At Mainstream, we understand how important it is for schools to have reliable and effective lesson cover for teachers' PPA time. We therefore offer to our client schools:
- consistency of teaching staff
- very reliable teachers
- replacement teacher within one hour in the rare case of absence
- telephone lines open 7am–7pm, messages left answered within the hour
- all teachers CRB checked, insured and experienced
Experienced PPA cover provider
Mainstream has been providing PPA cover since PPA time was introduced; many of the schools who were not already clients of ours chose us because of our previous experience of teaching in schools and our excellent reputation in the education sector.
In fact Mainstream has been doing this kind of teaching since long before the introduction of PPA and so is in an ideal position to provide performing arts lessons that have real educational value and are not simply a break from the normal school day.
Performing arts education—not supervised play
We do not differentiate between our PPA cover and other curricular classes in terms of the lesson content, and so our PPA lessons still have the same proportions of physical skills, academic study and fun as all of our regular classes. You can be confident that with Mainstream providing your PPA cover, your pupils' education does not stop when they are without their regular teacher.
Professional, qualified, experienced teachers
Our teachers are experienced in dealing with classes of children of primary age, and so you can confidently leave them in charge of your classes without having to worry about discipline problems.
Before engaging teachers we expect all applicants to demonstrate they have at least two years' teaching experience, fit our exacting requirements for tutoring children, hold a degree in the arts, and have performance experience. Applicants then undergo a thorough initial programme of assessment with successful teachers continuing for a further month with a supervising mentor. Ongoing regular mentoring and monitoring then continues via our management procedures.
All staff are regularly checked through the Criminal Records Bureau for their suitability for working with children and young people and key staff are trained in first aid.
Many of our teachers also hold additional teaching qualifications from nationally-recognised bodies and some also have technical, directing and stage management experience.
Lessons in all performing arts subjects
PPA cover classes can be in any of the same subjects as our other curricular work: drama, dance or musical theatre—please see our lessons section for more information on the content of these lessons. If you have more specific requirements, please do not hesitate to contact us with details of your needs and we will try to formulate a package to provide you with the service that you want.