Relief Teaching and Professional Development

I have a confession.

As a principal, a good relief teacher was someone who turned up on time, turned up on playground duty without being chased and did not send kids to the office and hence me.


As a principal, I visited most relief teachers during the day but I offered only token support at most.

The poor relief teacher simply had to survive the day and I was happy. I was ecstatic if a class room teacher came and told me the relief teacher did a good job. The better relief teachers were asked back. The others weren't.

Generally the better ones taught rather than simply supervised. Activities were designed for learning rather than behaviour management. They made a difference. they came back.

Now I'm a relief teacher, I now feel terrible about it. Well - sort of.

Professional development for relief teachers was not even on the RADAR.

Honestly, who looks after the professional needs of relief teachers?

In reality - no one.

Education departments might sprout some policy about how important relief teaching is to learning God bless their little hearts - having a policy solves every problem, doesn't it?

In reality Education Departments do very little if anything to support relief teachers.

Some education departments recommend that schools collaborate with neighbouring schools, thereby working in ‘clusters’ to achieve the professional development required for relief teachers.

That's a great idea except education departments don't provide any money for relief teachers and schools simply can't afford PD for relief teachers.

Some schools send information about staff meetings and staff professional development to relief teachers.

I found many relief teachers are unwilling to pursue such professional development activities.

When I was a principal, I did offer some PD to relief teachers but found that most did not want to be involved in professional development or if they did there was an expectation that they be paid for it.

This may be due to the nature of traditional relief teaching. When a relief teacher supervises rather than teaches, they are not interested in upskilling.

So it becomes problematic.

Relief teachers who are former full-time classroom teachers who enjoy the occasional relief teaching work do not usually feel compelled to pursue any professional development.

However, a new type of relief teacher has emerged and that is the young teacher unable to secure a permanent position and are really keen to sit in on staff professional development activities.

They see PD as an opportunity to add to their CV and show their professional interest to the school community.

To this end, it is reassuring that professional development opportunities are there for the taking. More than ever it seems schools need to continue to promote these to their wider relief staff.

But in the real world it is the relief teacher who must pursue support for their own PD.

It is highly unlikely that any school will invest in a relief teacher's PD if they are unlikely to see a return.

So, make a commitment to a school. Invest some personal capital into the school by taking vacancies, attending staff meetings on invitation, participating in after school development activities where appropriate. And then, make appropriate noises to the principal.

There will be some approval process but a principal is more likely to support PD if they feel a relief teacher is a valuable asset of their relief teaching staff.