salaaam sadia,

Thank you for your kind reply.
Alhumdulilah im ok, I strongly belive whatever happnes, happens for the best. I think the first time when I applied in Nottingham and I didnt get it, that really upset me, but Now i can understand.

Inshallah something is waitintg, just need to be patient.

Yes I asked for feed back, i did 12 question on the maths and i passed 7, i didnt manage to finish them all.

I thought the only route into priamary teaching is PGCE i didnt no about GTP i thought that was for secondary teaching? i.a ill check it out.

goodluck to for this septemeber, i.a. i hope you pass, just be determined to do it, in the end it will be worth it.

look after yourself and thanks for the advice.

I will keep u informed if i get a place elsewere.

are you on facebook? if so let me know.
take care x x x

Walaikumsalam salmaaa, I'm so sorry that you didn't get in but don't give up hope, it's good that you are on the reserve list and there is also Clearing so you might get a place that way.

When things don't go my way I try to think that there must be a reason, it will all work out for you Inshallah, try to stay positive and hopeful. I think it it would be helpful to get feedback. Have you considered the GTP route into teaching?

salaaam saadia,

How r u? Unfortunatly I did not get a place, Although, they have said I am the first on the reserve list if anyone drops out.

I was good at the num and lit tests, presentation went well, they have not given me feedback as to why they did not offer me a place. I am going to enquire. I thought I did pretty well to be honest, i would have known if i didnt do well.

Thank you for your help. I do appreciate it.
salma x x x

Again if this is newman it's primary with extra credits in EAL?

My test at Newman was basically year 6 maths - the 4 operations, percentages etc. The English one was very hot on spelling, punctuation, grammar etc but I don't know whether you'd have an extra one for EAL?

I've been accepted for Primary French there so I had a French test too.

I will Inshallah salmaaa

saadia, thank you soo much for the reply, it is extremely helpfull. woow You made me feel alot better.

Inshallah I am going to go and give it my best. I am feeling alot more positive about it now. I think its just the word "INTERVIEW" that frieghtens people.

I will let u know how I got on. Make duaa 4 me, Inshallah I pass.

Thank you.

Salmaa the essay question we had was about why we would be a good teacher. I found the maths test quite tough but they said not to worry as they wouldn't reject people on the basis of the maths test but would just ask them to do some extra revision.

The main thing is to try and relax and not seem nervous (even though it is unavoidable). I just thought that if you look too nervous they might wonder how you would handle a class. Look the interviewer in the eye, smile, breathe deeply and the try and get your passion for education and how much you care for the children across. Think about your placement and try to bring up examples from that during the interview if you can.

Good luck, (I am really excited about starting the course - hope you are successful).

Hi, Saadia,

I also wanted to ask you what type of essay question do they ask you?
hope you can help.

salma.

all that kinesthetic stuff is old hat it seems.
remember to mention fun
and interntational perspectives
emotional intelligence etc

hi everyone,
thank you for your feedback on the questions it is really useful. And thank you sadia, woow you are really luck you got a place. I am suprised they only allocate such a limited nymber of places.
i am revsising the questions and planning what i can say about eal, sen and ecm, and all the rest of it.

Unfortunatly I tend to fail one the maths, as I am weak at this.
what sort of maths questions do we have.? I am revsising the basics.
I belive it is primary teaching aswell as eal, not just eal in primary schools?

salmaa.

Every child matters, and also suss out SEN and how you might plan to take account of differing ability levels in the classroom

If this is Newman college then:

how does your previous experience relate to eal?
are there any current issues in education you are aware of and how would this impact on you as an eal teacher?
how would you work in partnership with eal parents?

I'm suprised they haven't filled the course yet - apparently there were only 15 places and 2 of my friends have applied and been accepted so either they're being really picky or no-one's interested in EAL ( if that's the case because I think it's fascinating and wish I'd applied but thought I wouldn't stand a chance!)

This won't come out very well as it's taken from a Word doc, but here are some questions and notes on responses that we used when we appointed our head recently. You may get a few ideas.

Research 'Every child matters' - it's the latest 'buzz phrase!'.

Teaching and
Learning KEY WORDS
EXPECTATIONS NOTES/COMMENTS

1. What does outstanding teaching look like and how you will help all staff to achieve this?

All children engaged in learning task and making progress, enjoyment by pupils and teacher, collaboration, pupils’ self assessing, challenge, cross curricular links, ICT, imaginative use of resources including TAs, well planned. Quality outcomes.
Successful candidate talked of a ‘hum’ in the classroom – children focussed and active not passive learners

2. How would you ensure that the needs of the whole ability range are being met?

More able students.
Celebrate success for all children.
Intervention programmes – impact/relevance, external help/advice.
Effective monitoring.
Assessing impact.
Unsuccessful candidate fixated on SEN and had to be prompted to talk about more able children

3. How have you ensured the ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda has impacted on provision for all pupils in your current school?

Outline how provision changed, involvement & awareness of all staff in key agenda issues – be safe, healthy, enjoy & achieve, contribution to community, economic well-being. Not tokenism but implicit in teaching & learning

You will need to develop a thick skin and better grammar if you are going to be a teacher!

