Interview

[Cismyfatarse1]

Help! I have my first interview in two decades - HOD English. I have a couple of weeks but wondered if anyone had ideas about questions / answers. English Department in a big school. Thanks.

Bump. Hopeful one.

Look at Ofsted, exam results and anything else you can find so that you can ask them very specific questions.
Why is the old HOD leaving? General turnover? How many NQTs?
What is important to you as HOD? What value do you add?
Show them that you have done your homework and that you like their school.
Are you going in to look around? Ask to see English classes in action rather than be shown around the gym.

Have a very close read of their Ofsted report and work through their website very thoroughly. SLT tend to be impressed by a detailed knowledge of the school and its priorities.
Also, look up the people interviewing you on Twitter. You can get some great insights into their professional interests.

I’d be ready some sort of written exercise. I’m our school for a HOD for a core subject it would likely be a data task. You’d be given a set of data (possibly mock results) and be asked to identify a set of actions based on what you see in the data.
In terms of interview questions
The questions can vary quite a bit from school to school but being asked to give an example of a time when you led an improvement is pretty standard now. How would you deal with an underperforming member of staff? What would be realistic targets to set for the department next year?
Make sure you’ve looked really closely at the school’s data on the data dashboard (or whatever they call it now). It’ll give you a good idea of what the school’s focus is likely to be on. Is it key stage 4 or 5? Boys? Pupil Premium? High prior attainment? You want to make sure what you choose to talk about is relevant to their context.

Please ignore typos. I’m on my phone.

I had a data task for my interview- and the interview was much longer than for a standard teaching role. Questions I had included ‘who should take responsibility for results?’ ‘What’s your stance on homework setting?’ How would you deal with a colleague who wasn’t following your instructions?’ Alongside the usual safeguarding questions. Good luck!

Wow. Thanks all. Very much indeed.

And, with some sort of miracle, support IRL and (thanks SO much) I have got my first new job in 2 decades. Yay me!!! Very, very excited (and a little daunted).

So, go for it - even if you don't think you can - you can.

Congratulations!

Congrats