Top four teaching resources for supply teachers and teaching assistants

One of the key factors in the delivery of an outstanding lesson is preparation. The internet is often the first port of call and online teaching resources are an invaluable aid to both supply teachers and teaching assistants. However, with so many resources available the sheer volume can be overwhelming – where do you turn to for the best science lesson plans, phonics resources, maths worksheets or the crucial end of term quiz?

Caroline Cafferty, Operations Director, justteachers, spoke with a number of supply teachers and teaching assistants and put together the top four sites, both paid and free, to help you find the right teaching resources to deliver outstanding lessons.

TES

TES has free and paid resources covering everything from early years foundation stage (EYFS) and primary to secondary to special educational needs (SEN) and much more.

Sign up is free and once registered you can browse/download a comprehensive collection of more than 640,000 resources, many of which have been peer reviewed by teachers. There are over 36,000 lesson plans, making it the go-to site for supply teachers. 

SupplyBag

SupplyBag – paid teaching resources as well as lots of top tips for supply teachers – offers support, resources and information to supply teachers to help them get the best out of their supply career. You can get advice and support from others on their forum (Facebook) or receive it directly to your inbox by signing up for their free bi-monthly newsletters. There’s an endless supply of teaching resources covering all age groups and although there is a small charge for most of their resources, they are specifically geared towards supply teachers, ideal for candidates who are new to supply teaching. The Facebook forum has more than 5000 members and actively engages great conversation around supply teaching and schools education. A great place to start is their emergency lesson plans.

Twinkl

Twinkl is an online platform providing award-wining resourcing materials for all key stages as well as SEN and English as an additional language (EAL). Although you can sign up for free, you’ll need to have a paid subscription to personalise the available resources; however, for roughly the same cost as two cups of coffee a month it offers good value for money. You can easily download guides, packs, teaching aids and power points to help assist with your supply lessons for any year group or key stage. In addition, Twinkl also has Facebook groups dedicated to every key stage to share ideas and tips, there is even a dedicated Facebook group for teachers with dogs!

Primary Resources

The Primary Resources website provides more than 3GB of free activity ideas, lesson plans and resources for primary supply teachers and teaching assistants. Hundreds of resources for all subjects, year groups and key stages as well as lesson plans, activity ideas and resources for SEN and EAL pupils, all available to download with just a click of a button! All subjects are divided into topics to make it easier and simple to find the free activity ideas. 

Caroline Cafferty, Operations Director, justteachers