We couldn’t possibly deliver the highest standards without hearing what you have to say – we’re the best, because we care.

We hear that it’s not always a walk in the park when you’re dealing with a teaching agency. But Connex Education is very unique in that sense because we’re not like the others – we strive to achieve this in a variety of ways.

One of them includes listening very carefully to what you have to say…

Because we take great pride in providing outstanding service to schools and teaching staff, it’s important that we know what we are doing right, and what we could do better.

Will you help us to continue our excellent service, by sharing your experience with us?

We’re asking for feedback on a number of our services, including:

• The Connex website – Did you find it was easy to use?
• Online portal
• Your experience with your Recruitment Consultant 
• Your experience with any other member of Connex
• Emails

And of course, if there’s anything else (because we do an awful lot), we’re only more than happy for you to tell us about it. Just click the link here, and let us know.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to all our schools and candidates who work with us as we continue to support and provide the best service to you. By providing your feedback, we can continue to grow and develop to help best fit your needs.

If you’re a candidate looking for a new role, contact a local branch here. 

If you’re a school looking for teachers, again, contact a local branch here and speak to a member of our team.

The post What do you want from your teaching agency? appeared first on Connex Education Partnership.

Working on supply can provide you with a number of life lessons, but we picked up on three in particular, that stood out unanimously. While you’re busy planning engaging and intriguing lessons to feed the young minds of our future, reflect on what supply teaching has brought to your table too.

Resilience

As you slowly start to build your contact base with different schools, you’ll find that you may have to meet with different people every day. Supply teaching is a fantastic opportunity to build your confidence and character. On a daily basis, you’ll communicate with people in different sectors and roles within the industry.

If you are working day-to-day in different schools, you’ll always be looking to impress. By making the effort with a positive attitude and can-do approach, they’ll hardly forget about you. The pressure to deliver can be emotionally draining, but if you can handle this challenge with composure, and the frame of mind that each day is different to the next, your sense of resilience will only grow over time.

 Quick thinking

Supply teaching is certainly a role where quick thinking is a must. If you don’t really consider yourself one to think on your feet, teaching will certainly help you to develop that skill (whether you like it or not)!

Sometimes when you’re picking up where another teacher has left off, you have no choice but to come up with solutions. Whether an incident occurs and you haven’t seen the school behaviour policy, or you’re presented with a totally brand new, never before tackled situation. Supply teaching is unpredictable, and you have to be able to adapt quickly.

Which brings us to our final life lesson…

Adaptability

If you are presented with an opportunity to think fast, be prepared for ‘Plan A’ to fail. Maybe you were called into a school last minute, and your initial thought was that there should be a lesson plan prepared – in reality, this may not always be the case.

So what’s the best way to tackle this situation? Do you A) Claim hopelessness because there is no work to give? Or B) Take a deep breath and find out what they have learned previously. Then, come up with a few activities related to that particular subject?

Supply teaching will most definitely teach you to anticipate the worst possible scenario. Learning how to adapt to potential problems before they occur is something you’ll pick up quickly, so that next time around, you’ll have a lesson prepared, just in case there is nothing left for you. You’ll also identify the school\’s behaviour policy before you step into the classroom. What is certain is that with a bit of preparation and flexibility, each school will see a well-prepared teacher, willing to make the effort on their behalf.

What life lessons has supply teaching taught you? Leave a comment below!

The post Life lessons you’ll learn from supply teaching appeared first on Connex Education Partnership.

If it’s your first time working on supply, or interacting with teaching agencies, you’re bound to have a bunch of questions you would like to ask your consultant when you first meet/speak to them.

And that’s exactly what they’re there for – to ease any concerns you may have!

Below, we’ve put together some of the most common questions teaching staff tend to ask supply teaching agencies before they start their placement.

1. What should I wear?

We would always advise going to a new placement looking smart on your first day. Make sure you’re giving off the best first impression to ensure that you have the best chance of being asked to go there again. Every school/nursery is different, so it’s best to check with whoever is in charge of your placement what they deem acceptable dress code. In some cases, you may be asked to take a PE class so it’s good to be prepared for that too. For SEND placements, we will always advise on dress code, as some schools are a lot more relaxed, whereas others will specify that you don’t have any jewellery, scarves etc, as it can be dangerous.

