I have a teaching interview on Wednesday but…

[BlueLines81]

I’m not a teacher!! It’s for a 6th form, teaching a levels. I have a first class degree in the subject and a bit of private tutoring experience, but I have never taught a class, or had to do a proper lesson plan or anything.

I have to give a 45 minute lesson to a class, as well as all the usual interview stuff.

I know it’s a very long shot that I’ll get the job, but I am hoping not to make a complete idiot of myself if possible. Any advice from teachers appreciated 😬

@521Jeanie as a parent you wouldn't know OP is unqualified

@521Jeanie yes that’s definitely where I will struggle, and something I’ll ask in the interview is how they would be able to mentor me with that side of things, because I’ll need it for sure. On the plus side I’m a quick learner and once I’ve taken on something I don’t give up (which is why I don’t take things on without a great deal of thought about it).

@tiredanddangerous

I am very surprised and slightly horrified that you got an interview. I would not want my dcs to be taught by an unqualified teacher at A-level.

I've worked with many very highly qualified teachers, excellent degrees pouring from every orifice, but they can't teach for toffee, in some cases they simply can't see what is difficult to a struggling pupil. We set too much store by paper qualifications and not enough on the ability to teach a subject. As a Maths teacher who had taught to A level I once found myself teaching in a Junior school for a couple of years and I learned more about the nitty gritty of my subect than I'd ever been consciously aware of.

You sound like you'd be great. Is there a textbook for the subject. I don't usually like the activities in textbooks, but they can be a great starting off point for age-appropriate case studies etc that can be adapted by someone with good subject knowledge.

@BlueLines81
The way you talk about your subject is exactly what I would want to hear at interview- the nuts and bolts of teaching can be learnt but that passion is something that you cant fake.

I'm an assistant head 6th form and experienced A level teacher and been on an interview panel many times.
PP have all offered good advice. There will be a safeguarding question e.g a students confides in you that they are being abused but asks you not to promise not to tell anyone. What do you do?
If a candidate got the safeguarding question wrong- it would be an instant fail.
Also, I look for someone who will fit in to the existing team, culture of the school so check the school website and newsletter to get a feel for what the school really values (not what is said on their Ofsted report)
I recently interviewed sociology teachers- one a 'mature' student the other a straight from school NQT. I gave it to the mature student as he had a real awareness of the complexity of teaching- that you could have a brilliant lesson with a class one day and an absolute disaster the next. There are so many factors as play in any one class (the wind, the football results from the night before, a fight at break time) that while its lovely when a student gets it (like yo described in your post about tutoring) this is not the every day reality.

@Grayskelly yes I have the AQA textbooks from when I was tutoring, I’m going to have a look at those in a minute (so far I’ve been mostly looking at lesson plans online and watching YouTube lessons on the topic to get ideas, it didn’t help that I got the email Friday afternoon then I was away at the weekend so have only just had a chance to really sit down and think about it).

Thank you @whywhywhyno, I’ll definitely do some swotting up on the school itself. It’s nice that I already feel some familiarity with it as my brother went there and it was the local comp where i grew up, although I’m aware it has probably changed since the 90s when he was there! It’s always had a great reputation. In terms of the safeguarding, I was actually training to be a social worker when I first started uni but due to issues with my own child with SEN I was unable to carry that on into the second year, so switched to social sciences. But the punch line there is that I’m pretty well versed in child protection issues. Will read the school’s safeguarding policy too.

One of the best teachers I had came straight from his undergraduate degree. He's now a deputy head, as well as a fully-trained teacher.

Good luck!

I think at A level passion and knowledge
Of the subject is important. Its certainly on an equal footing to a Qualified teacher of an alternative subject who doesn't want to be be there being subbed in. I certainly believe you should be given a chance.

Good luck

@BlueLines81

Thanks for the helpful input there *@Thatsnotmyteenager*. I’m guessing they are struggling to recruit a qualified teacher and hiring someone unqualified but happy to become qualified, and who has an excellent knowledge of the subject is better than having a string of supply teachers? Presumably if someone qualified is also applying then they are far more likely to be hired, so I’m not taking anything away from anyone.

Last sentence is not necessarily true....money in schools is a big thing and employing you over someone qualified could save the school nearly 10-20k a year! That might sway the hiring decision.

