A posts - secondary school

Hatch1989

There are a couple of A posts popping up on our school soon.

Wondering would anyone have any insight into the interviews?

Also I understand in the school I am in A posts are year head jobs primarily. However in another school I taught in the year head had many other responsibilities too. Is this common in most schools?

amacca

Theres supposed to be a staff review of posts of responsibility I think and the posts meet the needs of the school as agreed by staff (I'm aware things in reality dont always match that idyllic theory but thats the theory afaik)

That would mean that posts will probably vary somewhat from school to school...as I understand it some schools give some time off to fulfill the roles and some dont (voluntary schools) + other variances ...to some extent exactly what you do or dont do will depend on whatever school you find yourself in but I expect there would be broad similarities


I'm surprised there are posts coming up soon though as I was under the impression they have to be advertised in the school when it is in operation and that means when students are in? could be wrong here.

Random sample

There was a thread on this recently with lots of useful info, like questions and the domains etc. It may have been in the teaching online subforum.

Treppen

amacca wrote: »

Theres supposed to be a staff review of posts of responsibility I think and the posts meet the needs of the school as agreed by staff (I'm aware things in reality dont always match that idyllic theory but thats the theory afaik)

That would mean that posts will probably vary somewhat from school to school...as I understand it some schools give some time off to fulfill the roles and some dont (voluntary schools) + other variances ...to some extent exactly what you do or dont do will depend on whatever school you find yourself in but I expect there would be broad similarities


I'm surprised there are posts coming up soon though as I was under the impression they have to be advertised in the school when it is in operation and that means when students are in? could be wrong here.

From our experience
1. It must be advertised publicly in the school (notice board).
2. Advertised at least 2 weeks before interviews commence.
3. Any teacher on career break or sick leave must also be notified.
4. Advertised during school hours (this is when the students are actually in the school, not during mid term break or whatever).

But I presume the OP is talking about upcoming retirements or people stepping down next year.

From my experience if you were in the running you'd be able to have a quiet word with one of the current APs about what they ask in interviews (or more importantly what answers they want to hear).

For an AP1 it was standard practice to have the Leardership and Management Postgrad done (or in the process of doing). In saying that don't expect to get the post just because the competition mightn't have qualifications, if they want you then they'll get you.

• Can you describe a time when you acted in a leadership capacity and got Teachers or Students to get on-board with any initiative?
• Promoted the school outside the school walls.
• Promoted the ethos, or how would you promote the ethos.
• Solved/dealt with a difficult situation.
• Any new policies which impact schools on a MACRO level and not just within the classroom subject (LAOS, SSE , SEN).
• What the school needs to focus on for the future. This is to test if you were awake at all those very very important staff meetings that could have been an email, especially when the Principal was talking.

If you have a few weeks before you get back then any time you meet the principal or deputy principal assume you are being interviewed in every conversation, enough of the chit chat about the weather and your lovely children:pac:, try and swing the conversation around to school matters or some good news about some student group of yours. Depends on the principal though.

When all of that is done, just remember you might be financially better off and happier delivering pizzas for a couple of hours a week or giving grinds. Although for mortgages the banks would take your AP pay into account.

Bobtheman

Try not to be scheduled first. That way you might ask others for tricky questions that were asked.

Personally I think with A posts the principal knows who he or she wants. Not going to give it to someone he or she doesn't think up to it even if they levitate during the interview.

I have seen it happen many a time. Thus we get bland year heads mostly.

am_zarathustra

I think interviews are usually in alphabetical order, interestingly only one person who went before me gave me a heads up on questions. They'd be a solid team player though.

Above questions are solid start and would cover 90% of what I've been asked. Practice your answers using the LoS document language, you don't need to stick to it but it's a tick the box excercise too. Make sure you have two things in for each of the 4 domains, you are marked equally in each section so you need to hit each section at least a couple of times. Get your scores after, one area could be your issue and this can be addressed.