How is teaching in Scotland these days?

[PenguinP]

Looking for some advice here please: I qualified and completed my NQT year in Scotland 15 years ago, went to teach internationally and am now wondering what it would be like to come back.

When I left it was really difficult to get a job, especially in the big cities, because they had trained too many teachers.

The Curriculum for Excellence was just coming in but we taught 5-14, which overall I quite liked.

The workload was heavy but not nearly as bad as what I hear from teachers arriving at our school (mostly from England) now, and the implementation of McCrone meant that salaries we're ok relative to hours worked.

(Covid aside), how is it now? Is it easy to find a job? What are the conditions like in schools? A lot of people on the outside seem to have quite a rosy picture of Scottish education (at least compared to English) but do those of you on the inside feel the same way?

I'm really interested in replies here as well. I've just got a job in Scotland, have also been working internationally but I'm not Scottish trained.
I am hoping it's very different to the English system, which I'm finding very difficult at the moment as a teacher and a parent.
I am very disillusioned with the multi academy trust model which seems to be all over now in England.
The impression I get from asking friends there is that things are perhaps more laid back but more focus on the child, less on tangible outcomes.
Of course it is all local council led so it's a whole different set up there. I can't wait to start!

Well, it's harder than when you left OP. Workload has increased. Pay decreased a lot due to austerity/pay freezes but increases against a couple of years ago due to a hard-won pay award. It is a lot better than the stuff I hear about academies.

I’m a current primary teacher in Scotland. The CfE is a nightmare - no schemes of work / planners etc so you’re always having to make resources from scratch and this means that there is zero uniformity across classes / stages and the quality of teaching is very dependent on the teacher and how well they can find / create resources.I have worked in several different schools in my area and discipline is non existent , it’s all about restrictive practice ( which IMO doesn’t work) and there are no consequences for bad behaviour . Yes we have mccrone and yes I’ve heard that things are better up here than in England but I would not recommend my worst enemy to become a teacher in Scotland . We’re plummeting down the league tables for a reason. I’m leaving in august because I can’t cope with how much education is being devalued , as well as teachers. There is a culture of disrespect towards us from the children and this goes against my own personal principles , so I’m leaving.

Restorative practice , not restrictive !

ItsIgginningtolooklikelockdown and sabelaOro, I'm sorry to hear it's got tougher. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Well I'm still doing it Op, just thinking if you've been away a while it would be a shock how things have changed!

I'm not enjoying teaching any more and am planning for retirement. We've got a new acting head who hasn't been in a classroom for years but is intent on changing everything we do. We've never had a high turnover of staff but loads of PSAs have left due to behaviour and disrespect from pupils. Everything is "let's talk about this".
CfE is a load of rubbish. As PP said there are no schemes of work, we were told textbooks were banned, so lots of time spent making stuff.
I know there's a lot of data collecting and unnecessary paperwork in England but it has changed a lot up here since you've been away. I wouldn't recommend anyone to come into teaching.