Actually, this is research! I had some ideas of current issues, but thought that I might have missed some, so I asked the advice of MNetters many of whom are teachers/involved in education in some way. They gave me ideas and I found our more information. What is your definition of research?

I don't expect saints but I expect them to be interested enough to do their own research!

Good one, missmem. I bet you never think ahead about job interview questions either.

Not that we expect teachers to be saints or anything...

No offence but if you don't already know the "burning" questions then I would be concerned at you being DC's teacher.

salmaaa I recently had a PGCE interview and they asked me if there were any issues in education that I wanted to discuss and I talked about inclusion of children with SN.

They asked how my degree subjects were related to National Curriculum subjects.

As yours is also for EAL I would swot up on inclusion and how to make the classroom inclusive.

Have a look at the TES (Times Educational Supplement) forum website - they have a lot of discussions about interview questions.

Good Luck

Hiyya,

I was hoping if anyone can help me please?

I have an interview for PGCE Primary with EAL next week.

Does anyone no what type of questions they ask you? I really need to pass.

how can I prepare myslef?

salmaaa

I am in London Frannikin - I think the question is probably standard as I would have thought they want teachers who are at least aware of multicultural/multifaith issues.

Where will you be going? Wondering whether the multi-cultural thing was a common theme or whether it was specific to a certain area IYSWIM?

*curious because my friend had a similar question at a college in Birmingham but she was applying for EAL*

Thanks itchy and hobnob.
Hobnob - I was asked series of questions that centred around teaching in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic situation and was asked for positives and negatives about this kind of environment. I think they were looking for a willingness to be part of a multicultural environment rather than trying to impose my ideas. Otherwise i was asked whether there were any current educational topics that I found interesting. Thanks to Mumsnet I was v well prepared. Luckily my interviewer was really nice and put me at my ease so it felt like an interesting chat rather than a grilling! Good luck with your application. Check the gttr website to see if there are still vacancies on the courses you want.

And congratulations, of course!

What did they ask you, out of interest?

Congrats! Well done

Thank you everyone. I have now had the interview and been offered a place .
now to arrange (and finance) childcare...

Wow - thanks for all the suggestions. They look really helpful and i will spend some time googling .
hobnob- this is for a sept 09 start. if you look on the gttr website it is not too late to apply (I only applied in march), but the choice of courses will be limited as some will have filled up. Also I am applying for primary and needed recent experience of a state school.
I will let you know how it goes.
thanks again

ime think about what you think is important in school. what would you improve? what would you spend money on in school if you had a budget?

have a think about SEN, EAL, parent/school relations, SATS, cross curricular projects, behaviour management and your views/ideas on them etc.

quite a lot of the questions were directed on what we felt about these issues.

also, have a think about some lesson ideas:
literacy: storyboards, drama, collective storyteling
maths: games with dice, arranging a numberline, ladybird pairs
science investigations: sorting materials into hoops, magnetic or non-magnetic, conditions for growing plants

and so on.

you'll probably have to present a lesson idea for a particular objective, sometimes it helps to have a few techniques in your head which can be applied to many different lesson objectives iykwim.

but also don't worry too much, you'll be fine!

Spaced learning-see article in last Saturday`s Telegraph magazine Good luck

Thank you!

Hobnob - the deadline for 2009 is June 30th, so I'm guessing it's the same for 2010 (June 2010 IYSWIM)

You need to apply with the GTTR, get some TT experience etc., and get a course booked.

I'm hoping to be accepted in 2009 but not sure I'll have everything sorted.

HTH

Hobnob - many courses now have staggered starts nowadays. I've got some trainees with me now who started in Jan.

At a group PGCE interview I was on recently (as an interviewer) the Uni staff made comments to the panels about what the interviewees were wearing - they were not impressed by the fleeces worn by some!

I'd make sure I had been onto the Standards site and I knew roughly the demands of the Nat Curr; I'd also make sure I'd read some of the recent articles in the TES about the SATs. I'd also prepare a couple of stock answers about why you want to teach, without sounding too waffley or unrealistic.

Was at the amount of candidates who just hadn't done any research. Don't try to cram but just be aware of the Big Issues.

Be enthusiastic; listen to others; practice a good handshake (sounds mental but it does make an impression); know when to stop talking....!

Good luck!

Going off the subject a bit... When does the course start? Sept? I'm thinking of applying, but didn't thought it was all done and dusted until this autumn, when the application process started again for Sept 10 intake.

Do some reading on the Rose Report perhaps.

I wouldn't worry too much about what you're wearing - but skirt sounds fine.

the great SATS debate?!!

BLP (building learning power) - it's about teaching children to learn about how they learn and managing distractions and things, but I'm not going to embarrass myself by pretending I actually use it as much as I'm meant to. Perhaps you could google it or something.

PS any tips as to what to wear - it is at a college. i was thinking skirt and plain top.

I have an interview for a PGCE (Primary) in 2 days. Are there any burning issues I should be aware of? (hoping my brain has not turned to mush - i haven't had any kind of interview for - gulp - 16 years!)