Help...anyone ever had a student panel interview

[IthinkIamsinking]

I have never experienced this before. Any sort of idea as to what to expect?

[DontFeedTheDailyFail]

DS has been selected to be involved in panels numerous times. He's Autistic and asks very direct questions politely.

He's asked things like 'why are you available to teach here?' 'What would you do if there was a bomb scare?' 'What do you think about homework?' All asked in KS1.

DH is a teacher and says that its not about giving a correct answer its about relating to the children and how you manage it. He recently did an interview with student panel KS4 and the questions got quite personal. He was told he handled it well because he didn't get drawn in to divulging lots of personal stuff but didn't dismiss the students and put up barriers either.

[IthinkIamsinking]

Thanks Dont

[Questionsmorequestions]

I've organised them but never had one. Questions our children came up with were then put to the candidate with 2 of SLT in the room.
Questions I remember were
What are your hobbies, what was you best subject at school, what challenges have you overcome and how, what talent do you have , how would you get me to read a book for enjoyment

Children then gave feedback to us and we also discussed how the candidates had engaged with the children. Very interesting what the children picked up on. Ours are primary. Good candidates explained any words that may be tricky, asked questions themselves and managed to include their observations of the school in the answers.

Good luck

[seven201]

They do them at my secondary school. There's a list of questions the students read off. The kids love doing it. Be prepared to know which biscuit you would choose to be!

[cheapandcheerful]

I have had this before. They wanted me to tell them a joke which was awkward as I had to quickly rack my brains to think of one that wasn't completely inappropriate.

They also asked me what I would do to make school more fun. I gave what I thought was a good answer, explaining how I would make lessons fun. They told me in their feedback that they had been hoping that I would say that I would organise more school discos

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

Surely if you are an experienced teacher you will be well used to answering but deflecting questions of all types? I get oddball questions every day, and yo get used to giving a friendly ack of the question but answer on your own terms.

[IthinkIamsinking]

Yes Mrs but this is a completely different situation I feel
Many thanks for the replies

[AlwaysDancing1234]

I was interviewed by a student panel (high school), got the job and then helped them set up future panels! There were no 'typical' questions really, some very random ones like your favourite biscuit and your favourite Disney character. Others more serious such as "how would you help me if I told you I was being bullied".
Make sure you brush up on your safeguarding policies.
Student panel is more about how you interact with the students - to be honest you can give rubbish answers but if you smile a lot and seem warm and approachable you are more likely to get a good mark!

[thesandwich]

Having observed this as a governor I was looking at how candidates interact with pupils. A star head teacher candidate who aced the presentation and interview completely fluffed the student panel by talking down to the pupils and seeming really uncomfortable with the pupils. Their judgements on the best candidates were spot on.

[Acopyofacopy]

I had one recently and got the job, so here's my 2 cents:
The person who organised the panel fed back that the students were very impressed with the fact that I had read the school's newsletters and asked questions / commented on recent school events.
I replied to their questions with answers that were relevant to them without being condescending. Be concrete, give examples.

[PUGaLUGS]

The secondary school I used to work in always used student panels.

[MerilwenRose]

I've done them a few times. I quite like them and they usually ask good questions. I do think the 'what biscuit would you be' and 'tell a joke' ones should be banned though, I have a good sense of humour and am always joking with students but I just think they're a bit daft!

I do remember hearing of one assistant head candidate who made the mistake of speaking very critically about the school (we'd just had a negative ofsted, which we all felt was pretty unfair) to a lovely sixth former who was headed to Oxbridge and was very proud of his school, he was actually an aspiring teacher at the time. By all accounts he went on a ten minute polite rant in which he defended the school to the hilt, slated ofsted thoroughly, and pointed out how his experiences contrasted with the report. Candidate incidentally did not get the job!

[mamaduckbone]

I have, and it's definitely more about how you react to the children rather than the questions. So if you sound enthusiastic, warm and interested in sure you'll be fine. Good luck!

[Fallulah]

I think I had the biscuit question!
I was also asked what I liked to do in my spare time (and got lucky because one of them was a guide and I am a leader who goes away to camp so she was impressed), how I would make sure lessons are interesting, what I liked about their school and how I deal with students misbehaving in lessons.