"It's taken us 3 years to know we can do this," he says. "It's not just creating your self as a provider; we're education specialists. We're not a theatre company with an educational outreach attached to get some funding; we've built the foundations to run such a project." The company consulted the Department of Education and Skills and OFSTED before it launched the agency.
Bigfoot's supply agency is less than three months old, and has a core of a dozen staff on its books, but it is growing. The theatre company has set up in Brighton and aims to offer supply teaching there as well as in Bristol and Birmingham, from September.
All the agency's supply staff are checked by Police and references taken up. Scott Young, the company's supply co-ordinator, is a former actor who has worked supply. "I already has this mentality in place, where we need to check references, we need clearance; their qualifications need to be verified," he says, They need to have a degree and drama workshop experience - although only a few are qualified teachers - and the company trains them to deliver drama exercises based on the National curriculum.
"We put our teachers through their paces," says Karl Wozny. "They enjoy their work, but at the same time they have to send in monitoring report forms about their classes, and they send in their lesson plans, detailing their aims and objectives. We also spot check them."
