I’ve applied for a job in a secondary school but all my qualifications relate to teaching in further education. I have 10 years’ experience in teaching Years 10 and 11. If I were offered the job, would the school have to appoint me on the unqualified scale, or can it pay me mainscale salary based on merit?

I presume you have been teaching pupils from Years 10 and 11 in FE under a link scheme. If so, you will probably not have qualified teacher status, which would allow you to be paid straight away as a qualified teacher. But don’t despair.

If you get the job, you can apply to be retrained by the school via the graduate teacher programme or the registered teacher programme. The latter is for those without a degree but with the equivalent of two years’ higher education such as an HND or DipHE. As you have a PGCE and have taught school-age pupils, the programme of work should not be too onerous.

Strictly speaking, if you are not being retrained, you should be employed as an instructor. Schools are only supposed to take on such people if no qualified teacher is available, but the rules are unclear about what schools have to do to prove they have tried to find a qualified candidate, or who should check that they have done so.