Presumably if someone qualified is also applying then they are far more likely to be hired, so I’m not taking anything away from anyone.

Nope-many schools will take you simply because you’re substantially cheaper.

The education system now is so underfunded, it is just broken.

Yikes, you're brave! No doubt you're passionate and knowledgeable about the subject and would be an asset, but there's a tonne of other considerations in teaching. Swat up on safeguarding, behaviour management (still a thing at a level sometimes and you'll probably be involved in wider school activities), what you'd do if a teen confided in you about something like self harm or abuse, and the role of the teacher beyond teaching pre planned lessons.

Google the 5 minute lesson plan.

And good luck!

You sound passionate, intelligent and articulate - excellent teacher material. Personally I believe the best teachers are born, not made. You can have all the qualifications in the world, but truly brilliant teachers have a presence that you just can’t learn. They effortlessly control a classroom and build a rapport with kids and teaching comes as easily to them as breathing. You can learn tips and tricks and how to plan creative and interesting lessons, but natural presence is not something that can ever be learned. If you have this, and the interviewers see this in you during your lesson, then you have a very good chance of getting the job. I’d hire someone with presence and passion who needed training over someone with a PGCE and no presence every time. I say this as a former HOD and NQT mentor.

For the lesson itself make sure you weave in specific reference to the exam board spec and mark scheme. Make sure any questions you ask are framed in the same way exam questions are. You need to show you’ve done your research and understand what needs to be covered in the topic and how it will be examined. I can’t tell you how annoying it is to have a candidate teach your class a load of nonsense and then have to unpick it all afterwards - you must ensure you have the correct exam board and the up to date spec for the right year. Ask for this from the school.

If you get the job, do not accept it unless you have a signed and sealed guarantee that they will train you. Otherwise you risk remaining an unqualified teacher and the pay scale is dreadful. Also make sure you know exactly what you’re being employed to teach. Sociology normally does not fill a timetable so they may ask you to teach KS3 Humanities too. This could be incredibly time consuming and stressful for you as you could be teaching History, Geography and/or RE to lower school pupils with little support. Be very careful about accepting the position if it comes with unspecified hours of humanities teaching. I’ve known many psychology teacher friends stung like this with the majority of their timetable being taken up with their non specialist subject.

I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you how hard teaching is. I’ve just left after nine years. But being in a good school does make a huge difference. When you’re there for the interview, pay attention to the general atmosphere. How do teachers greet each other in corridors? Do teachers look harassed and stressed as they move around? How do the pupils behave in the corridors? How do they behave in class? If they are misbehaving while you are teaching them with a member of SLT observing then this is a huge warning sign and do not take a job there - if they won’t behave for an interview lesson there will be huge behavioural issues in the school. If you’re allowed to sit in the staffroom, are there any staff in there? Is there a sense of camaraderie? How do the staff respond/react to any members of SLT? Are the toilets clean? Are classrooms tidy and well looked after or are they a mess? All of this will give you an indication of what type of school it is. If you can, also find out why there’s a January vacancy. If it’s not a maternity cover then I would be a bit wary. Teachers rarely leave mid year especially when they have exam classes. There might be a reason you should know about before signing up to the role.

Massive good luck! I’m sure you’ll be brilliant.

Is this going to be FT A Level Sociology or are you going to have a lot of KS3 Humanities to make it up to a full time table?

If so, then this is a very sad reflection of what is going on in many schools. It takes training and subject knowledge to be able to deliver lessons well. I am not doubting your enthusiasm for your subject OP, but be careful what you are signing up for. If you get the role and are placed on unqualified teachers salary you may end up with a lot of lower school classes to teach.

I speak for the point of view of a former HOD who had to manage many teachers who were shunted in to teach my subject in order to fill in the gaps. Some had no clue about the subject they were teaching. It is heartbreaking when you are head of a subject you love and you want the students to be enthusiastic and well informed about, to know that they will have a year of 'any random adult will do' standing in front of them.

I'd far rather have somebody teaching my child who was an expert in their field (albeit unqualified) who had a natural aptitude for teaching and was genuinely enthusiastic about the subject matter.

A friend of mine is a qualified teacher and teaches A level History. She does not have a degree in History nor is particularly clued up on the subject!

