A cover supervisor is an individual who works in schools and provides help to the regular teaching staff by taking classes and making sure they work on their tasks.  They play a very significant role in the operation of a modern academy and school.  Regular qualified teaching staff are freed up to carry out essential preparation, planning and marking.  In recent years this role has grown, and nearly every secondary school these days employs cover supervisors, although the degree varies widely.

The cover supervisor role carries a great deal of responsibility since they are solely in control of the classroom as well as the safety of those children they are responsible for.

What qualifications are needed for becoming a cover supervisor?

To be a cover supervisor there aren’t any formal qualifications that are required.  Ultimately it is up to the employer, who is usually the head teacher, to determine what the job requires.  Some require an applicant to be a graduate.  However, that is definitely not a standard.

That is why it is so important for us to have a standard criteria for recruiting Cover Supervisors in a consistent way so that head teachers know what kinds of people we recruit for the position.

It is critical that our Cover Supervisors have the ability to demonstrate they have extensive experience working in a position of authority with secondary age children.  Ideally they will have graduate experience.  Examples of suitable experience might be working as youth leaders or sports coaches.  We will also happily consider non graduates with work experience in similar school roles.  We have employed retired police officers on a regular basis, whose experience we have discovered is a good fit.

What if I don’t have the experience but am a graduate?    

If you are a graduate without any experience but want to work in the position of cover supervisor, we recommend that you contact a local school and volunteer to get at least 4 weeks of experience.  After you have completed this, we can take a reference from the school you volunteered at as part of your recruitment process.

What is involved in the cover supervisor role?

A cover supervisor is similar to a teacher in the sense that they are in charge of managing a classroom and are in front of a classroom of children.  However, frequently it is easier defining what a cover supervisor does not do.

A cover supervisor doesn’t get involved in the marking, preparation or planning of the class.  Briefly put, they don’t play any part in class development beyond the specific lesson.

What is the salary for cover supervisors like?

Cover supervisors earn around a third to a half of what qualified teachers earn on a daily basis.  It starts at £60 per day. Check out Capita Education for jobs in the area.

What else should I know?

Not everyone is well-suited to be a cover supervisor.  The classroom can potentially be an intimidating place when you aren’t confident inside that environment.  It is important for you to be honest about how you would feel in that situation.  However, those individuals with the right temperament and skills find this work to be very rewarding.

The work for this position is frequently available on a daily basis, therefore it is important for you to be flexible.

However, the job is regular if you are good and the cover supervisor role is used by many people to kick-start their teaching careers.