The term, Cover Supervisor Jobs, is new in UK schools. This job title is the result of government’s agenda, ‘Remodelling on the School Workforce.’ To become a cover supervisor, you must have a strong character. Classroom behaviour management skills are not enough for handling this duty efficiently. Instead, you must also have teacher sniping skills to undertake the responsibilities of this job title. However, this job is extremely rewarding and highly demanding.
No formal education is required for becoming a cover supervisor. Nevertheless, you must have a reasonable level of literacy, energy, charisma, sense of humour, patience and numeracy to become a successful cover supervisor. The service of these professionals is mainly used for short term absence of a teacher. The absence can be due to a prior medical appointment, unexpected illnesses or due to a professional development.
Duties and Responsibilities
Manage a classroom is the major job of a cover supervisor. He/she must also ensure that the students remain on task, which is assigned to them. They must be able to handle various duties, which are described below:
* Work under the guidance of teaching staff
* Supervise work in accordance with the policy of a school
* Manage behaviour of students
* Respond to any questions from students
* Deal with emergencies or any immediate problems
* Collect any completed work and return it to the appropriate teacher
* Discuss and debate texts with students and answer questions
* Differentiate and allocate extension exercise
* Establish productive relationship with students
* Support students consistently
* Responsible for updating and keeping records
* Supervise students on trips, visits and out of school activities
Qualifications
If you want to become a cover supervisor, you must be highly qualified. An honours degree is the minimum educational requirement for getting cover supervisor jobs. You must also have experience in working with young people. Strong behaviour management skills, a thick skin, diplomacy, highly adaptable, etc are the other qualities needed for working as a cover supervisor.
If you want to do this job, you are eligible for getting around half or a third of the salary of an experienced teacher. But, you will not get payment on holidays. Basically, your payment scale will be 4. If a qualified teacher is seeking employment for cover supervisor, the salary will be higher.
Graduates without experience can also seek employment as cover supervisor by contacting local schools directly. However, you need to work for at least 4 weeks voluntarily for getting required experience. Once you gain adequate experience, you will be referred to the school as a part of recruitment process.
Challenges
Today, cover supervisor is a common feature of secondary schools across the UK. Provide cover for absent teachers is the major responsibility of them. Their duties are set by teaching staff. Many schools employ their own cover supervisors. It enables them to handle in house absence in the best possible way. Some schools depend on some agencies for getting these types of professionals. They can work long term or day to day basis.
This job is not entitled for everyone. If you are not confident in this environment, the classroom may intimidate you. So, you must be honest with yourself. If you have the right skills and temperament, this is an incredibly rewarding job.