It's hard to recommend teaching in Scottish schools now

The news isn’t that surprising. We knew there would be cuts coming.

Education is no different to any other aspect of public life and funding. If anything, it’s usually been quite protected. The funding of education is obviously a slightly touchy political issue, so we probably had a lot of sympathy in the past. It’s probably an unavoidable situation for Glasgow to go into, albeit I would say the wrong one.

The interesting thing is the lack of any positive framing of it. There is none. There is no way it can be skewed in any positive sense. There’s usually a bit of spin, but this was quite blunt and pragmatic. ‘Is it honest?’ is another question…

I’ve heard other councils talk about how they might be dealing with it. A lot of them are talking about going to a half-day on Friday to save money. They rely on less staffing, allowing staff to have time out on a Friday afternoon, but that of course has its own issues such as childcare.

I would say that approach is honest, because it’s accepting quite clearly that there is going to be a drop in quality. You can’t lose so much quantity without a drop in quality. With Glasgow, they are very matter-of-fact about there being a drop in teacher numbers, but it will be interesting from our point of view to see if the expectations change regarding that.

I don’t know of a single school that could do with fewer teachers. There may be a shortage of jobs, but there’s no shortage of need. What a missed opportunity this has been. We’ve had a situation where we’ve had, not surplus staff by any means, but staff that could be hired to help and fix things.

From a primary school perspective, it’s hard to think how the cuts wouldn’t affect us more. This isn’t at all me having a dig at secondary schools. Subject specialisms are hard to come by, so it’s completely natural that those areas would be a bit more protected, because those areas are probably already suffering in terms of retaining numbers. As a result, I think primaries will bear the brunt of this.

One thing Scottish education does brilliantly is your guaranteed probation year after you’ve passed. You’re trained up by a mentor in a school. Coming out of that, will there be jobs for many people to go to?

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There’s a lot of training being completely wasted. What was the point in funding all these people to go to university and train to become teachers? If there’s not a job for them to go to, they’re either going to leave the profession, or leave the country, which I would probably advise them to do. Scottish teachers are prized abroad in terms of their high-quality training and the experience they’ve had from probation years.

It just feels that the resources spent on teacher training have been a complete waste, and I sympathise with newly-qualified teachers and those who are planning to join the profession. For most people it’s not an overnight decision to become a teacher. It’s usually a couple of years in planning, and college courses or access courses.

Right now, I don’t see what the incentive is for you to continue doing that. Glasgow, the biggest authority in the country, is making savage cuts. Any other authority can copy that model and be even more savage, because they can make the argument that there is less need and less deprivation.

We have been blessed in Glasgow in terms of the Scottish attainment money, a large chunk of which has gone to the West of Scotland because that’s where the deprivation is. When we talk about attainment gaps and disadvantaged children, a large proportion is in the West of Scotland, so Glasgow for years has benefited greatly from this increased funding.

With Glasgow being in this position, you do wonder about all the other authorities and what position they will be in.

Within a staff room you have a wide range of experience, and it’s the newer members of staff, the ones who don’t perhaps have a permanent job, that you do feel for. Someone who’s trying to get a permanent job in a school might be starting a family or trying to get a mortgage.

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There are teachers we’ve had in our school who have been in college for a couple of years, then they’ve gone to university, and then done their probation year. If they can’t get a permanent job, it then impacts whether or not they can get a mortgage or maternity cover.

The job will undoubtedly be harder. I really love my job, and I’m so glad I do what I do, but it’s not easy.

It’s a great job to have, and I would love to recommend that people go into teaching, but right now I’m not sure I can.