Your CV
has made the cut, now it’s time for presentations, demonstration lessons and
psychometric tests. Here’s how to prepare for success
Interviews for teaching jobs used to involve a
half-hour chat to a panel of well-meaning governors. But these days, they are
more like physical and psychological assault courses with presentations,
demonstration lessons, psychometric tests, observations and in-tray exercises.
And if you’re applying for a senior teaching job, you need to prepare yourself
for the practical tests as well as the formal interview.
Demonstration
lessons
Give a lesson plan to the observers beforehand
so if it all goes horribly wrong at least they know what you intended to
achieve. Detail how you plan to differentiate and show progress, even if there
wasn’t time during the demo lesson.
Mary Glynn, candidate development manager at
Prospero Teaching, says: “The first question the panel are likely to ask at the
formal interview will be about evaluating your performance in practical things
like the demo lesson. Focus on answering this well – show you are a reflective
teacher and can justify the decisions you made.”
Be ready to explain at interview how you
differentiated, especially for EAL or SEN, how you planned for progress,
justify why you changed tack or improvised and acknowledge any mistakes you
made.
Don’t expect parity, though. You could get a
tough year 9 group when another candidate gets sweet little year 7s. Your
lesson might have to be taught after the formal interview while another might
be interviewed before.
Presentations
You are likely to be asked to do a 10-minute
presentation on the role you are applying for. You might be asked about your
vision for the English department or how you would take forward safeguarding,
pastoral care or behaviour in the school. Here’s how to deliver a cracking
presentation:
Plan a beginning, middle and an end – basically
tell a story in about why you are right for the job.
- Your
beginning (maximum two minutes). Think A,B,C and D:
A is for attention – get the panel’s attention
with an arresting quote or statistic.
B is for benefit – what is the interview panel
about to learn from you in next 10 minutes? Summarise it in 15 seconds.
C is for credentials – tell them (again in 15
seconds) what your credentials are.
D is for direction – give them a 20-second
outline of the structure of your presentation so they’ll remember it once you
have finished.
- Your
middle (maximum seven minutes). This is your content, the meat in the
sandwich. Give a compelling outline of your vision supplemented perhaps by a
diagram or infographic, maybe a few stats, a very short video clip all on half
a dozen PowerPoint slides.
- Your
ending (maximum one minute). Finish with a call to action or an inspiring
line that sums up you and what you will do.
Lesson
observations
You are required to observe someone else’s
lesson to test whether you can identify outstanding teaching. They’ll be
looking to assess the quality of your written and oral feedback, your
confidence to assess what you observed or a coaching tip to develop skill and
technique. You also need to show a wider appreciation of your subject knowledge
or leadership potential.
In-tray
exercises
These test your ability to prioritise and cope
under pressure. Can you deal with a dozen things coming at you at once? How will
you prioritise urgent matters like multiple staff absences, coursework
deadlines and the school boiler breaking down all on the same morning? You can
prepare for these by searching for examples on the internet. Search for
“in-tray exercises for teachers” – Exeter University and @TeacherToolKit has
them. There are no right answers but practising helps you prepare.
Psychometric
tests
These are a harder to prepare for because they
are supposed to objectively test your mental ability, aptitude and personality.
You may be asked to engage with a variety of exercises that test your verbal
and numerical ability or your abstract, spatial or mechanical reasoning. I did
one for a headship with the three other candidates for the job that involved
building a three-foot high tower with paper clips and sheets of A4. It was
worse than an episode of The Apprentice.
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