A Post Interviews

MrJones1973

Has anybody done one last year or so? Applying and I'm not the most senior candidate. Any advice? Typical questions? Application is one page document.
How much extra should I provide? (documents)

Year head Position (first Year)

Im early 40s..just in case some think Im a whipper snapper!

MrJones1973

Jeez-anybody help ?

Dave0301

I am a year head, albeit in England, but expect questions about pastoral issues and dealing with parents.

Also have a think about what initiatives you would introduce. Expect a question on safeguarding also, and make sure that you know the school's policy on this.

Any other questions, just ask.

evolving_doors

Dunno myself but from talking to others it's usually:

• Promoting Ethos.
• Child Protection (1st yr head is a pastoral role as well as academic). Student absenteeism. Social Media problems.
• Further Education CPD. If you havn't done any then are you going to do some (find some course that would benefit this role!)
• Being pro-active and organising events for the 1st yr group, team building stuff. identifying and dealing with students/parents with SEN. Experiences of dealing with parents (what you've learned with that).
• Teaching issues students/parents may have with your colleagues and how you would deal criticisms of them (would you tell the colleague that you had a lynch mob of parents who want them removed from teaching their sons/daughters, what if you had a chunk of students who wanted to have Mr. X as their teacher as opposed to Mr. Y).
• How you deal with meetings.
• Also take a look at your competition, generally a principal isn't going to want people on their team who have been constant critics of the school and management so don't assume seniority will win the day.

Is that any help?

2011abc

Gebgbegb wrote: »

[*]Also take a look at your competition, generally a principal isn't going to want people on their team who have been constant critics of the school and management so don't assume seniority will win the day.
[/LIST]

That's pretty much all you need to know .'Yes (Wo)men ' and those who keep quiet while other staff stand up to bullies all the way .

evolving_doors

2011abc wrote: »

That's pretty much all you need to know .'Yes (Wo)men ' and those who keep quiet while other staff stand up to bullies all the way .

Well, I think it cuts both ways, I'm sure we all have colleagues that criticise everything that management do and spread that air of mis-content to others. in a way this is a form of bullying too by undermining someone often without cause. I suppose it depends on the circumstances.

If I were principal I'd try and surround myself with people I could confide in if necessary. AP is a management position afterall.

2011abc

'Air of miscontent ' , sure the NQT who has had her hours slashed to an unsustainable level of income so that the principal's child can slot in should just put up and shut up ,right ?

MrJones1973

I think if you work hard enough then a decent Principal can absorb criticism but if all you do is moan and take part in nothing then you aint going to progress promotion wise.

fall

They followed the format of my application form so asked things like knowledge and understanding of the job so eg what would you see as your role, how would you see your realationship with the Principal, capacity to do the job ( so examples of leadership and roles that you have undertaken) and there was one more section that I can't think of right now. They threw in a couple of what would you do in this scenario or a difficult situation and how you dealt with it.

man_no_plan

Mrwhite1970 wrote: »

Jeez-anybody help ?

I'd have a look at the schedule of posts and have a look at potential duties - think about what you'd like to do if you got the post. One part of it is prob year head? But there's probably another bit that has some flexibility to suit the successful person.

If there's something not working I wouldn't be afraid to talk about it at the interview, without slating anyone, but you'd want to have ideas about how to improve it. As was said before you don't want a constant moaner but you do need people to say it as it is in a constructive way.

MrJones1973

Gebgbegb wrote: »

Dunno myself but from talking to others it's usually:

• Promoting Ethos.
• Child Protection (1st yr head is a pastoral role as well as academic). Student absenteeism. Social Media problems.
• Further Education CPD. If you havn't done any then are you going to do some (find some course that would benefit this role!)
• Being pro-active and organising events for the 1st yr group, team building stuff. identifying and dealing with students/parents with SEN. Experiences of dealing with parents (what you've learned with that).
• Teaching issues students/parents may have with your colleagues and how you would deal criticisms of them (would you tell the colleague that you had a lynch mob of parents who want them removed from teaching their sons/daughters, what if you had a chunk of students who wanted to have Mr. X as their teacher as opposed to Mr. Y).
• How you deal with meetings.
• Also take a look at your competition, generally a principal isn't going to want people on their team who have been constant critics of the school and management so don't assume seniority will win the day.

Is that any help?

Great help!

ethical

Its great to see someone applying for an 'A' post that is free from 'politics' as seems to be the case here.
What message does it send out to senior management if very few teachers apply for a post due to the amount of work that will be 'lumped' on them once successful.I note one contributor here said the post may have 'Year Head' and some other job attached to suit the new Post Holder's skill set.I wholeheartedly agree with this but wonder why an acquaintance from another part of the country tells me that in her school there is quite a lengthy list of 'jobs' added to the Post which is putting people off applying albeit except the one teacher that is on a promise from the Board! There are a few posts seemingly on offer and its not doing anything for staff morale the in-fighting that is taking place.This school would not be adverse to 'strange ' carry on' in the past!

evolving_doors

ethical wrote: »

Its great to see someone applying for an 'A' post that is free from 'politics' as seems to be the case here.
What message does it send out to senior management if very few teachers apply for a post due to the amount of work that will be 'lumped' on them once successful.I note one contributor here said the post may have 'Year Head' and some other job attached to suit the new Post Holder's skill set.I wholeheartedly agree with this but wonder why an acquaintance from another part of the country tells me that in her school there is quite a lengthy list of 'jobs' added to the Post which is putting people off applying albeit except the one teacher that is on a promise from the Board! There are a few posts seemingly on offer and its not doing anything for staff morale the in-fighting that is taking place.This school would not be adverse to 'strange ' carry on' in the past!

