring your own resources It’s a good idea to have suitable teaching ideas up your sleeve so that you have something to fall back on if required. There are plenty of websites that offer free resources that you can utilise to avoid any last-minute panics.
Ask about the pupils You should be made aware of any learners with particular needs, so that you can organise the use of teaching assistants, adjust any plans and take into account those who would find the change difficult. Also, find out if there are any children who need medication.
Familiarise yourself Get to know the timetable for the day, the school’s classroom layout, class rules for behaviour, (including rewards/ sanctioning policies) and how children are expected to move around the school.
Find out about routines The start of the day is a crucial time to make sure you are made aware of daily routines to ensure there are no unexpected disruptions. Pupils will be reassured those routines haven’t changed and that you are in command.
Know your groups Have names of pupils and relevant groups to hand so that the class can be easily organised. Be firm, fair and consistent in for many more reviews your use of rewards and sanctions and ensure you actively seek opportunities to use public and private praise for the whole class and individuals.
Creating a good first impression Arrive 30 minutes early where possible. There's plenty of things you will need to cover before entering the classroom Dress smartly and appropriately Adhere to our contact policy- if you are running late or feeling unwell, then call your Consultant ASAP
Marking and Handover Ensuring there is continuity in the classroom Leaving a small note can make a difference to the returning teacher, who may find the break in continuity unsettling. Leave a note at the end of the day, detailing the work done, where you are up to in set work, any incidents, whether books were marked (if applicable – all primary work should be marked appropriately), and if so, where they’ve been put. For secondary school teachers, this will mean more handover notes, one at the end of each lesson. Even a brief sign-off, saying either that a lesson went smoothly or naming any miscreant pupils, is useful information to a returning teacher. Keep accurate records of any instance of challenging behaviour exhibited by pupils.
At the end of your supply Make sure to say if you have had a good day Thank whoever has been looking after you during the day. Some larger schools have a dedicated supply supervisor or a parallel classroom teacher who sits next door and is on hand for your queries. If you have had a good day, tell them – schools enjoy getting positive feedback– and let them know you’d like to be re-booked. If the school does decide to ask you back to cover specific dates, then make sure you communicate this to your justteachers consultant ASAP so that they can ensure your availability is booked and that all team members are aware. This will also avoid any delays in your payments.
Fact finding tips You should be provided with a supply handbook when you arrive at the school, however in some instances, due to time constraints, this isn't always possible. If this is the case, below are some ideas of things you will might want to establish:
Contact names within the Senior Management Team Is a school map available? (including the location of the staffroom, cloakroom and toilets) Can you review a copy of the safeguarding and behavioural policies and procedures? What are the assembly and registration arrangements? Do you have sufficient information about the class, the lesson, resources, and seating arrangements?
Health and Safety justteachers have a joint responsibility with the school/ setting to ensure our candidates are safe at work. Candidates must familiarise themselves with the Health and Safety policies and procedures of the setting before the assignment commences, in particular with regard to any specific risk assessments.
Social Media Policy During the registration process, you will be issued with a Social Media Policy Document that you must read and ensure you understand. You can also find a wealth of advice and tips in our Safer Working Practice training course.
RAF We are committed to exceeding expectations in our support for teaching and support staff. Your feedback is invaluable to us, and we welcome any suggestions for improvement. Additionally, we are pleased to introduce our £50 referral scheme to you- refer a colleague and share in our success. Unlike many agencies, your referred candidate doesn’t need to have started working for justteachers, they just need to be registered, be interested in opportunties and engage in communication with our teams.
For more information, visit: www.justteachers.co.uk/recommend
Keeping in touch... justteachers will endeavour to contact you, not only to discuss work opportunities, but we will remain in regular contact via the telephone, email and through our social media channels regarding news, opportunities, competitions and celebrations! Please make sure to follow all our Social Media accounts and save your local branch details in your mobile phone for ease.
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