Interview Skills:

Making a good impression in your teaching interview

Your interview is an opportunity to reflect upon your trial lesson and provide hard evidence of your
teaching experience. Here are some tips to help you make a good impression:
Presenting yourself

Be warm, friendly, exude confidence and make eye contact.

Direct each answer primarily to the interviewer who questioned you, but involve the other
interviewers by looking and smiling at them as you speak.
Make sure your responses are pupil-centric. Show an acute awareness that their wellbeing and
attainment are your priorities as a teacher.

Reflecting upon your trial lesson

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your trial lesson. If something didnt go to plan, explain
why and reflect upon how it could have been more successful. If something went well, explain what
impact it may have had on the student or whole class.

Providing evidence of experience

Respond to questions by giving specific examples and providing solid evidence of what youve
achieved. Have you taken along any student work from your trial lesson? Use it to demonstrate how
you can lead students towards successful outcomes.
Give solid evidence of your main achievements. Its no good saying, all my students have made
progress. How much progress? What impact have you had and how have you measured it? If 100%
of your Set 1 Maths class has made 4 levels of progress, be specific in stating that and illustrate how
it impacted on the overall success of your department.
Buzz words are no good alone. Its great to know that you understand Blooms Taxonimy, but how
do you incorporate it into your practice? How do you embed it into tasks to engage your Set 4 ASC
English students? How does it stretch and challenge your A-Level Physics students?

Be prepared for questions

Your interviewer is likely to gauge how switched on you are to SMSC issues. In advance, think of how
you try to engage different students and make your subject matter relevant to them. For example,
if you are a Physics teacher, you may wish to consider how you would engage KS3 girls in order to
boost the number of girls taking A-Level physics in future years. If you are teaching a Shakespeare
play, which aspects of it would you draw out to engage disaffected Year 10 boys? Remember to have
tangible examples ready.
What gaps do you have in your subject knowledge? What are the hot topics in your subject at the
moment? For example, embedding Literacy and Numeracy into every lesson is integral to meeting
Ofsted standards. What strategies do you have for making that process seamless and purposeful?

Making a lasting impression

To finish, ask questions about school policies, your prospective department, the students or anything
else that interests you about the school or position. Reading the schools most recent Ofsted report
in advance will enable you to ask purposeful, informed questions to show that you are engaged and
switched on to current educational issues.
When the interview comes to a close, shake hands with each interviewer, smile and thank them for
their time.
Good luck!

M Glynn
22/10/2014

Interview Skills:
Making a good impression in your teaching interview

Here are some possible questions that may come up and how to answer them:
The role of a teacher

why youre a teacher

what the job consists of
what satisfies you about the job
safeguarding
pastoral

Teaching&learning

ensuring progress
engagement of different groups/genders/ages
specialist areas (e.g. biology, A-level, relevant exam specs, teaching to A*)
differentiation up and down

Communication and management of situations

relationships with colleagues and parents

behaviour management, expectations, inclusion, resolution

The school

what theyre about

why you want to work there
ethos

Experience, skills and personality

what you can bring

your ethos
examples, examples, examples

An effective formula for delivering examples is:

Situation, Action, Result
E.g.
Situation: My Year 10 DT class were working way below their target grade at the start of the year.
Action: I analysed their data thoroughly, gave them grade descriptors and made sure we did regular peerassessment. I gave feedback on that self-assessment each week and made time for students to act on
and respond to that. I quickly saw a vast improvement in attainment across the class.
Result: At the end of the year, there was a significant rise in grades across the class. Not only that but the
class levels of independence developed significantly and that contributed positively towards their
revision skill.

M Glynn
22/10/2014