What this tool does
A one-page hand-off for a cover teacher: header details, a daily schedule table, lesson notes, classroom routines and key contacts. The routines and contacts blocks can be turned off.
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One page, five blocks
Header details at the top, then the day's schedule as a table, space for lesson notes, a block for classroom routines, and one for key contacts. Set how many schedule rows you need; drop the routines or contacts blocks if your school covers them elsewhere.
Write it before you need it
The difficulty with cover plans is that you are never in a fit state to write one.
You are ill at six in the morning, or something has happened, and the plan gets typed on a phone in ten minutes. Fill this in now, while you are well, leave it in the top drawer, and update the schedule when the timetable changes. A generic plan sitting ready beats a specific one that never got written.
The routines block is the one that matters
Cover teachers can teach. What they cannot know is how your room runs.
How do children ask to leave the room? What is the signal for quiet? Where is the equipment kept, who is allowed to fetch it, and what happens at the end of the lesson? Who has a card, a pass, an arrangement? None of it appears on a timetable, and every bit of it is needed inside the first five minutes.
Name the children who need naming
Carefully, and with judgement. Two kinds are worth flagging: the ones who will help — who knows where things are, who can be trusted to run an errand — and the ones who need something specific, such as a seat at the front, a movement break, or medication.
Keep it factual and keep it about need rather than character. This sheet leaves your hands and you cannot control who reads it, so write nothing you would not say to the child's parent.
Contacts, with names
The teacher next door, by name and room number, beats any office extension. Then: who to call for behaviour support, where the office is, and the number for a real emergency.
A cover teacher who knows one human being's name in the building is a considerably calmer cover teacher.
Leave work that runs without you
Set something a class can do independently, with more than you expect them to finish. A cover lesson that runs out of work twenty minutes early is the situation every plan should be designed to prevent.
Related: the attendance register and the seating chart, which are the two things a cover teacher asks for next.
FAQs
Quick answers
What is a substitute teacher plan?
It is a one-page hand-off form a regular teacher leaves for a cover or supply teacher. It sets out the day's schedule, the lessons to deliver, the classroom routines to follow, and the key people to contact for help.
Does it include an answer key?
No. This is a blank template you complete yourself, so there is nothing to mark. Print blank copies and fill them in by hand, or keep some ready in your desk for unexpected absences.
How many schedule rows can I add?
You can set between 3 and 10 rows in the daily schedule table, so it matches the number of periods or sessions in your school day.
Can I leave off the routines or contacts sections?
Yes. Both the classroom routines box and the three-column key-contacts panel can be toggled on or off, and the remaining sections expand to fill the page.
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Further reading
