When interviewing a candidate, you want to ensure the person you are interviewing is the right fit for your school or Trust, that your values align, and they have the skills to fulfil the role.
The most effective way to assess a candidate is to get to know more about them and their potential as a teacher. It is sensible to have a list of common questions that will help guide you to finding the right person for the job.
You are looking for the best person with the appropriate qualifications and experience who is most suitable for the position. So, asking interview questions that are specific to your school and job role, combined with questions to ascertain a better understanding of what type of work makes the candidate feel fulfilled, will help the recruitment process.
Find below our top 10 suggested questions to help ensure you get the best results during your interview process:
- Why teaching?
You want to quickly gain a good understanding of what motivates and drives their passion for teaching. A good candidate will articulate why teaching is their first choice. They will also have a good understanding of why meeting the needs of learners is important to ensure each child receives the best possible support and education while in school.
2. What career achievement makes you most proud?
You are looking for someone who can do the job, but you also want a person who takes pride in their work. A career highlight will help you understand whether what fulfils the candidate aligns with what you are looking for to fulfil the role.
3. Tell me something about yourself that isn’t on your application that makes you the best candidate for this teaching role?
Job application forms provide a summary of the candidate’s professional experience but asking this question lets the interviewee choose what information they want to share with you that relates to the specific position for which they’ve applied. What in their opinion will help you better understand them? This might be volunteer work, travel, or a great life experience. You will gain more knowledge about them, and it will help you to work out if they are a creative thinker and if they have the right attributes outlined in your specification such as strong organisational skills, enthusiasm and passion to teach your learners, in short, are they the right fit for your school?
4. Why do you want to work at our school?
The right candidate will be prepared for this question as it is often the first question schools, and most employers ask. They should talk specifically about their particular interest and should have a good comprehension of your ethos, values, demographics, educational goals, aims and objectives, initiatives, or extracurricular activities. Have they done the research?!
5. How will you manage challenges?
Is the candidate aware of the challenges of preparing lessons and managing teacher workloads? How have they handled challenging behaviour in the classroom? Do they have experience in successfully managing a difficult situation?
6. What are the core skills and qualities our pupils look for in a teacher?
Does the candidate have a good understanding of what you, your school and your pupils expect from a teacher?
7. What qualities do you have that make you a great teacher?
Enthusiasm, stamina, drive, subject knowledge, empathy, respect, pupil encouragement; you’re looking for the right fit for the role and the value this candidate could bring to your school.
8. How do you see your role in keeping children safe? Tell us how you have dealt with any safeguarding, personal or equal opportunity issues?
Are they aware of your safeguarding policy, do they understand the issues that may be presented and what would be their approach?
9. What would our school be missing out on if we didn’t appoint you?
What are they bringing to the role?
10. Is there anything we haven’t mentioned that you would like to discuss?
Are they interested in personal development and future opportunities to progress within your school? Are they considering a career path, do they have a long-term vision to stay at your school once appointed?
We are specialists in education HR, and we therefore understand the difficult pain points and laborious undertaking of recruitment and retention in the education sector. If you need help with leadership recruitment in your school or multi academy trust, please get in touch.
We also provide accredited safer recruitment training and refresher training specifically for the education sector (accredited by the Lucy Faithful Foundation).
Did you know you can automate your whole recruitment process with FACE-Ed, find out why schools like yours are using FACE-Ed to help them find the face that fits: https://www.face-ed.co.uk/why-face-ed/
