I am a skilled man. I have 3 'A' Levels in Chemistry, Physics, and Zoology; an honours degree in Psychology; 16 years experience as a Registered Nurse; and 10 years experience teaching 'A' Level Psychology. Since leaving my last job, I have been doing some Supply work, as well as Invigilating exams in a local Secondary School. But it is the question of supply teaching that I wish to turn to.
I have been on supply at a Secondary School, covering a teacher that has been on long term sick. Prior to me arriving at the school, the students had a succession of supply teachers. While I was there, I had to give the classes a test on the stuff that they had been set while their teacher was absent. All of the students said that they did not know the topic, I replied that it was important that they learn the stuff that supply teachers give them.
In the last weeks of my stay, I had to set them a project to do. The hand in date coincided with my last day at the school. Some of the students had obviously worked hard at the project, and I gave them praise and wrote nice comments in their books about the work that they had done. Not surprisingly, some of the students had not done the work, I wonder what the consequences for those students will be? What will those consequences say to the students that had worked hard at their projects and those that did not a lot? I must say that in a previous stint as a supply teacher that I was at a school where the students told me that their teacher threw away the work that they do while he was off sick. Is that what will happen to the students' work who had completed their projects? I hope that the school will be able to look those students in the face and tell them that the work they did was valued!
