School Admin job..nervous about interview.. tips & advice please!

[Notstrongandstable]

I have an interview for a school admin assistant job which will include finance assistant and HR duties.
It's been a while since I've interviewed and am not currently working so I'm quite nervous. I know I could do the job standing on my head and have extensive accounts assistant/admin experience.
Any tips on likely questions or how to come across more confident? I am quite confident IRL, so I know i could handle the people interaction side of the job..it's just I'm v v nervous at interviews!
There may well be somebody with more experience than me but any tips on how I could get them to take a chance on me?
Thanks

There will be a question on safeguarding, look up their policy on the website and learn the safeguarding lead's name.

There will be a question on how you would prioritise various activities

If you have to deal with parents, give examples of how you have dealt with challenging situations, there will be a question on how you would deal with an angry parent

Look at the school website, say something positive about something you have seen on there. Is it a Primary school or Secondary school, will have different challenges. Small or large school, again different challenges. If small rural school then you will probably be working on your own a lot

If it is a Church school there will be a question about that.

Be prepared for a panel interview, so possibility of 3 or 4 people asking questions.

Will probably have a typed task eg report, newsletter. Also have seen a task where they ask you to correct spelling, grammar etc

Be friendly and approachable, here you would need to be prepared for a prioritisation task. Useful talents are conflict resolution 😆😆 so a good example of defusing anger? Good luck!

Policies on safeguarding and first aid as children are often brought to the school office if they have bumped their head and it is where the sick buckets are kept. Also their medicine policy as there is a fridge in the office with medicines in plus all the medical information on children ie asthma, epipen users, allergic reaction info etc.

Obvious things like confidentiality, being able to talk to children, parents, adult visitors like music teachers, delivery people plus staff from SLT, teachers, TAs, cleaners, lunchtime supervisors, so friendly but professional.

Schools usually use SIMS there are videos on YouTube if you want to look, also CPOMs for child protection stuff. I only volunteer and in a classroom not the office but I have to collect a fob to get through doors and things like ICT passes to be able to log onto a school computer.

It is always a panel at my school usually 3-4 people. And good luck

SIMS - school information management system

Thanks all..some great stuff to look at here.
It's a very large primary.
Do they use SIMS in primary? I know my DS secondary use it. The main tech asked for was the obvious Excel, word, database which is all fine

Some good suggestions here... I would also read up on equalities/diversity and GDPR.

Another school system is Arbor. As long as you say you are happy to learn whatever system they have in place that will be fine. They will want someone who is IT literate.

As stated above they may ask you to perform a task to set up a report (possibly for governors) or newsletter, which might include an element of Excel/Word

I work in a primary school office. When I had my interview I was given some scenario based situations and asked how I would deal with them. I was also asked about data protection and safeguarding. The primary school I'm at uses SIMS and whilst I didn't have any previous experience beforehand, I found it easy to learn. I made sure to research the school beforehand and to identify their policies and ethos which I talked about during my interview. Good luck.

Research the school/academy trust so you can answer questions about them. Also there will be a question about who you would help first if you have a parent on the phone, one knocking on the door and a teacher who requires a first aider right now! So have a little think about what the priorities would be.

Thanks so much everyone.

I did the interview and they offered me the job!

Mumsnet at its finest!

Congratulations Notstrong well done 👏🏼