More than a third of supply teachers are not being given essential information about pupils in their class who have special needs and behavioural problems.

Research by the NASUWT teaching union also found that a quarter of supply teachers had not been told about their school’s behaviour-management policy or who to contact in the event of a problem.

One supply teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, told Tes of her problems in a Year 9 geography lesson, which she says she was completely unprepared for.

The former head of department, with 23 years’ experience, says she was sent in to cover the lesson on her first day at the school - despite senior management knowing that there had been huge behavioural issues with the class.

She said: “The school hadn’t even given me a behaviour policy. I was just given a timetable and told to go to the class without any information.

“The class came in overly excited. One boy was pushing another one and the others started cheering.

“I tried to get them to settle and gave out the textbooks, but some pupils started throwing them.

“There seemed to be an ongoing issue and I had no idea what it was. Somebody didn’t want to sit next to somebody else and they wanted to push the desk forward.

“There was so much chatter and shouting that I couldn’t hear myself so I sent a child to the classroom next door to ask for help.

“Three senior-leadership teachers came in - which told me straight away that they knew there were issues with the class. One of them admitted that’s why the teacher was on sick [leave], and it made me very upset because they hadn’t prepared me.”

The supply teacher, who works in the south of England, refused to return to the school the following day - yet, in her next assignment, on a long-term contract, she also found herself being kept in the dark, in that that she wasn’t invited to regular meetings and briefings.

She said: “It meant I had no idea of issues affecting children, nor did I have access to computer records of targets and special educational needs details.

“I left after four weeks because I just found it so challenging. They were expecting me to know things when I didn’t. I didn’t know, for example, if a child was having difficulties at home. You could see poor behaviour, but you didn’t know what was behind it.

“It was because I was on supply that they felt they couldn’t share confidential information with me.”

The NASUWT’s research shows that 40 per cent of supply teachers didn’t feel that they were treated with “respect and dignity”, while 39 per cent said they were denied access to staff food and drinks facilities; 35 per cent said they were denied access to car parking.

However, the union found that the number of supply teachers who said they were “made to feel welcome” in a school had gone up five percentage points this year, to 61 per cent, and said this was linked to the recruitment and retention crisis.

NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said: “At a time of a crisis of teacher recruitment and retention, the government must now take seriously the issues raised by supply teachers, who are the backbone of the schools system.”

Tom Hadley, of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), which represents supply teaching agencies across the country, said: ”REC is committed raising standards, sharing good practice and works with our members to ensure workers are aware of their rights.”

*Tes’ parent company Tes Global owns three teacher-supply agencies

You can read more about the findings about supply teachers in tomorrow’s Tes magazine, available in all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here