Category: about me

This weekend I spent Saturday pretending to be a zookeeper and it was brilliant! For my birthday in February Jonny bought me a zookeeper experience. With lots of weddings and a series of very busy weekends it meant I only cashed in my gift recently! Definitely better late than never though!

I got to spend my Saturday doing all the usual zookeeper duties. There was a token ‘clean out the lemur hut’ section but the majority of the day was spent feeding the animals and getting to climb into their enclosures with them!

This basically made my life; I’m constantly the adult at the zoo trying to stroke the animals/encourage them out of their enclosures. So having permission to be in their space was great!

I loved every minute of it, and would love to do it all again. My favourite animals were the cheeky little brown lemurs and ring-tailed lemurs, they definitely had funny little personalities.

Having trained as a teacher in 2009 I’ve been to my share of teaching interviews, and managed to get myself a range of great teaching jobs as a result.

First of all, if you’re shortlisted for interview you’ve clearly made an excellent application and the school want to hear more about you. Play to your strengths; they already think there’s something special about you, all you have to do is prove that to them!

Here are my 5 tips for how best to prepare for a teaching interview:

1.  Use the person specification/job description

Read through your application letter again. Make note of the way you sold yourself, you don’t want to be caught out if questioned about something you said that you can’t recall!

Make sure you also read through the person specification/job description again. Making sure you are familiar with these will help you prepare answers about how best you fulfill these roles.

2. School website

Find out if the school has a website. If it does, visit it. Pay attention to any pages that tell you about how the school is organised, the way that the curriculum is approached and generally any information about the school.

Do your research; make sure you know as much as you can about the school and it’s values. Use this knowledge to help formulate answers about how you can support this ethos/develop it in the future.

2. Ofsted report

The next port of call for me is usually the Ofsted website. By reading the school’s most recent Ofsted report you can see where the school is at, and what targets they’re now working on. If you can how you’d help achieve these targets into an interview answer you’ll stand out as having really researched the school.

4. Note your strengths

Make a list of all your strengths, writing them down and re-reading the list helps keep them at the forefront of your mind, making them easier to recall when questioned about them!

Try to think of one weakness/area to improve on, it’s a common question that you’ll get asked. Phrase your weakness as something that the school can help you work on with continued professional development.

5. Dress smartly

Don’t roll up to the interview dressed as you would for day-to-day teaching. You need to make a good impression so smart is the way forward. Ladies, a suit or blazer over smart dress work well. For men, you can’t go wrong with a smart suit and tie.

Make sure that shoes are polished, clothes are ironed and hair and makeup are neat and understated (nobody wants to employ a teacher with goth-tastic eyeliner!) Similarly if you have visible tattoos, make sure they are covered for the interview.

 

Follow the steps above and keep calm. It’s OK to be nervous, I find focusing on my breathing, taking a few deep breaths really helps. (I can also vouch for these tips working; last Wednesday they helped me get a brand new teaching position at a local school!)

Most importantly, though, good luck!

So a few months back I completely swore off teaching; certain that it wasn’t the career for me. My family and friends, however, thought otherwise.

My mum, in particular never lost faith that I was a good teacher and that I shouldn’t give up on the career that I’d once loved. So, to placate her more than anything, I went to look round a local village school with a view to maybe applying for the job they’d advertised.

Once I got there, however, I was sold! The school was in a lovely location, the children seemed happy and eager to learn and the staff were more than friendly. I got a really good vibe from the place and really felt like I could fit into the team there.

The more I thought about it, the more that I started to want the teaching position; I was definitely qualified for the position, having previously taught a mixed-age class in a village school back in Yorkshire.

Source

So, after much self-motivation I completed the application form, sent it off and kept  my fingers crossed. A week later a letter arrived inviting me to interview.

I was interviewed last Wednesday by a panel of the head teacher and 3 governors and talked solidly for 45 minutes about why I felt I was the best candidate for the job.

At half past 5 that evening I got the call I’d been hoping for, I’d got the job! The feedback that the headteacher gave me was so lovely I almost cried, she told  me my positivity had been infectious, that my enthusiasm for teaching was obvious and that they’d really loved how my eyes shone when I told a story about a successful lesson I had taught.

Now I’m definitely excited to be heading back into teaching in January. I feel like my confidence is coming back, and that the terrible year I’d had at the last school was merely an experience leading me to here. I’m now looking forward to a new challenge, rather than dwelling on the bad experiences of the last one!