Interview help please

[Bella198934]

Hi,

I have made an account, I often lurk and read.

I need advice. I have a job interview in a school, where I wish to do my teacher training in a couple of years when I finish my degree ( mature student).

The job interview is for a classroom support , working with young people with SEN and standing in for classes, when the teacher is off sick.

on paper I know I look strong with a lot of transferable skills, specialised training in SEN and a science degree I am currently completing. Every job I have had, I get excellent feedback. However, interviews are not my strong suit. I have to deliver a lesson for half an hour, I will not know which class, subject or materials until the day of the interview, struggling to work out how to prep for this. Any advice please? I would be very grateful. This is for secondary. Thank you for reading.

This is really tricky, but also what you would have to deal with every day as a cover supervisor. Get everybody settled and on task as quickly as you can!

Interviews are not my strong suit. I have to deliver a lesson for half an hour, I will not know which class, subject or materials until the day of the interview, struggling to work out how to prep for this.

You will receive a cover sheet on the day of your interview.
If they are being fair, it will either tell you the textbook and tasks to do/sheets or it will be a link to a PowerPoint.
Your job is to get the class in, get them on, get them out.
Make sure you have gone to Tesco and got a bag of cheap biros, bag of cheap pencils, erasable whiteboard pens and stickers if you want.

If you are given time to set up then do
EITHER
Date, title, lesson objective on board for them to copy/Do Now activity
OR
Find the PowerPoint on T drive, have it on screen with their Do Now task slide

Log on to sims or class charts with whatever code they give you to register them OR
have your paper register to hand if they give you that instead (I'd take a clipboard to your interview and stick it on there)

1. Line them up outside/greet them at the door/tell them to sit in their usual seat (you should have a copy of seating plan, if not, get ready to move any playing you up).
2. Get them in, coats off, bags on floor, 3 Ps on desk (planner, pencil case, personal reading book if they have them)
3. Tell them to either do the PowerPoint Do Now task if you've been given one OR write date title objective from board and Keywords if you have them OR ask them to silently read while settling. All coats off/bags on floor.
4. Register. Insist on silence during it. If you've been given time to set up, textbooks should be on desk already. If not, ask student to hand out. Likewise exercise books or A4 paper (names on latter). If they've been registered on paper, send the list to the attendance office with a responsible pupil.
5. If they have no reading book, ask them to read the last thing they did in their book or if you are working on paper, silently read whatever the slide is or the textbook pages.
6. Date/title/L.O if not done yet.
7. Pens down, Sit up, fold arms.
8. If textbooks, turn to whichever page it is. Tell them you will start reading but to follow with their finger as you will ask them to take over at different junctures to keep them on their toes.
9. Go through the task instructions.
10. Write the checklist/instructions on board. Give them a timing/set a timer.
11. Physically move around the room checking they are working, tick or sticker abundantly, praise.
12. Go through the answers, asking them to green pen it or whatever school policy is, make sure name is on, monitors to collect books or paper. Sit up straight, fold arms, look at you.
13. Release by row in calm, ordered fashion.

Here's the thing.
You are supervising the work not meant to be teaching it per se.
Managing classroom behaviour/keeping them on task.
You may be given the task on paper or be given a PowerPoint, if the latter your challenge is simply locating it and going through it at a reasonable pace clicking with mouse or clicker or directly on smartboard.

Make sure you have spare equipment
Make sure you make them use indoor voices or silence
Pause Wait Insist
Have something general up your sleeve if needed for emergency (I'll think of something and post again tomorrow).
The cover work given to you should be fit for purpose and you shouldn't be planning it. Verbal feedback should suffice. Stickers are a nice bonus.

I was given a Greek Myths PowerPoint for my interview.
It was fine. I was fortunate in having 20 minutes to find it on the T drive.
Other schools have given art tasks or history textbook work.
Was once asked to come up with activity myself on flow charts but if you are standing in, the work needs to be there.

You will get the Equal Opportunities question, the Safeguarding question, general questions on how to deal with reluctant learners.

I'll pop back tomorrow with some pointers.

Good advice above.

I am useless at interviews. I do Supply Work. Agency arranges the work. It might be an option, although tricky. The upside is you will get to see a lot of schools. And SEN schools are crying out for TAs.

One SEN school I worked in would usually use Supply TAs before appointing them to see how they did.

Thank you everyone. Sequins and stilettos thank you so much for all of the guidance, incredibly supportive

The job interview is for a classroom support , working with young people with SEN and standing in for classes, when the teacher is off sick

You are very welcome. One thing my school does now is to ask LSAs to generally direct the room on what they've just taught, while they (the teacher) are meant to do 1-1 with the weakest. Research finds that more effective allegedly.
It doesn't always happen though!

In terms of you doing general support or SEN support, you are trying to make the students think for themselves as opposed to enabling them/doing it for them/making them reliant on you.
So you tell them BRAIN then BOOK then BUDDY then BOSS (you or teacher) in that order. Try and prompt them without over-scaffolding. Ask them open questions. Encourage them to mind map/list what they know already. Train them how to use glossaries, thesauruses, dictionaries.

If you are acting as a scribe (some may have that as access requirements at GCSE) make sure your writing is printed not cursive so they can read it and get them to dictate what they are thinking - don't just do it for them.

Try and teach them self-calming strategies - counting to ten, breathing, writing a few sentences to build from, especially if disinterested, stuck or blocked. A piece of plasticine/blu tac calms many if they do not or are not allowed to have fidget spinners etc

Resources - word banks for gap-fills, sentence starters for paragraphs, key stone words (keyword lists) for literacy. Many have Knowledge Organisers now that they should refer to. Some schools still have planners with extra pages like maps, formulae etc that can be referred to in class.

Do be careful not let them use you constantly for cover when they are slammed, if they have advertised the role as an LSA/TA role. Really, only HLTAs should be asked to do cover - even then, not all the time.

If they wanted a Cover Supervisor full-time they should have advertised for that rather than sneaking it in via the back door!
I need to eat, and mark, and eat some more, then get my Strictly fix, before I come back to you but please ask if you have any questions. Safeguarding for example or GDPR, I can help you with if you need it. Do look on their website and their social media. Many of their policies will be on there.