Supply - Oh My!

Well, school started back for me today - a good week after everyone else. I haven't managed to secure a permanent position over the summer so I've been staring down the barrel of a smoking gun known as supply teaching for a few weeks now. I naively assumed that the local authority to which I assigned myself would help in sorting out temporary placements. As I said, I was naive. Still, my old work phoned me yesterday to ask if I was willing to come in for a couple of days so I accepted gratefully.......

......and I actually loved it. I was a modern studies teacher today which was good fun. Not sure I could deal with quite so much contention and debate all the time but for a couple of periods I can deal with the opinionated. On Monday I get to be an English teacher which I'm looking forward to. It was really good to be back in my NQT placement school, even just for a couple of days. I think it's done my nerves about supply a little easing.

Recently, the Scottish Executive has come out saying that there is a huge surplus of teachers (I've read that as few as 1/3 of NQTs from last year have secured a job) but that they expect most of us to get at least 'casual employment' by October. I can't help but feel that they're playing a little fast and loose with people's livelihoods here. I grant you that the new Government have only been in power for a little over 100 days and have inherited this from Labour, but it is an issue that really must be addressed. Anyway, I'll stand down from my political soapbox now....