Substitute planning in schools

Definition of substitute planning

Teachers may be absent because they are ill, for example, or because they are accompanying a class on a trip. Some absences are known weeks in advance, while the school only learns of others on the morning itself.

The timetable is usually fixed for a semester. A substitution plan, by contrast, applies only to individual days. Besides substitutions and cancellations, it also shows where the room or time of a lesson changes.

At many schools, the deputy head plans substitutions, often before the first lesson begins.

How a substitution works

Options for open lessons

Several solutions are possible for an open lesson:

• A teacher who is free at that time or on standby takes over the lesson.
• The school combines groups, or a teacher from the class next door supervises both.
• Lessons are swapped or moved so that the gap shifts to the start or end of the school day.
• The lesson is cancelled, for older students often with work to complete on their own.

In many German states, primary schools have guaranteed hours during which children are supervised even when lessons are cancelled. A school's substitution policy sets out the order in which it uses these options.

What matters in planning

These criteria help when choosing a substitute:

• Subject and class: teachers who know the class or teach the subject are best placed to continue the lesson.
• Fair distribution: substitutions should not always fall to the same teachers. Contracted hours and part-time contracts set limits.
• Fixed commitments: exams and supervision duties need a teacher even on days with many absences.

Data for substitute planning

Every decision requires the current timetable, the reported absences, and the teachers' free periods. If this information sits in separate lists, someone has to compare it by hand every morning.

If the school records every substitution and every cancelled lesson, it becomes clear how much teaching actually takes place. With this information, school leaders can answer questions from parents and the school authorities.

Substitute planning with OhayoSchool

In OhayoSchool, you plan substitutions in the same application as the timetable.

• Enter absences individually or several at once.
• See every lesson without a teacher and, for each of these lessons, who is free.
• Assign substitutes to open lessons and activate the substitution plan. From then on, the affected classes and teachers see the substitution in their timetable, and OhayoSchool notifies them.
• Switch on the autopilot for substitutions if you wish. OhayoSchool then covers open lessons itself according to your school's rules and records every assignment in the log.
• Track covered and cancelled lessons in the substitution statistics.
• In workforce planning, compare each teacher's lessons in the timetable with their contracted hours.

In the Ohayo Terminal, you can also record absences and cover open lessons in conversation with the substitution assistant. Every assignment there waits for your confirmation.

Frequently asked questions