New entrants to teaching often lack practical teaching skills as there is very limited school placement experience in many initial teacher training programmes which, instead, place the emphasis on knowledge of the subject rather than teaching methods (Hamano, 2008) so the term ‘student teachers’ might be a more appropriate way to understand the position these beginning teachers find themselves in during the probationary period as they are in transition from student to professional. The probationary teacher receives only 85% of the salary of a teacher who has passed through probation.