Teaching interview tips

[Popsicales]

I’m currently a primary trainee and I have two interviews next week!

I know it’s coming it to job hunting time for lots of us so hopefully this thread will help.

What were you asked in your interview? Any tips?

Are you being expected to "teach" at all? I had to do some small presentation about a topic of my choice. A pretty standard question after that sort of situation is to get you to reflect on it and suggest what you could have done better. The whole reflective practitioner thing. Although I did mine a while ago.

Safeguarding. Definitely safeguarding. Including who you would report to if it was the Head or DSL doing something or alleged to have behaved inappropriately.

Possibly something around catch up and/or/vs mental health given the year we've had.

What the next lesson /sequence of lessons would be following on from the one you taught.

What quality first teaching / outstanding teaching looks like (give real life examples of where your teaching has demonstrated elements of this)

How you would deal with negative feedback from a colleague/mentor

Brilliant, thank you! I’m looking forward to the teaching task, it’s the formal interview I’m more concerned about.

I think the thing that I’m most worried about is having too many examples/points I want to make. What if I forget to say something?! I don’t want to talk too much and waffle but equally I don’t want to leave out importance examples.

Just take a moment to collect your thoughts before you start answering the question, sip of water or something just to take a beat.

If they ask which subject you would find it hardest to teach or found most difficult yourself, don't say maths! Everyone said maths in my interview group. I picked something specific from the curriculum which showed good knowledge and also said how I would address that knowledge gap.

It is useful to think of examples of any difficult situations you've dealt with in real life or proud achievements and write yourself a list before you go in so they are fresh in your mind and can be used for a variety of questions.