2. What should I take to teaching agencies?

All teaching staff should take their DBS and photo ID with them, regardless if they have been to the school before. It’s always good practice to go with a lesson plan prepared too, just in case there isn’t one prepared for you.

3. What if I’m late?

If you are running late, you must call your development manager at least 15 minutes before your arrival so they can let the school/nursery know.

At Connex, we have a policy that you should arrive 10 minutes before you are due to start placement. So try to plan your route before you leave so you know you can get there in plenty of time. It reflects very badly on supply teaching agencies and the staff member in question if you are late and haven’t let anybody know, so it’s best to keep your DM in the loop as much as you can so they can take care of everything for you. A lot of the time they will know the area well, and will be able to help you if you get stuck.

4. Do I get a break?

It’s always best to check with whoever is in charge of your placement at the school/nursery. If you’re only there for a couple of hours e.g. 9:00am – 2:00pm, you probably won’t get a break. Anything after that and you should get at least half an hour to an hour. But again, it’s down to what the school have requested.

5. What if I can’t make my booking?

We require a phone call before 7:30am if you cannot make a booking – this gives us plenty of time to find a replacement so that the school is not inconvenienced. Please do not email or text, as this can be missed on a busy morning.

6. What are the most important things I should remember for my placement?

Always report to reception when you get to your placement, and familiarise yourself with the school’s policies/behaviour policies. If you’re heading to a primary placement, you MUST make sure you carry work suitable to match the year groups you are qualified to teach. Sometimes planning may not have been left for the class you will be teaching, so be prepared. Make sure that when the days supply is complete, your marking and handover notes are completed. Schools may refuse to have you back if you leave without completing the marking…

7. What if there is a safeguarding issue?

Any safeguarding issues must be reported to the designated safeguarding officer within the school, as well as the recruitment consultant dealing with your work.

8. How much work can you give me?

We never use the word ‘guarantee’ when we discuss how much work we can offer. The amount of work we receive is purely down to each school\’s needs and demands. However, what we can say, is that we are incredibly busy at the moment, and are looking for more and more staff to meet each school\’s expectations. This can be both on a day to day basis or long term. In addition to this, we will also work alongside your availability and requirements, whether you want day to day or long term.

9. How do I access the online portal?

When you begin working for Connex, you’ll receive login details to your own portal, where we keep all of your personal information and details about the work. You can access your portal on the homepage of our website. Your development manager will take you through everything you can manage within this portal.

10. How will you know that I’m available/unavailable for work?

Teaching staff at Connex should update their availability with their recruitment consultant for the week commencing, whether it’s by phone, email, or updating it through the online portal.

If you do have any more questions, you know where we are! Give us a call on: 0845 266 0650 or contact your local branch.

The post Working with supply teaching agencies: your questions answered appeared first on Connex Education Partnership.

Supply is an excellent way of getting your toe in the door of lots of schools to show them what you can do. Here are 5 top tips for NQTs starting out.

As a newly qualified teacher, we know how eager you are to get into the classroom, and our development managers will fully support you with this. Before you step into the classroom, though, and begin your exciting new career, here are a few tips we gathered, and then some…

While we try to help where necessary, we’re not the ones who are front and centre in the classroom (and we want you to have extra help in the classroom while we’re busy getting you into schools) – so we’ve enlisted the help of someone who has been previously to give you the advice you need before your NQT year begins…

Sue Cowley is an experienced teacher, writer and presenter, specialising in behaviour management. After qualifying as a primary school teacher, she taught in a number of different secondary schools in London and Bristol. Sue has also worked as a supply teacher and taught overseas. We caught up with Sue to ask about her first year as a newly qualified teacher, and we got some brilliant tips too from her book: ‘How to Survive your First Year in Teaching‘!

1. Pre-empt behaviour you don’t want, by telling the students exactly what you do want.

Explain to your class what you expect from them. Try not to speak negatively when discussing behaviour – simply tell your students what is expected of them.

