Continuous service negotiation

[Odellio]

I’ve worked at current school (academy) for 6 years - under burgundy book scheme. I am interviewing this week at another school (a different academy). As far as I can work out my continuous service won’t count between academies. Is it possible to negotiate the new school honouring my continuous service if offered the job? I’m in a strong position as only candidate and teach Science. Given that jobs are normally offered on the day I want to be prepare for the conversation.

I have known of a few academies / MATs who have offered to honour continuous service as a recruitment incentive but I don’t know anyone who’s negotiated it as an individual. There’s nothing to stop you asking, of course.

Be warned that if you are a woman under 40 there will be an unspoken assumption that you intend to TTC. Obviously it would be illegal to discriminate against you on these grounds! I only mention it in case the assumption would bother you.

It’s a seller's market so know what you do and do not want and stand by it especially given the circumstances of subject and recruitment issues.

Let us know how you get on, OP - I'll be really interested to hear what they say! Good luck for the interview.

Thank you for your advice. In the end my current employer put an attractive deal on the table in order to keep me. I was mainly interested for TTC reasons so once they’d matched some of the benefits the other school would have offered my family in terms of work life balance, it made sense to say and keep my continuous service here.

Well handled!