Relief Teacher Bag of Tricks: What to Pack

A relief teacher bag of tricks is the kit that lets you walk into any classroom ready to teach, even when the booking lands at 7:35am and there is no day plan waiting. Pack four categories: your paperwork and ID, no-prep activities for each year band, a small set of classroom tools, and a personal kit that gets you through playground duty and a missed lunch. This guide covers what goes in each category, with a printable checklist to download.

It’s 7:35am. Your phone buzzes. Relief and panic arrive together: a booking, which is great, and a class you know nothing about, which is less great. Every relief teacher knows that feeling. The difference between a stressful day and a good one is usually sitting in your bag.

A well-built bag of tricks means the questions that used to spike your heart rate (“What if there’s no plan?”, “What if I finish early?”) already have answers. Here is what to pack, category by category.

What paperwork and ID should a relief teacher carry?

Schools cannot put you in front of a class without the right documents, so this section of your bag earns its place every single day:

• Photo ID and your teacher registration or accreditation number for your state
• Working With Children Check details (card or number, depending on your state)
• Payroll details for new schools: tax file number declaration details, bank details and super fund information, so a first booking at a new school does not stall at the office
• A lanyard, because hunting for a visitor badge clip at 8:40am is nobody’s favourite start

Keep digital copies on your phone as backup. If you use ClassCover, upload your accreditation details and WWCC to your profile so schools can verify you before they book, which speeds up the whole process.

What no-prep activities work for each year band?

Never assume the regular teacher has left work. Pack a few reliable activities per band and you are covered for a full day at short notice.

Foundation to Year 2

• A favourite picture book, plus the lessons hiding inside it: character studies, alternative endings, directed drawing, acting out scenes
• Counting and number games with dice or playing cards
• Simple drawing prompts (“Draw the setting of our story, then label three things”)

Years 3 to 6

• Dice and card maths games such as First to 100 and Greed, easily differentiated by adding a die or changing the operation
• Quick-write prompts and a “finish the story” starter
• A class quiz template you can fill with any topic the class is studying

Years 7 to 10

• Silent reading plus a short comprehension or summary task
• Discussion and debate prompts tied to whatever subject you are covering
• A generic research-and-present task: 20 minutes to prepare, 2 minutes to present

For ready-made, printable options across subjects and stages, our roundup of relief teaching daily plans and activity ideas is built for exactly this.

What classroom tools earn a spot in your bag?

Every item here solves a problem you will hit within your first week of relief teaching:

• Whiteboard markers, because the classroom’s markers are dead and have been for weeks
• Sticky notes for exit tickets, name labels on desks, and reminders to yourself
• Dice and playing cards, the most versatile teaching kit ever invented per gram
• A picture book you know well enough to teach five ways
• Stickers or a stamp for younger years
• A whistle and a sunhat for playground duty
• A small timer (or your phone) for timed activities and smooth transitions

What personal kit keeps you going?

Relief days rarely run to plan, so pack for the day where nothing does:

• Water bottle and snacks that survive being forgotten in a bag
• Phone charger
• Comfortable shoes, because you will walk further than you think in an unfamiliar school
• A small notebook for the details you will need again: gate codes, photocopier quirks, the name of the teacher who helped you

[DOWNLOAD BLOCK: printable bag-of-tricks checklist to be attached in WordPress]

How does a bag of tricks get you rebooked?

Schools take notice when a relief teacher arrives prepared. A reliever who can absorb a missing day plan without a trip to the front office makes the school’s morning easier, and schools rebook the casuals who make their day easier. Preparation is one half of the equation; the other half is how you carry yourself around the school, which we cover in our top 10 tips for becoming a highly requested relief teacher.

And if you are at the start of your relief teaching career and still building both the bag and the bookings, start with the new graduate’s guide to casual relief teaching. Keeping your ClassCover availability up to date does the rest: schools book the casuals they can see.