2. Lesson plans are not ‘set in stone’ – view them as a flexible template, not a blueprint. Adapt to survive.

It’s okay if your lesson doesn’t go to plan, as long as your class still gets something from it. Don’t feel defeated if you can’t make it through the whole agenda – you may have to stop a few times to clarify certain points of the lesson to your class, to make sure they’re following. This is way more important than speeding your students through a lesson they don\’t understand.

3. Watch out for that ‘To Do’ pile, it grows alarmingly quickly. Be ruthless in dealing with paperwork.

Set aside some time to do your marking through the week. If you’re not careful, you could very quickly end up with a huge backlog of marking, and even worse, you could end up marking under pressure. Give yourself an aim or a set period of time where you can work on a portion of it, so you don’t end up having to play catch up.

4. Look after your voice: do a vocal warm-up at the start of the day, don’t shout, sip water frequently

It sounds utterly frivolous, but try teaching a class of 20 with no voice! Add vocal warm-ups to your preparations every day before class, and try not to strain your voice too much.

5. It’s hard to give clear instructions. Structure what you say and don’t give too much information at once

Even if you think what you’re saying makes sense, you may still come across a few blank faces in the classroom. Have a back-up explanation ready in case your first one doesn’t sit right with your class, and be prepared to repeat yourself. If it helps, write your key points on the board to break down what you’re asking/expecting.

Demonstrating your ability to a school sets you apart from other applicants. NQTs we place within our client schools frequently end up being taken on as permanent members of staff. This is a source of great pride for us at Connex, because it is undeniable proof that we can – and do – serve the needs of our client schools and our NQTs very well.

And you can find plenty more tips for NQTs based on Sue’s experience on her website: www.suecowley.co.uk

Speaking about her first year as a teacher, Sue said: “My NQT year was incredibly hard work, but looking back I picked up many bits of advice I still use today (and some of the most important ideas came from the mistakes that I made!). This is why I wrote my first book – How to Survive your First Year in Teaching – to share the practical strategies that I learned.”

Many thanks to Sue for this! If you’re currently looking for NQT jobs, fly over to our job search page to have a look.

The post 5 tips for NQTs just starting out appeared first on Connex Education Partnership.

The fabled 6-week summer holiday is here again, and we bet it’s not just pupils that are excited. The school holidays give all hard-working teachers, teaching assistants, and other school staff a well-needed rest after three terms of enthusiastic educating.

With all of that free time, we thought you might like some suggestions about what you can do to make the most of the summer season before the new academic year rolls around!

1. Relax

No more 7/8:00am starts means no more forced early rises, so now’s the time to catch up on all of those lost Z’s by sleeping in late. Once you’re all caught up, take days to yourself for relaxation – read that book that’s been sitting on your bedside table, work through your backlog of recorded shows, and generally lounge about. These days are best complemented with a carefully chosen snack collection to keep you going, so get stockpiling. You deserve it!

2. Holiday

When you return to the classroom in September you’ll hear a lot about your pupils’ holidays, so we think it’s only fair you treat yourself to one too. August is a great month to travel, with the summer sun beaming across Western Europe and the UK. Our suggestions for domestic breaks include Edinburgh (where you’ll find the infamous Fringe Festival), coastal Wales, and Cornwall. If you’re headed abroad – the world’s your oyster! Don’t have the chance to holiday this year? Treat yourself anyway with a trip to your local zoo, theme park, or beach.

3. Reflect

After a full school year of teaching, you probably have a lot to reflect on. The summer break is the perfect time to consider your strengths and weaknesses, think about the parts of your skillset that need developing, and begin to prepare yourself for the next year of teaching. We recommend checking out teaching blogs (there are plenty out there!), including our very own education blog which has articles covering a wide range of topics. Don’t be too strict on yourself, but a little light reading goes a long way!

4. Reconnect

It’s hard to keep in touch with extended family and friends when you’re working long-days for months at a time so, during the school holidays, reconnect with the people you don’t get to see during term-time. August weather brings with it opportunities for outdoor BBQs, rooftop drinks, and local park visits, make the most of it! This is one of those rare parts of the year where you’re freer than your other working friends so it’s your turn to bug them to catch up.

