Help with 'In-Tray' test and pupil panel for school office interview

[Homewardboundtouk]

Basically that. I have no idea what it is about and google has given me limited/old results. Has anyone had an interview recently and can give me any preparation advice? I really really would like this job!!

out of interest as would like to apply for similar role do you have to do a numeracy test?

In Tray test sounds like an admin task

Pupil panel will be a group of kids asking you questions

I imagine the in-tray task is to get you to sort and prioritise the in-tray? So sift out anything that's urgent or needing immediate action and allocating who it should go to.

In Tray is a prioritisation task. It is about knowing what to give attention to, what to delegate / kick on to other people etc.

Safeguarding comes top.

Read the school's safeguarding policy online before you go, and also probably GDPR and equality.

In tray task will generally be a series of admin tasks arriving through a fake email inbox.

So could be a series of queries related to the job that have to be dealt with and prioritised which will be dependant on the job - have a look at the key skills/experience and try to relate them to day to day job processes to see what might come up.

Pupil panel is just a collection of pupils asking you questions. They’re normally the prefect team and generally the questions will have been vetted by the SMT before you get there so they shouldn’t be too off the wall.

Pupil panel for a school office job?

Can't help with the in-tray test, but I had a pupil panel as part of an interview process for a job in a secondary school library recently.

The pupil panel had 5 year 9 students, who had a long list of pre-prepared questions. Topics ranged from 'if you could be a character in any book or film what would you be and why', 'what animal would you be and why ' tell us about a difficult situation and how you handled it', 'what do you do if you have a bad day'.... also other, more specific questions on the school library and reading. They were an exacting bunch, and I had to really think on my feet!

When I interviewed for NHS admin, we sometimes used an in-tray test (sounds very old fashioned now hardly anyone has an actual in-tray!). It might be similar maybe? It was things like prioritising a list of tasks, drafting an email which contained detailed information - dates, times, places, that kind of thing, and creating and savings documents to folders. Obviously I don't know what the essential skills are for this role, but if it includes MS Office, maybe the test would include inputting data onto a spreadsheet too.

We were looking for organisational skills, being able to prioritise sensibly and with good reasoning, well written communication, a decent pace of work (but taking into account nerves and lack of familiarity with systems and processes of course) and accuracy.

No idea if that helps, but best of luck

Its been a long time since I set an in tray exercise, but in my experience it will be a set of tasks that you need to organise and address in order of priority. Some examples might include; a query relating to an order, staff sickness absence, a complaint from a parent, a request from the headteacher to write a letter pertaining to an aspect of school business, a car blocking someone in the car park, updating a spreadsheet/data entry.

School admin staff have to be able to operate under pressure and switch rapidly between different tasks so it's your opportunity to show you can do that. It's also your chance to show what you understand about your remit and what you would need to consult about/refer on.

If it's before the jnterview (which it should be) you should be offered an opportunity to reflect on what went well and what you would do differently next time.

The pupil panel is an interview panel and the children/young people will have prepared the questions. Prepare as you would for any other interview, and learn as much as you can about the school and local community.

Good luck!

hi, for nhs admin is a numeracy test required and how difficult is it?

Thank you everyone. Thats really helpful! I'm going to brush up on my MS Office skills and swot on the school policies......also need to figure out which character i'd be in a book... :D

Fingers crossed for you OP!

Go hang out in the Staffroom threads to see what it's like so you can get some insider knowledge