Applying for a new role within the same school

[Hummusanddipdip]

Hi,

I'm just looking to ask head teachers a question about applying for an internal vacancy.

There's a role at my school in pastoral, I know I can do the role well (currently a ta) and a few of my colleagues have asked if I'm applying.

I approached my head teacher about the vacancy at the start of last week to ask if she'd welcome an application from me. And she said I can apply for the role, but she can't tell me to do it or not to.

Admittedly my experience with internal vacancies is retail based and not education, so I'm not sure if it's different in these circumstances as I've never had that answer before with regards to approaching management about vacancies, conversations have always been yes or no for x y z reason.

So was she politely telling me not to apply, or can she genuinely not advice either way?

If she doesn’t think that you are suitable for the role then any decent headteacher would have that conversation with the colleague first. Have you read the job description/ personal specification and do you tick all the boxes - you can emphasise this in your cover letter - telling them why you are the most suitable candidate for the job and what you can bring. Although you’ve not worked in education for long, you still have experience elsewhere which is transferrable.
Who is your direct line manager? Have you had a conversation with them?

Thanks for your advice @good96

I should have said it's the second time I've applied for this role, first time was 2 years ago and the successful candidate has moved on to a new school. My feedback last time was I need to show a greater understanding of the role, it was interview where I didn't convey my understanding strongly enough, and she said they had to judge me in that moment. I'm hoping that the extra 2 years have given me more experience to share.

I've got the job spec and started annotating with examples, I've also spoken to other members of staff who work closely with that role to find it what they need from the successful candidate. So I'm hoping that I'm doing all I can to prepare myself.

I've just had a bad few months personally and when I went to see her, I was met with "yes you can apply, I can't stop you and I can't tell you to do it" and with how things have been at home, it wasn't very confidence inspiring iyswim?

Do it.

One of our pastoral managers was a TA. And one of our Deputy Heads applied for their job that asked for a very specific skillset, they didn't have it, and they got the job.

Good luck!

Thank you :) I'm halfway through the application just got to make my personal statement tick all the boxes!

Thanks for the luck @WeAreAllLionesses I think I need it!

I suspect the HT didn’t want to say anything that could be interpreted as favouritism, because they should just have a fair scoring system for everyone who interviews on the day. I honestly wouldn’t read too much into it.
It sounds like you’re doing all the right things to smash this interview, best of luck from me too.

Thought I'd update you all and let you know, I bit the bullet and applied. I have an interview a week on Friday.