With the need for TRTs on the rise, we find out how Salisbury Primary School in Adelaide is finding and booking more casual staff using ClassCover.
School overview:
- Salisbury Primary School
- Location: Salisbury in Adelaide’s Northern Suburbs
- Students: 326
- Staff: 42
- Using ClassCover since: Semester 1 2018
- Average TRT bookings per week in 2022: 6
An army of one
In many ways, you could say Jacqui Keevers is the glue that holds Salisbury Primary School together. As the key administrator and face behind the desk at the school in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, Jacqui is the first point of contact for students, parents, and visitors to the school. Since joining Salisbury as a classroom based SSO in 2004, Jacqui has got to know the ins and outs of the school and its community.
“Salisbury Primary School is widely known for study tours. Other schools from around South Australia come here to observe and learn how we teach, bringing teams of up to 30 staff to focus on things like Morphology, Phonology, and Reading.”
Fast forward to 2022 and a typical day for Jacqui starts at 7:15am when she arrives at school, unlocking the gates and making sure everything is set up for the arrival of Salisbury’s 326 students and 42 staff. Once the mayhem of the day begins, Jacqui looks after everything from making purchase orders, entering the daily rolls, recording leave for teachers, and providing first aid to students, all while keeping an eye on the front desk and manning the phones.
Another one of Jacqui’s roles is the booking and management of the schools’ TRTs, a requirement which has increased noticeably since the pandemic hit.
“The last few years have seen our need for TRTs really increase. Between our teaching staff getting sick with COVID and now the flu, I’m finding myself needing to fill a lot more classes.”
While using ClassCover to find and book TRTs simplifies the process and helps Jacqui save time for other tasks, she knows the importance of the human element when it comes to relief teachers, and ensures she is on hand to greet TRTs and help get them set up for the day, particularly if they are new to the school.
Life before ClassCover
Like many schools in South Australia, Salisbury utilised the government-run TRT scheme to find and book relief teachers. While this method got the job done, Jacqui has noted some serious advantages of using ClassCover independent of a scheme.
“When we used the TRT Scheme, teachers would be able to call in as early as 5:30am if they were sick or needed to take the day off for another reason. From here, the TRT Scheme would organise a relief teacher for us. The problem was the lack of visibility. We often didn’t know which teacher we were getting until they walked in, sometimes right before the bell.”
A better way of doing things
From Jacqui’s perspective, one of the clear benefits since switching to ClassCover in 2018 is the added visibility when booking a TRT.
“With ClassCover we know who we are getting long before they walk into the school. I also have the comfort of knowing that their paperwork is up to date. Things like email conformations are also helpful for our records and making sure that we know exactly who is coming in.”
On the topic of paperwork, features like the ability to easily see if a teacher has completed and uploaded all required documents at a glance makes it easy for schools to know that a teacher has the necessary qualifications before they are booked.
“I only add TRTs to my list if they have uploaded their “Authority to Teach” which I print and store in a folder. We can’t risk having teachers without the proper credentials turn up to school, so this feature makes it easy to be sure.”
One ongoing battle Jacqui finds herself facing is non-responsive relief teachers.
“Occasionally I find that TRTs won’t update their availability. To help deal with this I have been making use of the newer features, like inviting teachers to join our school’s list, posting job ads on the ClassCover Jobs platform and sending “nudges” to non-responsive teachers.”
Learn how to send a nudge to non-responsive teachers
Learn how to post a job ad on ClassCover Jobs
Learn how to send a group message to the teachers on your list
“I have always recommended Class Cover to other schools, both because of my experience using it and because TRTs I speak to prefer ClassCover to other booking platforms.”
Learn more about moving from Relief Ruler to ClassCover for free