5. Prepare

As summer draws to a close and September looms, it’s time to start thinking about your first week back in school. Approach the new academic year positively; building on the progress you made in the previous year and taking your teaching to a new level. Planning your first week of lessons is always a good idea and will help your return to the classroom go smoothly.

If you’re ending the term (or just finishing your PGCE) with no teaching work lined up for the new academic year, you can also use the school holidays to register with us and find a day-to-day, short-term, or long-term placement that suits your needs. Send us your CV today and one of our consultants will give you a call as soon as possible for a friendly chat!

Summer often feels like it’s over before it even began, but these suggestions for the school holidays will help to make sure that you return to the classroom relaxed, re-inspired, and ready to teach!

And from all of us at Connex, enjoy your well-deserved break!

The post Make the most of the school holidays: 5 things to do while you’re off appeared first on Connex Education Partnership.

Work-related stress is part and parcel of most jobs, often described as the health epidemic of the 21st Century, and it is becoming a particularly serious issue within the teaching profession.

More and more teachers are feeling the strain of permanent teaching positions and the daily pressure can have an adverse effect on their physical health, mental well-being and quality of life. Some unfortunately decide to quit the job they once loved, in the hope of restoring normality and gaining a healthier work-life balance.

Why are teachers struggling to keep up with the demands of permanent jobs? Well, a recent survey of 12,000 teachers found that 83% had experienced more workplace stress in the last year, with 90% citing workload as their number-one concern. In a single day, these teachers do not simply teach. They are expected to plan lessons, create resources, manage behaviour, provide pastoral support, set pupil targets, enter pupil data, prepare for inspections, attend meetings, liaise with parents – the list is endless.

It is all too easy for teaching to take over your life, and when you’re stressed out at work, stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol are continuously released into the bloodstream. Over a long period of time, high levels of these hormones can mean bad news for our mental wellbeing and physical health; therefore it’s imperative to keep a cool head and manage your daily stress levels as much as you can.

What’s the solution?
With the burden of a heavy workload, permanent teaching jobs can seem overwhelming at times. You may feel like you want to give it all up, hand in your resignation and run for the hills. But why let all your hard work and training go to waste? Especially when there are effective ways of keeping your stress levels to a minimum. Here are a few helpful tips to get you started:

1. Accept the unexpected
It can be stressful when things happen unexpectedly, but it’s important to remember that, sometimes, they are simply out of your control. Make a list of the things that have caused you stress (e.g. a difficult class, an angry parent, the class TA calling in sick) and cross out the ones that you can’t do anything about. There’s no point worrying about them!

2. Pinpoint the positives
Rather than dwelling on the negatives, try to identify the positive things that happened in your day – even if some days, this means looking a little harder. Focus on any little triumphs or personal achievements, no matter how small or insignificant you think they are.

3. Get it off your chest
Sometimes a problem shared really is a problem halved (which is why we pair all of our candidates with a personal development manager, who will offer support and advice every step of the way). Perhaps you could meet a friend for a coffee and talk about your concerns, worries, and even the way you are feeling. You’ll be surprised how much this can help.

4. Learn to say no
It’s great to be cooperative and helpful in your job and we often don’t want to let people down. But if you’re already struggling to keep up with the workload, it is ok to say no. The last thing you want to do is burn yourself out.

5. Remember to have fun
Managing a healthy work-life balance can be difficult, but it is vital to set aside time each day for family and hobbies. This is one of the main advantages of supply teaching, as flexible working hours allow you to have some valuable ‘me’ time. Exercise is also great for stress relief and activities that focus your attention can really help too.

Remind yourself why you became a teacher in the first place and, combined with these useful tips, hopefully you can keep your stress levels under control. But if not, additional support and advice can be found on the Education Support Partnership website.

At Connex, we offer flexible working hours at a range of different schools, giving you the power to choose when and where you work. Many of our day-to-day and short-term placements come with no strings attached; you’re not expected to plan lessons, you don’t need to participate in extracurricular activities, and you’re free to go home at 3.15pm and enjoy your evening. All we ask is that you turn up on time and do the thing you love – teach! Working with us also has a number of additional benefits, including a competitive rate of pay, free CPD training, and the help of a friendly development manager.

