Since we first launched in Sydney in 2011, ClassCover has held a strong focus on innovation to continually deliver a better experience for both teachers and schools. Since then, we’ve grown to be used by over 3,000 schools and 97,000 teachers across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
In amongst all this growth, we continue to work closely with the NSW Department of Education to ensure our platform is the best fit for the unique needs of schools across the state. And considering ClassCover is currently used by over 2,000 public schools in NSW alone, we must be doing something right.
Whether you need to find a casual teacher for today, book someone with particular skills—say, a teacher trained in Japanese who can also handle ancient history, or recruit for an upcoming vacancy, ClassCover can help.
Read on to learn about some of the latest additions to ClassCover and hear what two principals from NSW public schools love about the platform.
And just a reminder, our partnership with the NSW Department of Education means ClassCover is free to use for all public schools across the state.
New features for schools
If it’s been a while since you’ve logged into ClassCover, chances are, you’ve missed out on some of our new features. We’ve been working hard to boost the functionality of the platform—for both schools and teachers—and have listened to great feedback from our users. Here’s some of our most exciting new updates for schools.
- Teacher compliance
We’ve added a number of new tools designed to help schools maintain teacher compliance while saving time. Our direct integration with the NSW Department of Education ensures that ClassCover is your one source of truth when it comes to checking mandatory teacher training and approval to teach documentation. If you see a green tick next to a teacher’s name in ClassCover, their qualifications are up to date, and they are ready to teach. If you see an orange tick, the teacher is still approved to teach but may have outstanding training to complete.
Another feature designed to manage compliance is the customisable checkbox. With many states around Australia mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for teachers and education staff, the checkbox is an easy way to mark and filter teachers that have demonstrated their vaccination status. You can also change this checkbox to keep track of any other fields you like.
Learn more about the approval to teach tick.
- ClassCover Jobs
The ClassCover jobs board is fast becoming a popular way to promote all sorts of jobs for schools in NSW and right around Australia. Whether you are looking to cast a wider net with your casuals, hire a full-time teacher role or another job in your school, ClassCover Jobs is a quick and effective way to reach a huge database of educators near you.
- Broadcast messages to your list on ClassCover
Another time-saving feature in ClassCover is the ability to send broadcast messages to all or part of your teacher list. Just log into the web version of ClassCover and head to your “My Teachers” page. From here, either filter on your selected teachers or choose to message everyone on your list. The selected teachers will receive the message in their email inbox and can take the required action. Some things schools use the broadcast feature for are:
- Asking teachers to update their availability
- Sending important school announcements
- Providing teacher reminders
Trusted by over 1,700 NSW Public schools
Since partnering with the NSW Department of Education in 2018, ClassCover has proven to be an invaluable tool for schools right across the state. Currently, ClassCover is used regularly by 73% of NSW public schools to find, book and manage relationships with casual teachers. The platform is built to cater to the needs of every school, including those with unique requirements, like Carlton Public School in Sydney’s south. Here’s what Deputy Principal, Jenny Morrison, had to say about the platform.
“Being in quite a multicultural part of Sydney, we run a Community Languages Program that offers our students the opportunity to learn languages like Macedonian, Chinese, Arabic, Greek or Indonesian. Because of this, I find the filters in ClassCover really useful when I need to find a teacher with specific language skills.”
Similarly, Diane Read, Principal at Lindfield East Public School on Sydney’s North Shore uses ClassCover for the ability it gives her and her team to view teacher availability and book the best casual teachers to fit the needs of the school.
“In general, parents don’t like it when you’re swapping and changing teachers frequently. We find that if we have too many different casuals on a class our parents will email me and say, ‘You’ve had 10 casuals on this class this year or this term’. So, using ClassCover, we look at the availability of the casuals to ensure that they can cover the entire absence if it’s for a longer period of time.”
A teacher list you can trust
Let’s face it—the transient nature of relief teaching can make it hard to maintain a quality group of casuals, no matter which way you manage the process. We’ve heard your feedback and have made a number of new improvements to the platform to help schools identify teachers that are inactive and non-responsive and remove them from your list.
Your My Teachers page has a Health Checker you can use to gauge the health of your Teacher List, based on stats like the number of inactive teachers on your list and the number of incomplete profiles. A teacher will appear as inactive if they have not logged in, responded to a job request or updated their availability for 90 days.
From here, you can filter on teachers that have been inactive for a certain period of time, based on your school’s needs and message them to update their availability or choose to hide them from your list. If you’re looking to expand your Teacher List, you can search for new teachers near you or post a job on the Jobs Board.
97,000 teachers and growing
While there’s no doubt ClassCover is a game changer for schools, it’s teachers who have really benefited from the updates to the platform. With a database of over 80,000 teachers on the ClassCover platform, and over 42,000 in NSW alone, we have a tremendous opportunity to help shape the experience for casual teachers. By keeping our users engaged and listening to their feedback to improve the platform, ClassCover continues to evolve for the better. With many of our teachers using the platform throughout their careers, we spoke to some of our first ever users to find out what they like about ClassCover. Here’s what our 10th ever user, Dilek, had to say.
“I decided early on that I would only work with schools that used ClassCover because it just saved so much time.”
ClassCover is free to use for all NSW public schools and getting started is quick and easy. Sign up today
