Six interview questions to prepare for as a teacher in the UK

Interviewing with a potential employer is something very few relish. In my years as an Education Consultant, I have found that all of my candidates experience some degree of nerves in the lead up to interviews. This is particularly true for Newly Qualified Teachers or teachers who have recently relocated to the UK.

Moving over to the UK for work can bring its own set of challenges. Added to this is getting your head around differences in the UK education sector – from terminology, curriculum to behaviour management.

I always encourage candidates to research the school beforehand. As an Education Consultant, I have good relationships with the schools and can guide your through their expectations and dynamics. The next thing I am asked is “what are they going to ask me?”

Although I cannot guarantee what will come up in an interview, I do know that there are common questions that are likely to be asked. I will also take you through the best ways to tackle them to help keep you one step ahead.

Question 1

What teaching skills would you say you have? How would you describe your teaching style?

What is the school looking for?

Your strengths are straightforward, but it can be one that candidates are not always prepared for. Think about your teaching skills that are most desirable. Are you someone who has strong behavioural management and can gain the respect from the most difficult students? Are you creative in your ability to engage students who have different paces of learning and how you outline clear success criteria? Elaborate on how you did this and what the outcome was.

Question 2

Has there been a time when you felt you there was something that you needed improve on?

What is the school looking for?

When you are being asked about how you can improve yourself, the school is seeing if you have ability to self-reflect and make positive changes.

A great way to do this is using the STAR method (situation, task, action and result). Talk about the challenge and what changes you made. In addition, what was the pupil progress was as a result of your actions.

Question 3

How would you ensure the students in your class make the best possible progress and how do you know that learning is happening?

What is the school looking for?

Demonstrate here you have an understanding of the national curriculum. Some examples that you might want to draw on are times when you created time specific tasks with clear goals and expected outcomes. How did you break down what you wanted to achieve and plan around it?

To show progress of the class, refer to success criteria. How did the students demonstrate that this was met? Did you test new information rather than only prior knowledge?

Progress against starting points is now incredibly important. It is a key measure of a school’s performance so they will want to see examples of how you have achieved this.

Question 4

How would you ensure that the children are being kept safe and how would you react if you suspect there might be a safeguarding issue with one of your children?

What is the school looking for?

The school is testing your knowledge and experience on safeguarding. In your examples, cover safeguarding best practices such as: awareness of the child protection policy and designated person in charge; techniques to ensure you are not ‘interrogating’ a child, note-taking that is signed and dated, not telling a child that you will keep a secret and passing your concerns to the designated teacher for Child Protection.

Question 5

How do you deal with disruptive behaviour?

What is the school looking for?

The interviewers are trying to find out your resilience and problem solving abilities. Are you quick to establish the school’s policy on behaviour?

Also find examples of times when you sought advice from a previous class teacher if the child displayed similar behaviour. Did you engage with parents, consult senior teachers and asked for help when needed?

At a classroom level, think about how you have managed the situation in the past? Did you make clear to children what expectations are on behaviour? Were you consistent? Did you remain fair and refrained from becoming angry?

Question 6

How would you fully utilise the help you have in the classroom? (Teaching Assistants)

What is the school looking for?

The school wants to make sure if they invest in support staff to provide extra assistance, you are able to give them appropriate guidance. Have you worked in a situation when you considered the Teaching Assistant’s (TA) skills, experience and empathy in order to assign them to the right task?

Do you have vulnerable children in the class that you did not use the TA for because they did not have relevant experience? Did you give the TA clear targets and make sure they kept records?

Teaching Assistants and support staff are commonplace in UK classrooms, whether this be to work one-on-one with students or to provide general support, so it is important that you are aware of ways to work with them.

If you have not had experience in these areas, be honest and let the interviewer know how you would respond if the situation arises.

Being well prepared is the key. I have found that candidates who are most prepared ahead of time are the ones who leave their interview with a sense of satisfaction – if not for a job offer, they know that they have invested in their own professional development.

If you have any questions that I have not covered, please do get in touch. I am more than happy to help.

I manage staffing needs for South East schools of London for Australian, New Zealand, Canadian and UK trained teachers and support staff. If you are looking for your next teaching role or looking for educators in your school, contact me on alex.m@anzuk.education.