A lesson for all on supply and demand

EILEEN Prior, director of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, claims many parents are concerned about supply teachers not being prepared for teaching our children (News, 9 October).

Should parents not be more concerned that Cosla’s new agreement actually encourages supply teachers to start at 9am and finish at 3pm, instead of the previous situation where they were paid to prepare and mark work with a seven-hour day?

I’ve been undertaking supply work for the past two years – not because it is a cosy number but because I was committed to pursuing a teaching career having left another well-paid career to teach. I am no longer taking day-by-day supply as I can’t afford to and I have started another job.

As I am also a parent, should SPTC not be supporting teachers unable to find work rather than attacking those teachers, without whom my child would either have a member of school’s management team teaching them rather than managing the school or their teacher not receiving CPD.

In the past, supply work might have been a nice earner for retired friends of headteachers – nowadays it is the only way newly qualified teachers can find any work and stop them from being lost to the profession. When all the “old” teachers retire as they must, it will be these same supply teachers who will be required to deliver the new curriculum.

Donald Macdonald, Bishopbriggs