Anonymous survey answerSurvey Nº 124

Supply teaching is lonely. The lack of opportunities is demoralising and sitting at home waiting for an email is painful.

Supply posts gone the minute the email is out

Published 5 October 2026 · 1 min read

Employment situation: Supply teaching
Sector: Primary

Supply teaching is lonely. The lack of opportunities is demoralising and sitting at home waiting for an email is painful. The amount of people receiving the emails and trying to get the post is large making the opportunity incredibly hard. You call the same minute the email is out and the post is gone.

This is answer 124 of the 269 written answers that teachers let us quote anonymously in the Scottish Teacher Employment Survey 2026. It answers the survey’s last question: what do the people who make decisions about teacher employment need to know?

We have corrected spelling, added paragraph breaks and removed details that could identify anyone. Words in square brackets are ours.

Every answer in the report (PDF) Survey results

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