7 years of supply teaching

Last Updated on 28 August 2023 by Colette

Facebook reminded me earlier this month that it’s now seven years since I gave up full time teaching and a hideous daily commute across the M62 to Leeds.

I used to spend around half a day a week in the car (at one stage I was pregnant with Chloe and driving Ben to Leeds with me for Nursery) and it cost me about £300 a month in fuel. I loved my school and I loved my colleagues – leaving was scary and it took me a long time to be ready to do it, but once I had, once I had left I wondered what on earth I’d been waiting for.

My full time teaching job gave me security – I had a pension, I had sick pay and a regular wage – but that regular wage was entirely sucked up by full time childcare for two children under three and driving 1600 miles a month to work and back. On a long month, Dave was actually paying for me to go to work. Essentially when I gave up full time teaching, I gave up my pension and little else.

Seven years later, I’ve finally shaken off that September dread and no longer have stress dreams about teaching at the end of the holidays – yes I’ll be carrying on doing a couple of days supply a week but it doesn’t seep into my subconscious the way it used to. (If I’m worried or stressed about anything, it often plays out in my dreams in a school setting – usually my school in Leeds though more recently it has changed to a school I’ve been working in regularly for the last couple of years.)

I’ve been teaching on supply for seven years now – and I love it, it works well for our young family. However I do feel I’m steadily deskilling myself – I know a return to full time teaching would be extremely difficult (though equally I know I probably don’t want to!)

In the last seven years I’ve had a couple of really long term bookings – lasting a year or two each time, which has been lovely as I’ve been able to feel a part of a school community again, feel settled in my job and know what I’m doing, without the stress and commitment of it being a “proper”, contracted teaching job. When I’m on “proper” supply and taking day to day bookings, I still find myself working within a handful of schools who repeat book. I still only take pre-booked work – on the day bookings would just be too stressful with three kids to sort, and I’m lucky that in the last seven years this hasn’t been a problem for us – people have tended to know when I’m available and then book things around that – which is flattering. It means I’m often covering meetings, courses and PPA time rather than unplanned for sickness (though there are times where I turn up in school and my timetable to the day has totally changed to what I thought it was going to be – this doesn’t bother me though, I’m pretty flexible and can usually turn my hand to whichever year group I’m put in (which is thanks to Sarah, my old Head, breaking me out of KS2 and putting me into Nursery which I’d never have chosen to do off my own back!)

I know that I’m a much happier Mum for being a supply teacher – I get to do the school runs, go to assemblies and generally be there for my own children. I’ve always said I can’t be a good Mum to three young children and a good teacher, something has to give. This is never more evident than on weeks where I’ve done two or three full days in school and have no patience left for my own children when I get home from school. In the early days on supply, when I had two children rather than three and this blog wasn’t a thing, I used to teach three days a week, but since having Amy had creating myself a role where I can work from home, two days a week at school has worked well. I did a short run of three days a week for a specific long term booking but found that it was just too much and I couldn’t keep all the plates spinning. Two days a week teaching and running my blog around that works well for us.

So after seven years on supply, do I plan on going back to full time teaching any time soon? No. Supply teaching gives me a work life balance that works for our family. I might increase my days as the children get older, or if I find my blog is taking less of my time – but for now, I can’t see me returning to the classroom full time.

Find more posts about my experience as a supply teacher here:

The downsides to being a supply teacher

Six reasons why I love being a supply teacher

Eight signs you’re a supply teacher

Why I will continue to supply teach

Supply teaching – Six ways to get re-booked

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