Good luck OP!

@Redburnett

Message withdrawn at poster's request

No offence to @Redburnett but I really hate scaffolded learning objectives being used as a method of differentiation. It essentially means you've already accepted that most of your lesson won't be achievable by a section of the class before you've even started. That's not differentation.

ALL students should be able to achieve the same outcomes at the end of the lesson, just differentiated to their ability levels. So if the aim is to get everyone to be able to analyse, then the quality of the analysis produced by pupils may differ, but everyone should be able to produce an analytical sentence/paragraph using analytical vocabulary and thinking. It's not good enough to say that some people will be able to analyse but others will only be able to explain. The differentiation should never be in the learning objectives, it should be in the methods of teaching used to get everyone to the learning objective.

Not that I like or ever used the term learning objective - but am using it here because everyone else does. Hate all the Ofsted meaningless jargon.

Anyway, just wanted to raise this. I know some schools teach like this but if someone came to interview for my department and used differentiated learning objectives, I wouldn't hire them.

@EnidSpyton thanks, could you explain how you would differentiate in the methods of teaching?

Don't mean to be rude, but things like lesson planning , differentiation, how to show and assess progress are the reasons why people have to go through training.

I am sure you are passionate about your subject, but unqualified teachers are becoming an increasing part of school staffing.

@BlueLines81- they won't expect you to already know how to do this.

Also, you can only really differentiate effectively if you know the students you have in front of them and what their needs are.

You can prepare a one size fits all lesson for an observation - with some extension activities built in in case they're far more able than you think they are and need to be stretched more - and extension activities aren't just more work, they're work that requires more thinking. That's a rookie error with differentiation - give the clever kids more of the same stuff to do. No. They need to be thinking more, not doing more. So think about how each activity you do can be made more mentally challenging for any students who find it a walk in the park. You'll soon figure out who is struggling and you can go over to them and give them some 1 to 1 support during the lesson, as well as a bit of scaffolding in case they need it - i.e. you might give them a starting sentence, or give them a hand with structuring their ideas. This might be what you then get asked about after the lesson - they will probably ask you what you noticed, if you would have prepared/done anything differently after having met the class, how you would have differentiated x, y or z for a student with learning needs etc.

If you're going to make it an an unqualified teacher, what you'll need to show is an ability to be reflective, flexible, adaptive and sensitive to the children you have in front of you. If someone just sticks to a lesson plan despite half the class clearly not following or being bored then you know you've got someone who shouldn't be teaching. I've never been afraid to stop a lesson or restart during an observation or interview lesson when I've realised what I've planned isn't working. We all make mistakes even with our own classes - sometimes you just pitch it all wrong. It doesn't matter as long as you recognise it and correct it as you go. Lesson plans should be moveable feasts. If you can show an ability to play around with your lesson as you're teaching it, in order to respond to the kids and where they're at - then you'll do a great job.

@EnidSpyton thanks so much, that’s really helpful.

I'm surprised people are so surprised - I had a boyfriend who was employed as an unqualified teacher (in a state school) in 2006. And it was 'worse' because he was 21 and had graduated university two months prior - he was constantly mistaken for a sixth formers himself when he first started... As people have said, be very careful about what they say about training you and try and get a firm and written commitment. Said boyfriend was promised this and was screwed over - they didn't sign him up at the right time so stayed unqualified for longer than he should have, and they also didn't give him the support and timetable reduction that he later learned should have been part of the deal.

They know they're interviewing an unqualified teacher who hasn't ever taught. No disrespect OP (and unusually that is meant quite genuinely), but the fact that you have an interview shows they've really struggled to fill the post. They won't expect you to perform as an experienced teacher.

I'm sure you'll do well. What you need to do is find out what training and support they can offer to turn you into a great teacher.

I really recommend this former teacher's videos- I got a lot of ideas from her. Good Luck. At A level subject knowledge is king in my book, behavior management is king at lower grades. I don't think you need to be a trained teacher to do a great job, you learn on the job.

www.youtube.com/channel/UCkLWlURymmMmvyD6lm2qBoQ

Eek so I’ve just had the schedule for Wednesday emailed over, I’m one of 3 candidates so my chances have just plummeted somewhat. It will be an experience though!