Interviews in schools - the worst of “we’ve always done it that way”
Anyone who has been for an interview or two for a school based post will know that the process is broken. Whether the role is for a member of support staff, a class teacher or one with leadership responsibilities, they almost all follow the same steps: Work with children; Answer some questions that have been found via a Google search the day before the interview process begins; Some in-tray task and a list of the worst things that could ever go wrong, all happening on one day for you to prioritise (more prominent if you’re going for a leadership role) Some other crazy task that you’ll never come across in your role. But what do we actually want from our successful candidate? I’d argue that the only one that’s remotely pertinent is working with children, although what can you actually get from a 20-30 minute observation of a ‘lesson’, especially now it’s widely agreed that one-off observations should not be used anywhere in school? It’s time for us to change and design inter...