In fairness though, once the T&C's of the job are laid out then it's a case of buyer beware. Are you still 'just a teacher' when you take on an AP role? (I don't think so).
What needs to happen is that people simply don't apply for the jobs, until then, when you have teacher's willing to break their back for free and take on many extra rolls (and NQT's being assigned unpaid work "that would look good on their CV!") then nothing will change, there'll always be backstabbing/front-stabbing it's like house of cards.

I wonder if those who are involved in 'infighting' have already made their rods to beat themselves by 'expecting' jobs due to seniority or 'assurances given' years previously. Let em off with the infighting. If you're after the money you'd be better off giving grinds in the evening or taking on summer work of some kind. If you want to help the school then take up an Extra curricular or organise some charity events etc. If you want career progression in teaching then you'll need a lot of help from above and below (in terms of mentoring and colleague 'buy in' etc.).

To be straight, I think it's not a problem 'caused' by management so I hope this doesn;t turn into a management bashing exercise, they need the AP duties to be done, simple as. Sure, a lot of tough political promises have to be made along the way to keep the show on the road.

Ethical has hit the nail on the head above, there are simply too few posts on offer.

Another thing I find really problematic is the 'Head of Dept.' title. I know one school where there is only one teacher in the subject who gets the B Post allowance for Head of Dept. but someone who is head of dept with 6 teachers gets nothing. Although I think these are gradually being phased out.

Maybe if the AP posts had a time limit of 7 yrs and then the person is required to step down for a year or two and it was rotated, then at least it would create an expectation that everyone could have a crack at the whip and then a bit more mentoring and helping out would go on. Rather than it being the preserve of a chosen few until they retire/die/have a breakdown!

ethical

As a general query what do people think is a fair workload/list of tasks for an A post holder?

man_no_plan

ethical wrote: »

As a general query what do people think is a fair workload/list of tasks for an A post holder?

In fairness every school is different, a year head in one school would be quite different to another. Ict coordinator might be a handy one in one school and a nightmare in another.

If you're getting 8.5k a year you'd want to be doing a fair bit of extra work Imo and extra again if you have a timetable reduction.

Some people find certain tasks easy and do them effortlessly, others might struggle to get on top of them, it depends on the person.

There's a real need for some cpd around posts and the work involved, looking at a year head doing their job is much harder than doing it yourself. Its hard to just pick up a job and be good at it from the start too and there's no support structure to develop people in their roles or foe new roles.

fall

It doesn't work out as a massive remuneration after deductions especially in terms of work load, for exampleif if you take over being a head to hundreds of students, which is a massive increase in responsibility and administration work. I think there is a lack of consistency in the workloads that are assigned from school to school. I would love to hear what goes on in different school for comparisons sake.

man_no_plan

fall wrote: »

It doesn't work out as a massive remuneration after deductions especially in terms of work load, for exampleif if you take over being a head to hundreds of students, which is a massive increase in responsibility and administration work. I think there is a lack of consistency in the workloads that are assigned from school to school. I would love to hear what goes on in different school for comparisons sake.

Yeah but even if you're on top of the scale its upwards of a 10% increase in pay, its not insignificant.

2011abc

Removing posts and having much of work done for free by unpaid temp teachers scrabbling for CIDs is part of divide and conquer strategies working in fine style for govt .

annamarie2013

Can anyone give a description of the kind of duties people are doing? In some schools it seems to be predominantly Year Head duties?

ethical

With the 'new breed'of inexperienced Principals out there there is a quite longish list to the duties of 'A' Post holder! The word is 'DELEGATE EVERYTHING' as I have heard from a few teachers over the break.Its sad really that its come to this.Young teachers are more than willing to put their names forward for A posts as its is the only way they have of getting some balance back on the payscale due to the downgrading of the profession over the last 10 years and the governments cutting of pay scales.Gone are the days you got paid €000000 for watering the Brothers or the Nuns garden!!!!!

man_no_plan

ethical wrote: »

With the 'new breed'of inexperienced Principals out there there is a quite longish list to the duties of 'A' Post holder!

It's hardly the fault of the principal that posts have been cut from the system. Every principal was inexperienced at some point, that's a poor excuse for what has happened to the post structure and it doesn't help one bit to take that line imo.

ethical wrote: »

Gone are the days you got paid €000000 for watering the Brothers or the Nuns garden!!!!!

And then we wonder why the DES say the old post system needs to be changed. We need to get real. I remember a lady in my school having a post to 'organise staff social activities', it's important but it's not a post important when you have no new posts coming on stream.

man_no_plan

annamarie2013 wrote: »

Can anyone give a description of the kind of duties people are doing? In some schools it seems to be predominantly Year Head duties?

It would vary from school to school and depend on school size. It would be hard to imagine a new A post not being a year head role plus another aspect imo.

I know of an amalgamated school where there are double the posts in a normal school so all A posts are not year heads. In other schools you get no new posts unless there's a rise in numbers or a retirement so there is no excess.