In August 2018 I had started my probationary year in Highland Council with a fantastic P1 class and I was having the time of my life doing the job I loved, and had trained hard to secure. But that feeling was short-lived.

Just seven months after I started my probation - in March 2019 - interviews for the jobs we would move on to were approaching.

We weren’t overly concerned. During our initial teacher education at the University of the Highlands and Islands, we had been visited by a Highland Council representative who had told us that the authority was keen to get people to stay and take up posts in local schools. The message was that they needed staff.

Exclusive: Rise in probationers ‘leaves teachers without work’

Background: Teachers working in supermarkets ‘to make ends meet’

News: Teachers taking second jobs to ‘put food on the table’

Related: 1,700 teachers without secure jobs demand action

But then the day of the pool interview came and we had barely walked in the room when we were told there were very few, if any, teaching posts available in Highland Council.

Retrained, moved career and completed probation year through a global pandemic. Now facing uncertainty and job insecurity come August. #letusteach@LiamKerrMSP @S_A_Somerville @NicolaSturgeon @ScottishTempor1 @willie_rennie https://t.co/K87kAVXNOx

- Claire Randall (@C_Randall92) July 8, 2021

To say we were shocked is an understatement. We had made our way through a year of university and the majority of our probationary year, trusting that we would have a solid career and permanent post at the end of it. It was heartbreaking.

Teachers struggling to find jobs

The majority of my year group were told that they were unsuccessful in the interview due to the lack of posts available. So instead of starting the rest of our lives, we were facing unemployment.

People with mortgages, commitments, families and children to support had left full-time, well-paid, secure jobs to pursue a teaching career and it had resulted in a year of work, followed by unemployment.

We fought for the few fixed-term positions that were available; little did we know that this would become an annual ritual.

Teachers are sounding the alarm on the workforce planning crisis. But the Scottish Government are treating the profession with contempt, and the Education Secretary hasn’t even dignified them with a response. https://t.co/ThCeCiilVu

- Willie Rennie (@willie_rennie) July 7, 2021

I was lucky enough to be offered a role as a team teacher in the school where I had carried out my probation, but, again, this was short-lived.

I was with the P1 class from August until December but then I was told that compulsory transfers of probationers and permanent teaching staff meant that I would be losing my post to someone else.

I was absolutely devastated to lose my job but also to say goodbye to a class that I had taught and bonded with for five months.

I ended up working one and a half days a week from January to August and I can testify that this is not enough to pay the bills or put food on the table.

I was lucky in the sense that I had family to support me during such a difficult time. But some people do not have that luxury.

Teachers across the country have had to leave the profession, get second jobs and even visit food banks just to make ends meet because the lack of posts and hours is so drastic.

Looking forward to next year, I have managed to scrape together full-time, but it is across two schools and means another fixed term contract. It is exhausting having to go through this process year in, year out.

I ended up reaching out to others in my position in my own council, before realising that this wasn’t just a local issue. The teacher recruitment crisis was happening across the country.

I received countless messages from teachers in the same position in councils all over Scotland and ended up creating Scotland’s Teachers Working Together for Fair Employment Campaign Group.

I created a Facebook page and started working with a small group of teachers in Scotland to try and get our voices heard, and now our Facebook group has over 2,500 members.

We met with John Swinney last July when he was education secretary and we shared the issues we were facing and the plight of thousands of teachers across Scotland. He promised us a full and proper response. We are still waiting.

We are campaigning for the government to provide ring-fenced funding to create and employ teachers in permanent positions, not yearly fixed-term contracts or zero-hours supply.

Classes across the country are bursting at the seams and there are hundreds upon hundreds of teachers not being utilised, despite the government rhetoric about prioritising recovery.

We want the government to cut class sizes to support Scotland’s children and create more teaching opportunities.

We wrote an open letter to the new education secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, on 6 June to voice our concerns and ask her to support us in making changes to the recruitment of teachers in Scotland. We are still waiting for a response.

Today we are planning a mass tweet of our open letter to the education secretary, in the hope that we will grab her attention.

?Last Reminder?Mass tweet to the education secretary TOMORROW - Thursday 8th of JULY! ⭐️ Copy and paste the Google doc link to the open letter in your tweet and ⭐️ tag the Ed. Sec and @ScottishTempor1
⭐️ Use the hashtag #letusteachhttps://t.co/yJ7LMPCV3r

- Scottish Temporary Teachers (@ScottishTempor1) July 7, 2021

Our government cannot put Scotland’s children first and achieve its ambitions of closing the attainment gap and recovering lost learning if it continues to put Scotland’s teachers last.

Gemma Munro is a primary teacher based in Highland Council and the founder of the Scotland’s Teachers Working Together for Fair Employment Campaign Group