Agency whinge

[gaskellgirl]

My current agency asked if I could go in for an appointment last week and said it was just a routine admin thing as I had been working for them for about a year now. However, when I got in it turned into a very negative meeting with them saying that schools had been complaining about me. When I asked they said it was only since Easter (they have had very little work for me since then and I have only done odd days) and mentioned 1 school where someone had said I could not deal with the children's behaviour - the class in question were a nightmare and I had only been phoned at 10am. When I got in they had been allowed to draw for over an hour as there was no work set, but I was told by a TA that I was expected to teach a maths lesson for which there was only a scribble on a piece of paper for planning. The children were dreadful because they had been allowed to do what they wanted for the entire morning and resented doing any work. The TA undermined me several times and went to fetch the deputy head to tell them off without even asking me. This
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e me feel as though I had no authority and
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e me look crap. In the afternoon the TA went and the class were much better. Of course, no one saw this. I didn't mention this to the agency at the time as I just decided I wouldn't go back to that paticular school ever again. This was quite a few weeks ago, but nothing was mentioned to me about the fact the school had complained until last week. Surely if they want to discuss this they should do so on the same evening and mention that the school weren't happy rather than leaving it for weeks and then dragging it up.

There was also one school that I went to weeks ago who apparently had complained because I had marked one child as absent on the register when they were there. I always take great care with the register and if they had asked me about this on the day I could have probably given them a reason - the child may have been late and it was not recorded in the office when they came in - but mentioning weeks after seems really petty. The fact was not mentioned that I worked really hard at this school and did a good job.

Anyway, I wanted to ask what you think of the agency (they are Protocol). I never had any problem with them until after Easter but then one of the consultants who was really good and got me a lot of work left and the others don't seem bothered. They only ever ring me to give me the crap jobs that no one else wants and I have already booked an appointment to register with a new agency.

I just think it is wrong that if schools are giving negative feedback I don't hear about it - in fact they don't let me know anything to be honest. And since I am sent to schools with a lot of behaviour problems it seems unfair that they expect the kids to behave perfectly when I am there when they don't do this for their usual teacher.

[Gnomoospan]

Don't know anything about that agency, but sounds like they are being a bit unfair bringing this all up so late. Can you afford to drop them and just use other agencies?

[danfur]

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gaskellgirl. Where abouts in the country are you? I was registered with Protocol the first time I did supply and they began really well and got me my first job and I had a little work after that and then it just dried up. I never had anything like this but I found that they were very impersonal and like you, you tended to get called with the stuff others didn't want. I was lucky as I was registered at the time with 4 agencies so I didn't go short of work and in the end discovered which agencies I preferred. I found 2 agencies who were very good and personal, where you can ring up and just give your first name and they know who you are. You are in a good position at the moment to "shop around" the agencies being as it's the summer hols. I found you got a feeling for an agency straight away. Go on your gut instinct, there will be more personal ones about.

[NuttySupplier]

Do you need to go through an agency? Been doing supply for over 5 years here, and have only ever heard of one agency who operate in this area, and only met 3 other supply teachers from them too... can you go to schools direct? Lots of threads/info on this in the Getting Started section I think...

[audrey]

You poor thing-sounds like you're having a lot of unnecessary comments thrown at you
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As you said, things could have been mentioned much earlier, rather than dragging things out like this.
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I'm with Nutty on the direct contact
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. I don't use agencies, in fact we don't have any that I'm aware of.
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Business cards and going into different schools seem to work, I am going to organise myself and get some business cards up and running for september.

Good luck with it all and above all-don't let it ruin your confidence this agency does not sound very professional good
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to ditch them I say
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