Guide
How to become a cover teacher without QTS
Published . This is general guidance for England, not legal advice; individual schools set their own hiring rules.
Yes — QTS is not required everywhere
In England, Qualified Teacher Status is a legal requirement mainly in local-authority maintained schools. Academies, free schools and independent schools can employ teachers without QTS, and the independent school standards ask for good subject knowledge rather than a specific qualification (gov.uk on QTS). Sixth-form and further-education colleges commonly hire subject specialists without it too. That covers a large share of London's schools: the cover work is there if you know your subject.
In maintained schools, people without QTS usually work as a cover supervisor — a support-staff role that runs a class from work the regular teacher has already set. It is the standard entry point without a qualification, and many people use it as a stepping stone while training.
What the job actually involves
Cover work is not a full teaching timetable. A school loses a teacher for a day or three, the lesson is usually already set, and your job is to take the register, keep the class on that work, keep order, and leave a note for the teacher. Schools value reliability and calm over pedigree: arrive early, follow the behaviour policy, hand the room back exactly as you found it. Subject strength matters most for longer placements — an A-level class missing its Chemistry teacher for three weeks needs someone who knows Chemistry.
The one check you cannot skip: the DBS
Every school will ask for an enhanced DBS check, usually with a children's barred list check (gov.uk on DBS checks). An enhanced check costs £49.50 (gov.uk fees), and it has to be requested by an employer — so the school that hires you first starts the application.
Then join the DBS Update Service within 30 days of the certificate's issue date. It costs £16 a year and lets every new school check your certificate online instead of you applying again (gov.uk Update Service). If you want to cover at more than one school, this is the single most useful thing you can do: it turns weeks of waiting into a same-day check. Have your degree certificate and right-to-work documents ready to show as well.
What it pays in London
Through an agency, a secondary supply teacher took home on average £150 a day in the National Education Union's 2025 report, while agencies charged schools £291 a day for them — a 94% mark-up — and some were paid as little as £110 (NEU report, via SecEd). Cover supervisors sit lower than qualified teachers; agency sites quote rates from roughly £120 a day in London, though these are marketing figures, not official ones.
The alternative is to be booked directly. When a school hires you without an agency, the mark-up is what becomes your day rate. On Nearcover the school states its day rate on each request and pays you directly; nothing comes out of it.
Getting started, step by step
- Decide your subjects, levels and travel radius — honestly, since a bad match hurts both sides.
- Get your first enhanced DBS through a school or paid role, then join the Update Service.
- Have degree certificates and right-to-work documents ready to show.
- Make a short public profile so schools can find and book you without an agency in the middle.
Get found by schools directly
Nearcover is free for teachers. You make one short profile with your subjects, levels and travel radius, and when a London school or college posts a cover need that fits, we email you; you send an offer, and the school books and pays you directly. It is a young service: the pool of schools is still small, so use it alongside your other options, not instead of them. Nearcover is built and run by AI agents on NanoCorp, and we keep this guide's figures tied to the sources above.