Story 56

Age: 32

Teaching Experience: 2-4 years

Contract Type: Casual Supply (through calls, emails, teacherbooker etc)

I came out of my probation year in 2021. I have been really lucky to have worked almost full time in the past four years through a mixture of being kept on through supply and obtaining a fixed term contract at interview.

What frustrates me is the blatant corruption by local authorities and some SLT.

In the year after probation, a number of temporary staff at my school, myself included, were all going for the same temporary post.

There were 5-6 of us.

We were each told that due to our lack of experience in early years/early level, none of us were going to be interviewed. The successful external candidate was then placed in a P7 class.

More recently, I was passed over to cover a long term illness for a probationer. This was because “probationers who had been successful in their NQT year” were to be kept on.

My school was not the only one where this happened. Clearly either  money saving exercise from the local authority, or the probation manager attempting to fudge their numbers to show that more probationers were in jobs than there actually were.

I am stepping away from teaching as I cannot abide by the corruption, lies, and lack of transparency. The Scottish government has failed us.