You might be interested in my experience with the General Teaching Council for Scotland. I have moved to Scotland after teaching in England as a secondary maths teacher for the last nine years, and applied for registration in May with GTCS (I am already a GTC England member).

Despite my arguments, GTC Scotland maintained that I would have to do 60 days probation on a probationer’s wage of Pounds 20,000.

This barred me from applying for permanent jobs and I could not have any responsibility (I was a head of department in England).

I went for an interview in Scotland and the school agreed to pay me at point six. But the education authority would not let them do this - despite the school’s pleas.

When I phoned GTCS to point out how bizarre this was, the person from its exceptional admissions department said he would look at my case and call me back, which he did after 10 minutes.

He acknowledged that teachers registered with GTC England can transfer straight across without probation. When I asked how the initial mistake was made, the reply was that “the people on the floor were not told to exclude GTC-registered teachers from the probation scheme”.

If I had not phoned the council when I did, I would not be going to work next week and a school would be one maths teacher down. I am so cross.

I am really upset about the way they have behaved, especially since there were so many permanent jobs over the last few months for which I could not apply. We are renting, as we could not buy a house on my husband’s salary alone and the bank need me to have a permanent job.

I am also exhausted from moving house. More teachers need to know about this (about the GTCS, not me being so tired).

Steph Speed, Bath Street, Edinburgh.