Deported teacher to return to Scottish primary school
Canadian’s case fast-tracked after row over visa
A Canadian teacher forced to leave the UK and her teaching job in Scotland due to visa issues will be back in the school next month.
Heather Cattanach – now Mciver since her marriage – was working at Applegrove primary in Forres, Moray, when the Home Office telephoned her to say she had no right to work in the UK and should stop immediately.
Mrs Mciver, 33, who married Gary Mciver, a Scot, in July last year, was deported to Canada in November and had to re-apply for a married visa, despite being recruited through the Timeplan scheme at a jobs fair at her university in British Colombia, Canada.
She started working at a school in Southampton in 2015, but began an application process with the General Teaching Council of Scotland to be allowed to work north of the Border and transferred to the school in Forres in January 2016.
The Spousal Visa process she was told to apply through normally takes nine months, but after pressure from Moray’s MP Douglas Ross and Laurence Findlay, the council’s director of education and social care, the application has been fast-tracked.
Mrs Mciver e-mailed education officials in Moray on Thursday saying she would be returning to the school in the first week of February.
“The UK is forcing away-qualified teachers and breaking up families. At the same time, the UK is forcing children to despair with the lack of qualified teachers,’ said Mrs Mciver. “I am a teacher; my love and value towards education is clear.
“The Home Office is not making it easy for qualified teachers to immigrate to Scotland. While Scotland is desperate for teachers, the Home Office would not give me approval to teach.”
Councillor Tim Eagle, the chair of Moray Council’s children and young person’s committee, in welcoming the news, said: “This is fantastic news to welcome a good and popular teacher back to Moray.
Applegrove has been struggling to fill vacancies and is currently using a number of supply staff to fill gaps.
Mr Findlay, who wrote to the Home Office questioning the delay, said: “The school has significant long-term vacancies which we are struggling to cover on a day-to-day basis and her ongoing absence was giving us an unnecessary extra burden.
“I’m glad the Home Office saw a way to ease that.”