If you’re considering working on supply, why not pop into your local Connex branch to chat to one of our development managers today? Or give us a call today on: 0845 266 0650.

The post Is supply teaching the solution to your work-related stress? appeared first on Connex Education Partnership.

The closer you are to graduating as an NQT, the more important it is to have your CV prepared and polished.

Whether you’re applying for a permanent position or joining an agency like Connex Education, your CV should help you to stand out against the competition at this critical point in your early career.

Although there are no real rules to writing a CV, there are plenty of guidelines and tips that can help you to appear relevant, professional, and unique to potential employers when you apply for NQT jobs. Here are five of them…

1. Presentation is important

Balance expression and style with professionalism. Use a simple font (Calibri, Times New Roman, etc.) and consistent font size between 10pt and 12pt, except for your name/contact details which should stand out in a larger font size at the top of the page. Try to avoid borders, grid layouts, and pictures of yourself unless absolutely necessary. Stick between one and three pages, any more and you’ll be saying too much.

2. Tailor and personalise

Each teaching role you apply for will have a different Job Description and Person Specification; it’s your responsibility to make sure that your CV is targeted at the job in question. Working from a basic version, re-focus your CV by altering your personal statement, key skills, and employment details. Cater your application to the school, paying close attention to individual requirements in the job advert and demonstrating how you meet them.

3. Be specific

The bulk of your CV should contain details of your employment or placement history and how it has prepared you for the job you’re applying for. Be specific with the information you use in this section and aim to get across what made YOUR experience invaluable. Ask yourself: What skills did I strengthen? What weaknesses did I work on? What unique opportunities did I seize? Using industry-specific keywords and terms such as SEN, differentiation, and extra-curricular can further strengthen your writing.

4. Avoid repetition and redundancy

Repeating points across your employment details, whether phrased in a new way or copied exactly, is a waste of space. Work hard to make each point different to really highlight how you’ve developed throughout your previous roles. In the same vein, consider whether what you’re saying is obvious. It’s likely that employers will know that you handed out learning resources to pupils during your student placements; do you have to use precious space mentioning this?

5. Edit, edit, edit your CV

When you’re applying for teaching jobs, there is a certain expectation of written communication skill. A great CV, content-wise can be dragged down easily by poor execution or laziness when it comes to grammar, sentence structure, and spelling. To avoid being disregarded for simple errors, be pro-active and meticulous in your editing process. Proof-read a print out of your CV, edit mistakes, and have a friend or family member look over your edited version. Then edit again. As good a writer as you might think you are; the editing process is guaranteed to lead to improvement.

These tips are useful for job application forms as well as CVs, so keep them in mind no matter how you’re applying for your first job as an NQT. Standing out is only five steps away!

Once you’ve perfected your CV, why not send it into us? We love to help NQTs get started in their career and can provide the flexibility you need, with day-to-day, short-term, and long-term roles available in primary and secondary schools in across East Midlands, London, Merseyside, Warrington and Cheshire and West Midlands.

Apply for teaching roles today on our website.

The post 5 tips for writing a CV for NQT jobs appeared first on Connex Education Partnership.

During your first year as a teacher, you will come across many different kinds of misbehaviour. But the one thing that shouldn’t change, is the school behaviour policy.

When you begin working in a new school, it’s important to understand the school’s policy on behaviour so that you can confidently discipline your class without any reluctancy.

In the classroom, sometimes what you class to be a low form of misbehaviour could quickly escalate in to a full blown incident. This can be daunting, but as long as you understand the policy in place, you can control most situations.

Before you even step foot in the classroom, read and understand the school’s behaviour policy, and let this steer your decisions. Knowing the rules before you meet your class eliminates ambiguity, for both you and your students. If they understand that you are fully aware of the consequences based on their actions, they know exactly what will happen to them if they continue to misbehave.

