SEND interview help, please.

[Supplyteachernomore]

I have been a primary school teacher for 25 years, spending the last 14 years as a supply teacher in mainstream schools. I am preparing for an interview in a specialist school, what questions could I anticipate? There will also be a written task (30 minutes), how could I prepare? Thanks in advance for your help. This is my first interview in two decades!

I would try to think through incidents where you have had to intervene when a puil was showing challenging behaviour. What did you do, how did you handle it?

Think f pupils you have worked with with SEND and recall how you have adjusted the work so that they could access it.

It will depend to some extent on what specialism the school has - a school for dc with PMLD will be looking for different skills from a PRU which would be different from a school specialising in Autism. A school for the deaf would want expertise in hearing aid and technology whereas a school from children with physical difficulties might be looking for how you would adapt the curriculum for them. Another school might want more specialism with communication devices or eye gaze technology.

I would make sure I was aware of SEND legislation and terminology

I would have thought about any training sessions I'd been able to attend, or on-line learning I'd managed to access. Whereas I know if you are doing odd days supply here and there it is difficult to access any training on inset days, there hae presumably been opportunities at your longer placements, or at after school staff meetings. Then of course organisations such as NAS have done a lot of online webinars lately.

Sorry, no idea about the written task - have they given any indication what that might entail ?

Great response from Backforgood.
Regarding written task, my school has asked (on different occasions) for a written analysis of the lesson delivered (presumably you won’t be asked to do a lesson), a lesson plan for a specific group, a medium term plan for a subject, IEP targets based on information given. All a bit token, I think.

There will be a safeguarding question. Perhaps around ‘tell us about a time when you...’ or ‘what do you understand by the term safeguarding?’.

I would be asking how you work with pupils who are hard to engage, for whatever reason.

Good luck! Hope you like the school. Do you get to visit or is a virtual interview?

Backforgood, thank you for your advice. I will take it all onboard and also look at the most recent NAS webinars.

Parrotonmyshoulder, thank you for your advice about written tasks previously set at your school. I will be able to visit the school.