Assistant headship - interview

[ThisIsNotARealAvo]

I am applying for an assistant headship at my school. It would be a step up for me but a lot of the role I am already doing so I am confident I could do the job if they offer it.

I know there will be an interview with some tasks. Does anyone have experience of this and can tell me what to expect? I really want this job and I think I have a good chance, as long as I don't mess up the interview!

I had a (successful!) AHT interview this week. I had to:

• do a KS2 assembly on a given theme
• present improvements on an area of the school development plan
• observe a colleague and give feedback after
• write a letter to parents
• in tray exercise (a list of seven things going wrong in the school at once- which order do you address them!)
• formal interview with the panel

It was exhausting! It was really hard doing it as internal candidate too. Yes the team know me and what I’m capable of, but I was over-invested and over-thought everything and didn’t come across in the right way. I wanted to prove I could do anything and lost some of my personality. I came across as very driven and almost robotic.
Find a trusted senior colleague who is not on the panel to ask for advice and be yourself. People kept telling me that and I didn’t take it in enough.

Good luck!

I have never not had a data exercise : some sort of activity asking you to identify issues and outlining next steps.

The whole thing is very artificial as I behaves as if you do everything alone once in SLT!

I have also had to run a meeting, teach lessons, and there are always student panels.

Data. Data data data. Be very familiar with your school’s validated data for 2017.

This is great, thanks. I am familiar with the data as we are in RI and have people in all the time, but I still get anxious talking about it. Rest of SLT I know very well and so I'm even more conscious of making silly mistakes in front of them.

Interesting about the in tray task and letters to parents.

I think the intray task is pretty common.

Also, they may drop the Raise document in front of you and ask you to identify key priorities. As they have an internal candidate (you) I wonder if they would use another school's data (if they could get it). Make sure you know how to read those random, sideways, sticky-out line graphs they use!!

That said- I didn't even know they binned Raise last year... excellent member of SLT I am!

I had an interview last week where the head said he had never ever appointed on the basis of an in tray task and wondered why interviewers were so devoted to them!

I quite liked the intray and letter tasks. They were a bit of time away from the mania of the day. I was able to just sit in the office and collect my thoughts.
With the in-tray, they’re looking to see if you can prioritise. It should always be safeguarding, children, staff, then parents. One of the key things I knew to say was that I wouldn’t necessarily do them all myself. Who could I find in school to delegate to? Can the office manager, business manager, phase leaders do anything on the list? You’d never be completely alone in that situation.
With the letter, I know it was assessed on being to the point, reassuring and grammatically correct. I had to write to say that an NQT was leaving mid-year.

I liked those tasks because they’re kind of what I already do each day. Presenting a massive SDP issue in 10mins never happens or the contrived interview questions.

My most important advice thoughh is to relax and be yourself. I tried too hard, prepared too much and wasn’t myself at all.
Good luck!

Oh and I have had a random RAISE plonked in front of me a previous interview. They’d photocopied it black and white too so no colours to help! That was hard!!!

The school said they weren’t doing data this year as Raise is no longer and people don’t know enough about ASP yet to accurately assess on