What is an in tray exercise?

[calzone]

Friend got y1 interview on Mon and has to teach, do an inbox exercise and meet the Govs.

What is this exercise?

TIA

In tray.

There will be a selection of items that might be in your in-tray. What would you do with each of them, and in what order. (e.g letter from a parent, invitation to attend a training day, something from the head....)

I had one for a marketing role. It was a list of things to be done and problems solved, replicating a real day in the office. I had to think about it for 20 mins and make a plan of what to do to solve the problems and in what order I'd prioritise them. I had then presented my plan back to the interviewer with justifications for my decisions. Often there wasn't necessarily a perfect answer, it was more about my decision making process. Hope this helps.

An exercise in prioritisation.

Seems rather excessive for a class teacher role. I had one as part of my DH & HT interviews. We give SLT and office staff this as part of interviews, but never a class teacher.

I also had this for SLT interview. It's a list of things and you have to prioritise them and say how you would deal with each.

At 8.45am
Your class are arriving, you have no TA.

Child comes into school crying and says they need to tell you something. They have a bruise on their face.

An email marked urgent arrives in your inbox from the Head saying she needs to see you before assembly.

A parent is standing at the door waiting for a moment with you.

You are leading assembly at 9.15 and you know the projector in the hall is not working.

etc....

Asbright, your school sounds sensible! Ours gives this kind of task for class teachers. Last round of interviews, the poor candidates (mostly NQTs) had to do: lesson, group problem solving task, in-tray, written exercise (planning a sequence of lessons) AND an interview with HT, DHT and 2 governors! I was surprised any of them took the jobs! Still, it prepared them well for what was to come...

On the other hand, I LOVE doing in tray exercises (sad!). Hope I get one at my interview next week...

I like them too, Asleeponasunbeam - it was the bit I felt most comfortable with on my NPQH training as I felt I could express myself more effectively in the written format.

Advice I got in these this week is that first priority is child protection always, then teaching and learning. And try to give reasons why. Try to delegate if possible and if there is something that shows school/life balance then show it!!

I had an in tray exercise for an LSA role!

Delegate where possible, and state how you would follow up. There may be a non obvious safeguarding issue in the list.

Also watch for health and safety issues.

I've found these tasks to be more if a time filler, while they discuss the candidates or are interviewing other people. My department (secondary Sen) use these tasks and they're usually cooked up the night before/morning of the interview.

One school I worked in asked candidates to produce a cross curricular plan for a particular topic then used it for planning as they were able to pinch good ideas from other schools.