“How to Survive your First Year in Teaching”, a bestselling book by Sue Cowley mentions that you should always look in detail at the school policy and make sure you can answer the following questions before your lesson:

– What are the key school rules?

– What sanctions are available for me to use?

– Is there a graduated series of steps before I actually give a sanction?

– What sanctions does each type of misbehaviour ‘earn’?

– What do I do if a student fails to serve a sanction?

– How do I pass on information about student behaviour to senior staff?

– What rewards are available for me to use?

– What is the procedure for contacting parents about behaviour (good or bad)?

– What paperwork do I need to fill out after an incident?

– In what circumstances can I send a student out of the room?

– What should I do in a crisis?

Once you have the answer to the questions above, you’ll be fully equipped to manage behaviour in the classroom at your new school.

Want to keep getting tips like this? We regularly provide advice and support for our teaching staff. Sign up with us today and you’ll get more than just an agency to work with – you’ll get full support throughout your teaching career too.

Give us a call today on: 0845 266 0650 or apply for teaching jobs here.

The post Understanding school behaviour policy appeared first on Connex Education Partnership.

Good people can be hard to find, so we are really grateful when introductions are made for us.

To be more specific, we reward those who introduce us to brilliant teaching staff with £200 worth of high-street vouchers as a “thank you” for recommending new people. Read on to find out what you need to do…

We’ve got our hands full finding enough great staff for all the schools we work with – so you can imagine our delight when our teaching staff recommend new people who would like to join us.

We welcome all kinds of teaching staff, including:

• Primary Teachers
• Secondary Teachers
• SEN Teachers
• Newly Qualified Teachers
• Teaching Assistants
• Nursery Staff
• Cover Supervisors

If you know a great teacher (or any other teaching staff for that matter) who wants to try supply, we’ll reward you handsomely for your referrals. All you have to do is follow the 3 steps below:

Step 1. Click here

Step 2. Fill in our form

Step 3. Once your referral has worked a minimum of 10 days through us, we’ll send you £200 in shopping vouchers!

It’s as simple as that.

We could all do with an extra £200 in our pocket, and the beauty of our referral scheme is that you can refer as many people as you like!

Take Mariam for example. She rounded up her nursery friends and referred them right before Christmas 2016. As a result of three of her referrals working the minimum amount of days, she got £600 in shopping vouchers just in time for Christmas!

Farjana also recommended nursery staff to us, and got £400 in high-street vouchers too!

If this is something you’d like to benefit from, all you have to do is click the image below to refer excellent teaching staff to us.

In advance, we’d like to say how grateful we are for your recommendations, but we’re sure you’ll get the idea once the vouchers arrive in the post.

The post Your introductions mean alot…£200 to be precise appeared first on Connex Education Partnership.

Our aim is to recruit excellent staff for our primary teaching jobs. We cover all supply needs – short-term, long-term, and even sometimes permanent recruitment – and we only employ high quality teaching and support staff for our primary schools.

We are committed to providing staff to our schools who pride themselves on making a real contribution to children’s education, however little time they may be in front of them.

So we choose carefully…and we take excellent care of the staff we take on, because having found you, we don’t want to lose you.

Who works as supply?

Everyone. As long as you are qualified, you can be just starting out in your career in education, relocating, or leaving permanent employment for the first time. Whatever stage you’re at in your teaching career, we’ll help you take your next step, with no fuss.

How we value you
We put a lot of effort in to support our staff. You get your own Connex Education consultant, who takes trouble to get to know you and matches you closely to the best placements for you. Your consultant will work very hard to keep you in work and will have lots of support to offer – particularly if you are an NQT or ECT.

Our schools appreciate the quality of our service and most of our staff soon get requested by name (a great position to be in if you hope to transfer to a permanent role).

Good staff are always hard to find, and we appreciate introductions. If you introduce friends or colleagues to us who go on to work for us, we will reward you handsomely.

So if you like being valued and rewarded for all you offer, it may be time you gave us a try…

Call us today if you’re searching for primary school jobs on: 0845 266 0650 or contact your local branch. Alternatively, you can search for primary roles here.

The post Make a difference: primary school teaching jobs appeared first on Connex Education Partnership.