Your assignment day, start to finish
It is 9pm and you are working tomorrow at a school you have never been to.
By the end you can
- Have everything you need before you leave the house
- Know what to do when there is no lesson plan
- Close the day out properly so your pay is not delayed
Walkthrough
The night before: open the assignment and read the first-day guide
Confirm the school address and the start time, and — if the job lists them — the teacher and the room. Check whether a lesson plan is attached. If the school has published a first-day guide, open "Your first-day guide" on the assignment; it only covers what the school chose to add (for example dress code, phone policy or dismissal), so anything missing is a question for the school office.
Take me thereThe night before: plan your parking
Do not leave parking to the morning of. If the school has added it to the first-day guide or the job's arrival info, it will say whether there is a substitute lot, whether the teacher lot is off-limits, or whether it is street parking only. If it says nothing, call or message the school office the day before and leave extra time — better the night before than while you are circling the block.
Plan a fallback
A school's own plan always comes first. If there is none, have something ready: the lesson plan tool can draft a grade-appropriate plan in a few minutes (read it over and adapt it to the room), and the activities library has fillers for the gaps.
Take me thereArrival: find the student entrance and the main office
Substitutes usually enter where students enter, not the staff/teacher entrance — security or the front desk is there to help if you are unsure. Check in at the main office the way the school asks (many have a sign-in sheet or a visitor system), and be ready to say who you are covering for. If the job listed a teacher, that is the name; if it did not, ask the office who you are covering and where the room is.
Check in on the platform
Your check-in tells the school and our team that coverage is in place, and it records when you arrived. Pay follows the hours the job was posted for, not the minutes between check-in and check-out — if you worked past the scheduled end, the app asks about extra time at check-out and the school confirms it.
Take me thereClose the day out
Check out when you leave, leave a short note for the returning teacher about what was covered and anything they should know, and return any keys or badge you were given.
Worth knowing
- Leave a note for the teacher every single time. It is the cheapest thing you can do to get requested again.
- Keep the school office number in your phone before the morning you need it.
What goes wrong
- Forgetting to check out. A day with no check-out looks unfinished to the school and to our team, so its confirmation and pay can be delayed until someone follows up.
- Leaving without telling the office. Schools have to account for coverage.
A short video for this is in production
The written walkthrough below is complete and current — it is the same steps the video will show.
Short clips for this
These short clips are in production — the written steps below cover the same actions today.
Find your upcoming assignment
Check in when you arrive
Check out at the end of the day
Submit your end-of-day report