How to plan school cover. Before the first bell, not after.

• Log the absence before you start ringing round
• Check clashes: lesson, intervention, duty, 1:1
• You approve the name. A suggestion is not a published rota
• One PDF after the last change, not a reply-all thread

A normal bad morning

About 07:40, two messages: a TA is sick and a midday supervisor is at hospital. On paper you open yesterday's file, look for someone who is free, first-aid trained and not already on a pupil, then print. At 08:05 a third change arrives and the printout in the staffroom is the old one. That loop is the whole problem.

What you are actually deciding

You need someone who is allowed to take that lesson, not just a name with a gap. They might already be on the gate, or they might have to stay with a child. In a secondary, a cover supervisor can run the list once those rules exist, but the decision often still sits with an assistant head. In our 88-staff secondary example, duty plus lesson cover comes to about 8 hours a week.

Where software fits, and where it does not

SchoolRota keeps the weekly pattern, shows the empty posts, and proposes a name from rules you set. Nothing goes to staff until you confirm. It does not write the teaching timetable, and it does not call a supply agency. If you still want the sheet in a spreadsheet, the next page is about when that holds up.

A cover morning, in order

Log the absence before you start ringing round. Known absences can be on the board the day before. The list still changes at 07:40, so you need a daily copy you can amend and publish again. Then see who is free in that window, and who is only free because you forgot they teach, or sit with a pupil, or hold the gate.

Check the rules you use: support staff before office, office before leadership, a weekly cap if you have one, and the posts you will not strip to fill a lesson. The gate is a common one. Assign a name, tell the people who need to know, and publish one PDF after the last change. Then record what happened, including the intervention that did not run. Cover management software is that sequence on one board. The longer version is how to manage teacher absences.

Rules worth writing down once

TAs and cover supervisors before office staff, office staff before leadership, unless your school has a reason to do it differently. A maximum per person per week, written as a number. Protected duties: do not move the first-aider off the yard to take a lesson if the yard is then uncovered. Subject limits where they matter, and an honest 'anyone can supervise the work that was set' where they do not.

Write the rules where the next person can find them when the usual owner is on a course. A spreadsheet tab called Rules that nobody opens does not count. A starting point you can edit is the duty rota policy template.

What software can do, and what it must not

Software can propose a name, check a clash, count who has already been used, and publish one list. It cannot know that this TA and this class had a bad hour yesterday, or that the head wants a particular adult on the gate because of a family at the door. That judgement stays with the person who confirms the day. If you skip the confirm step, you have automated the wrong part of the morning.

If you are deciding whether the sheet is still the right tool, read when the spreadsheet breaks and SchoolRota vs the spreadsheet. Keep the sheet if the morning is calm.

The cutoff is the useful part

Schools that cope have a time after which the list does not keep changing in people's heads. Yours might be 08:10. After that, any change goes out as a new publish. In the 88-staff secondary example, duty plus lesson cover is about 8 hours a week because the list keeps moving. A primary with two absences a week will not look like that. Write the cutoff anyway. It is what stops the staffroom copy being the wrong one.

Common questions

Should cover be planned the day before?

Known absences, yes. The list still changes on the morning, so you need a daily copy you can amend, not a fresh file named cover-final-v7.

Who should own the cover list?

Whoever is allowed to decide. In many secondaries that is an assistant head, with a cover supervisor running the board once the rules are set. In a primary it is often the head, deputy or SENCO.

Can staff see cover before it is agreed?

They should not. Publish after you confirm, then send the PDF. A half-finished list in a shared drive is how people turn up in the wrong room.

How far in advance should cover be planned?

Known absences, as soon as you know. Unplanned absences, the same morning, before staff are in front of children. A plan made only the day before still needs a way to change at 07:40.

What is the difference between internal cover and supply?

Internal cover is someone already on the staff, moved for that lesson or duty. Supply is someone you bring in, usually booked by the school with an agency or a casual contract. SchoolRota can mark supply on the day so the published list is right. It does not phone the agency.

How do you track cover fairness?

Count how often each person is used, and look at it every week, not in July. A spreadsheet can do that with a tally if someone maintains it. The board keeps the tally as part of publishing, so it does not depend on a second job.

See also cover software, using a spreadsheet, duty rotas and the 88-staff secondary example.