ALT-2 Substitute Teaching Salary
The rates of pay for supply teachers vary considerably from country to country, and dependent upon the range of skills required of teachers. Finding the best to suit your needs can simply be a matter of contacting local schools within your area, or professional organizations that employ supply teachers.
People complain that the payment for supply teachers is a small reward, although when you look at the advantages of supply teaching, it's hardly surprising that the payment is less than regular teachers in many instances, although my own experience is that if you are available at the right time for the right job, you do have the power of negotiation, and that proven skills are rewarded with good payment rates.
Agency contracts should be scrutinized and compared with other agency contracts, since each agency has its own set of rules and the pay that you get at the end of the day can depend greatly upon the agency being a busy one, but also upon the percentage that the agency take from your wages to cover your placement. Building a good reputation with an agency will increase your wages and the number of possibilities available to you as a supply teacher and taking a flexible working approach will pay dividends.
There could be several reasons why people are not available for full time teaching. Family commitments may mean that a teacher can only work a set amount of hours, though the advantages of supply teaching is that hours are fairly flexible, and you can work your teaching hours around your home life.
Supply teaching pay also reflects the job you do, and I have always been satisfied with what I earn, choosing to be temporary staff for my own convenience and realizing that the payment I get is not always the same as if I had chosen to teach on a full time basis.
For those coming back into the teaching profession after a break away from it, supply teaching may not pay the best salary they can hope to achieve, but what it does is give them a fresh ground-working environment to ease them back into the teaching profession. That really does have value in itself, and it is the kind of value to the individual teacher that cannot be bought or paid for.
It's a good profession, and those considering it have to weigh up all the pros and cons, and make the experience work well for them, as well as negotiating the best deal they can with their wages.
Substitute teaching really helps not only the children but the teachers as well, if your attitude is such that you are adaptable to change.
