calling all teachers- some advice would be appreciated on teaching applications!

[Boboli]

My husband is a teacher with 12 years of experience mainly in special needs. We recently took the plunge and moved to a different county to be near family.
He's been supply working since we moved here and established good links with a couple of schools who seemed to be v positive about him and ask for him over others at the agency.
However, he is really struggling to get a full time perm position. He even went for an interview at the school which raves about him and wasn't successful. (yet they are happy to invite him back to work the next day as a supply teacher)
We know that his salary is probably an issue and are prepared to take a cut but I've just read somewhere that it doesn't work like that and this can't be done. Is this true?
He's about to embark on 4 job applications - is there any advice out there from teachers who shortlist? We want to leave the salary off!
It's hard not to get completely demotivated about this - does experience now count for nothing? We're stuck as it's difficult to organise childcare around supply work. It feels as if the teaching profession has ousted him.
Although I'm biased of course, he's a great teacher. Any advice or encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

In state schools salary is on a scale which rises as you gain experience, so with 12years experience he will be at the top if the scale. He will be competing with NQTs who will be at the bottom of the scale, therefore much cheaper.
Sadly many schools will only look at NQTs (or teachers with 1 or 2 years experience) when shortlisting as they are trying to keep costs down.
Your husbands CV will clearly show he has experience so you can't get round that.
What sort of roles is your husband applying for? If he applies for posts with additional responsibilities he may have a better chance as experience is often a requirement.
He could also try looking at the private sector who can set their own pay scales and not bound by the states pay scale rules.
I'm not sure what the situation is in academies, but it would be worth him finding out if he could start on a lower salary there.
Also remember that most teachers leave/move at the end of the summer term. This means most jobs are advertised just before and after the May half term.

I agree - if it is a post with zero additional responsibility then schools save a lot of money by employing a teacher with just a couple of years experience. I would also wonder why he is not taking on additional responsibility - perhaps it comes across as a lack of ambition to the heads reading the applications.

In many sectors, there are not a lot of teaching jobs. I expect SEN is one of these as special schools are closed and more of their pupils are expected to cope in mainstream schools. In primary schools, there are dozens of applicants for every job in many areas of the country. It's only really in some secondary subjects that there is a real shortage. There is a lot of competition for teaching jobs.

thanks to you both for your responses.

He's willing to take the extra responsibility but those jobs don't seem to be out there either unless taking next step up to Assistant Head - may be he should look more carefully at those.
I think perhaps schools are more likely to offer the extra responsibility posts internally and recruit cheaper externally for the 'junior' posts?

I find the whole process completely frustrating, he spends hours on an application form/ researching a school, gives up a days pay to visit it (times that by 4 currently and it mounts up) and now it turns out, one look at the salary box and the form is in the bin. We've heard if you don't visit the school it can count against you. It feels like all these things go on in the background.

Sorry for moaning but it feels a bit hopeless at the moment.

many people don't visit the school. When I have been moving to a different town, it has not been feasible to visit the school. It has not stopped me getting jobs. If you are local it shouldn't be necessary to take a whole day off either, an afternoon is plenty.

I do see your point about the promoted posts being offered internally - that is often how it goes. However, if he applies for mainscale posts but makes it very very clear that he has much more to offer than a newly qualified teacher and is keen to take on more to justify them paying a higher salary then that might swing it, depending on how tight their budget is.

Unfortunately, the jobs market for teachers is not great at the moment in many parts of the country. I hope he has some luck with his current 4 applications.

There is excellent advice to be had on the TES jobseekers forum: community.tes.co.uk/forums/77.aspx "TheoGriff" talks a lot of sense.

They also offer a service to check over your CV/application letter to give advice, but this is for a fee.

Good luck to your DH

PM me if you like and I'll give you my email address. I can help with his application letter if you want! :)

Read the person specification really carefully, and make sure that each aspect is covered in the letter of application. If he has any positive data, e.g. GCSE results that show his impact on progress, he should use that. Any school that chooses NQTs over experienced teachers just to save money is being short sighted, and he wouldn't want to work there anyway!

I have never personally discounted someone based on how far they are up the scale nor in my experience have I seen anyone else do this. Has he asked for feedback when turned down?