Probationer teachers currently on temporary contracts are worried about their job prospects, particularly with regard to permanent posts. Under the post-McCrone arrangements, the cohort of new probationers starting next session will have to complete only one year’s probation and that year’s employment will be guaranteed.

That guarantee is threatening current probationers, whether in their first or second year, as they have been left out of the arrangements.

Patricia Gallagher, a second year modern languages probationer on a temporary contract at St Modan’s High in Stirling, accepts that the year of continuous employment in a single school is “a good idea” if it prevents fragmentation and being moved around from pillar to post. But for herself, it is worrying because at the end of this year she might have nowhere to work.

“I feel let down. I’m 23; I’ve wanted to teach from a very early age; I’m passionately committed to it; but the issue is being brushed aside. Even the Educational Institute of Scotland is not fighting for us. They’ve already told me my future is supply teaching.

“It would upset the pupils if I was replaced by a new probationer but there’s every chance it could happen.

“I’m temporary now because of McCrone, because the authority is putting a stop on advertising permanent posts until it fills its quota of new probationers. They won’t advertise my post. So I can’t even apply for it”, she says.

“The intention of McCrone to improve the quality of new teachers’

experience is good,” says Frank Lennon, headteacher at St Modan’s High.

“I don’t know how the guaranteed placement scheme will actually operate or what the exact effect on permanent posts will be yet. So I can’t comment on that.

“The absence of any contingency plans for teachers like Patricia Gallagher, however, is disappointing. It must affect a substantial number of competent and committed probationers.

“I feel dreadful about her situation. It can’t be in anyone’s interest to lose good teachers.”

Countering fragmentation is laudable, but Mr Lennon wonders how widespread the problem is and whether the evidence goes much beyond the anecdotal.

“It’s certainly not our experience here. I’ve not been presented with a fragmented probationer experience,” he says.

“And I think there’s another important question which these arrangements raise: is there a danger that some of the current vacancies will become permanent training posts? I hope not. We have to be positive.”

Scott Pennock, who is another probationer at St Modan’s High, although his own post (English and history) is permanent, argues that there is no justice for probationers who, having got their posts on merit under the present system, may now lose them for no reason of their own making. The potential “injustice” of the new system clearly rankles.

“Probationers are being swept aside in the whole McCrone debate. There are bigger fights going on. Even for the EIS we just don’t count, though they are supposed to represent each and every member,” he argues.

“At what stage are permanent posts going to be advertised again? Or is there going to be a cycle of one-year temporary posts? Surely not.

“People are being hurt by this. It has not been thought through properly,” he says.

Ms Gallagher, Mr Pennock and Nadia Conetta, another probationer at St Modan’s High, are all fulsome in their praise of how the school and Stirling’s children’s services support probationers at the moment. The content of the fortnightly twilight sessions organised by children’s services for probationer staff development is decided by the probationers themselves and this year is covering topics as varied as national testing, positive behaviour, reporting to parents, time management and raising achievement.

The school’s support programme includes regular meetings with assistant rector Rosa Deerin, who is the studentprobationer regent, class visits by senior management to support and assist in identifying individual development needs and probationers shadowing individual pupils.

The probationers emphasise that they have been made to feel like professional teachers from their first day and none sees much value in the McCrone probation year, which reduces class contact to 70 per cent of their time with the other 30 per cent being allocated to continuing professional development. New teachers need as much class contact as possible, they say, and where they need support is in the classroom, not being withdrawn from it.

At St Modan’s High, probationers are brought together with student teachers on placement in the school to let them share experience and give advice.

“It puts the probationers in a position of authority,” says Ms Deerin. “The strategy is a major success in terms of raising self-esteem, sharing strategies and emphasising that professional development is about being open to trying out different ideas rather than about knowing all the answers.”

A recent probationerstudent teacher session raised more than the usual student concerns, reports Ms Conetta. “They are worried that by being placed in a school by a local authority, rather than by getting the probationer post on their own merits, they will not be looked upon as the best candidate chosen for the post.

“A good school is a good school because of its teachers. The quota system will diminish a school’s choice,” she says, “and students expressed fears about where they will be sent. They are concerned about being put in a school where they’ll not feel wanted or needed, particularly if a good member of staff has been shunted out to make way for them.”

The situation should be worrying the Government and education authorities, says Ms Conetta (who has a permanent post teaching modern languages) because a lot of good quality probationers will consider leaving the profession. “If students can’t see a secure long-term future, they won’t consider teaching either. They are already saying these things to us,” she says.

At Cambusbarron Primary, on the outskirts of Stirling, Amanda Zaldua has been completing her teaching probation over four years while bringing up her family. She now has a full-time temporary post and should complete her probation this session.

“Having had my family, I’m now looking for a permanent full-time contract,” she says, “but I don’t know what’s going to happen. Fewer permanent jobs are advertised. I am concerned. It’s the worst time for me if there are no permanent posts coming up.”

Her colleague Louise Samphier, who is a second year probationer on a permanent contract, says it is a “real worry” for a lot of colleagues on temporary contracts, though she is hopeful it will be “a short-term problem”.

She is also glad that, being a pre-McCrone probationer, she has had classes full-time. “I feel fortunate to be one of the final probationers under the old system. My class is fully my responsibility. The proposed 0.7 would be like a job share.

“I feel supported enough by the authority and the school under the present system. I have a mentor as part of the primary school probationer system that Stirling operates. We shadow other teachers and we can approach any member of staff for help or advice.

“I also think that in limiting class contact to 0.7 it might mean that more probationers will not be quite ready because they’ve not had enough classroom experience,” she says.

Like their colleagues at St Modan’s High, these probationers feel valued by their school and their authority. But the question remains: if probationers fall victim to a McCrone quota system, how valued are they in the bigger educational picture?

Probationer arrangements under McCrone are intended to recognise and enhance professionalism and to treat newly qualified teachers “properly”. Yet many, in the present situation, feel hurt and sidelined. Ms Conetta has a golden rule for newly qualified teachers. It appears in St Modan’s High’s survival guide for probationer teachers.

”‘Probationer’ is NOT a bad word. Don’t be ashamed to call yourself a probationer and don’t feel that you’re not a ‘proper’ teacher yet ... Being a probationer means that you are probably one of the most organised, planned and in-control teachers in the school.”