City of Edinburgh conduct central recruitment, which I understand for financial purposes – interview everyone once, job done – however it leaves headteachers unable to select their own team, and one bad interview/day can be the end of your time in the council.
I worked at the same school for five years (inc probation) and did not secure a post through central recruitment this year. My HT was shocked I didn’t secure a post and would have loved to have kept me however has openly said we were a ‘tick box school’ and was unwilling to bend any rules to keep me.
I think it is unfair that I had to reinterview every year for the same position, and end up in a worse position than the year before as I did not interview as well this year – a ‘positive marking’ scheme whereby you can only improve your score at interview would be beneficial for teachers with more experience who are missing out on jobs to probationers who are constantly surrounded by the buzzwords and jargon that score points in interviews to secure jobs.
Since August 2026 I have submitted 29 job applications for a range of permanent/temporary/full/part time teaching roles in Edinburgh & the Lothians and although I have secured interviews (on average 1 per week for the last nine weeks), I am not getting any further than interview, and the odd ‘but we’d be happy to have you on supply!’ comment.
This is answer 98 of the 269 written answers that teachers let us quote anonymously in the Scottish Teacher Employment Survey 2026. It answers the survey’s last question: what do the people who make decisions about teacher employment need to know?
We have corrected spelling, added paragraph breaks and removed details that could identify anyone. Words in square brackets are ours.