How To Make Teaching Interviews Work For You
A guide to winning at applying for promotion (regardless of the outcome)
By Tracey Leese
It feels remiss not to preface this guide with the fact that teaching interviews are a uniquely bizarre and arduous process. As someone who has had their fair share of both successful and unsuccessful interviews of this nature, I stand by my claim that promotional interviews are among the best CPD available.
Take note aspiring school leaders because your new role could be just one (weird) day away…
Step 1: Knowledge is power
If an external post, prior to application take the time to visit and learn as much about the school as possible. This may comprise looking at the any of the following: Ofsted reports, SIAMS/ CSI reports, external data sets, financial benchmarking, the school’s Inspection Data Summary Report (IDSR) as well as any information about the school’s wider trust and governance structure. This will help you to build up an informed and broad picture of the school’s needs enabling you to create a letter which maps your skills and experience to their needs accordingly. If you’re an internal candidate try to look at the school strategically as though you don’t know that they key to improving teaching and learning in the Geography department is actually getting a better photocopier – as an internal candidate avoid minutiae at all costs to allow strategy to prevail.
Step 2: You’ve got to role with it
Applying for leadership is as much about the role as the school and applicants. Whilst you’re mapping your skills and experience against the person spec – if you can, speak with someone (in your school or otherwise) who is already doing the role you are applying for – what leadership behaviours do they exhibit? What are the challenges they have navigated in order to discharge the role effectively? A forensic understanding of the role you’ve applied for will translate to any subsequent interviews and is thus long/ medium term win – regardless of the outcome in the short term.
Step 3: It’s not (really) a competition
It’s so tempting to invest time learning about the quality of the field. Often the jungle drums of teaching will tell you who you’re up against before you’re even issued with a visitor’s badge. It’s important to focus on what you bring to the table, rather than your perception of your competitors’ abilities. Do yourself a favour and resist the urge to give too much of your time and energy to learning about the opposition because really and truly it’s for the school to decide who is right for the role (and surely no one can ever live up to their bio on LinkedIn?) It’s extremely likely that due to the nature of the profession, that you will be familiar with at least one of the other candidates – directly or otherwise. As part of our innate teacher humility, we collectively tend to underestimate ourselves and overestimate others. It’s also important to avoid jumping to conclusions if you’re an external applicant regarding internals and vice versa because there are pros and cons to appointing both. It’s also worth remembering that the national recruitment crisis is highly likely to impact on the field of applicants – being part of a strong field is unbeatable CPD (especially if you get the job).
Step 4: You can only be you
Recruitment is a two-way process so during any leadership interview make sure you interview the school too. Not many of us show up to interviews relaxed and unguarded, but it’s important to really be yourself throughout the process – and if it’s not the right fit it’s far better to find out on interview than a term into the post. The more you know about the culture and ethos of the school prior to application the easier it will be to gauge. Some questions to consider: how is the school led? To what extent are staff consulted in the strategic vision of the school? What steps does the school take to mitigate against staff workload? Make sure the values of the school resonate with your own to enable you to lead authentically if appointed (and dodge a bullet if not).
Step 5: Consistency is key
Leadership interviews are designed to assess a range of competencies – from in-tray activities to delivering a lesson or assembly, a sound strategy is to aim for consistency across a range of competencies, rather than absolutely nailing a few. That isn’t to say that you should seek to conceal your strengths, but rather on demonstrating that you’re not just your strengths – and that your overall practice is secure in a range of areas. So when you’re preparing for interview tasks, ensure that you allocate equal preparation time for all, rather than the ones in which you know you will naturally shine.
Step 6: (Net)work it!
My first teaching interview was in as school where I had taught on placement, I was mad keen and didn’t hide it. I didn’t get the job but the head mentioned me to someone else and before I knew it I was gainfully employed. Similarly, some years later the successful candidate and I would both attend the same Subject Leaders’ meetings when we were both subject leaders in our respective school. All of which would have been tres awkward had we not been supportive of each other throughout the day. It goes without saying that teaching is a small world and the very least you can expect from a promotional interview is the opportunity to network and connect with colleagues – which can be a long-term benefit regardless of the outcome on the day. In the era of multi-academy trusts, this has never been more true – you never know where the impression you make will lead.
Step 7: Question Time
Interviews are ace opportunities to fact-find – not just about the school, but about the role, leadership and CPD. So in and amongst the process keep and open mind about any processes or initiatives you can take back to your own school/ trust/ practice. Similarly go into the process armed with questions and ask them of the different stake holders you speak with throughout the day – it can be particularly helpful to ask the same question of teaching staff/ students and school leaders in order to ascertain perception from a range of stakeholders across the school – you can then use these responses to support your answers in the formal interview. For example “When I asked students about the role of rewards in school, they struggled to articulate how this supports some behaviour for learning – so this is something I would take into account if appointed.”
Step 8: Take note!
Something I have done for every job have ever applied for is to create a mind map of every previous role I have ever held and how I think this has prepared me for the desired post. Together with an annotated copy of my letter of application, I take this with me on the day and read it through in the inevitable down time between tasks. I would also suggest taking this in to the formal interview as an aide memoir. Though I was once ridiculed by another candidate (who was unsuccessful I hasten to add) this has always served me well in order to ensure that my answers reflect the breadth of my experience.
Overall, my final thoughts mirror my advice to my divorced friends – put yourself out there because you never know where that may lead. Good luck!
