It is that time of year again. You can feel the nervous energy of jobs season approaching, as our beginning teachers start to look beyond the safety of their placement schools and towards their first permanent posts.
Previously, I’ve spoken about the ‘Krypton Factor’ nature of modern teaching interviews. While the lesson, in-tray tasks and student panels are the interview-day elements that most often create anxiety amongst candidates preparing for interview, it is often the formal interview where they trip up; pouring all their energy into planning for the lesson, they forget to seriously prepare for the face-to-face interview.
In my experience, failing to bridge the gap between theory and practice with concrete examples is the most common reason candidates are given for being unsuccessful at interview (that’s if they’re lucky enough to receive feedback at all). So how can this be remedied?
Avoid the vague and inauthentic ‘professional language’ trap
When the adrenaline hits, it is tempting to reach for the safest, most “teacher-y” sounding words in your vocabulary. However, a candidate who can talk at length about assessment, positive environments and pedagogical approaches, yet fails to say anything meaningful about what this looks like in the practice of their classroom, doesn’t instil confidence. It’s not that using teaching language is wrong, it’s just that without evidence these words are hollow. An interview panel—usually including a harried Head of Department and a member of SLT squeezing in interviews among their already busy day —isn’t looking for a dictionary definition of a pedagogical term; they are looking for a teacher who has reflected on the impact of those strategies on real children in a real classroom.
If you find yourself saying, “I always ensure I support all learners through scaffolding,” without being able to describe the specific writing frame you built for a Year 8 student struggling with the concept of ‘causation’ in the English Civil War, you have fallen into the trap.
Instead, adopt the power of the specific example
To move from being viewed as a good candidate to being the chosen candidate, you must bridge the gap between theory and the messy reality of the classroom. Let’s look at some examples
1. The Behaviour Question
Question: “How do you ensure a productive learning environment for all pupils?”
- The Generic Answer:“I believe in being firm but fair. I follow the school’s behaviour policy consistently and make sure I use positive praise to keep students motivated. I try to plan engaging lessons so that students don’t want to misbehave in the first place.”
- Inside the interviewer’s mind: This is a series of statements the candidate has been trained to say to show they know the unwritten rules of professionalism, but do they actually know how to manage a classroom?
- The Specific Answer: “For me, a productive learning environment starts with the clarity of the enquiry and pupils understanding the purpose of the lesson. But that is not always enough. For example, when teaching a recent enquiry on the Reformation to my challenging Year 8 group, I found that behaviour dipped during transitions into independent writing. I realised my instructions were too abstract. I adapted by modelling using the visualiser first. By showing them exactly how to structure the answer before moving back to independent practice, I removed the barriers to getting started with the task and it meant I then had space to support pupils who needed a bit of extra help. I always follow the school’s sanction system, but my objective is to try to and support children, so they have the best chance of engaging with the learning and activities we are completing the first time, so we don’t need to get to that stage.”
2. The Subject Knowledge Question
Question: “How do you stay up to date with your subject knowledge, and how does this influence your teaching?”
- The Generic Answer:“I love history and I’m always reading. I listen to podcasts and keep up with new books so that I can bring interesting facts into my lessons. It’s important to show the students that I am passionate about the subject, so they enjoy their GCSEs, for example.”
- Inside the interviewer’s mind: This suggests they see history is a collection of facts rather than a developing disciplinary conversation. Do they understand the need to engage in scholarship to develop curriculum over time?
- Specific Answer: “I’ve recently been reading Toby Green’s ‘A Fistful of Shells,’ which really influenced how I thought about the Year 7 unit on Pre-colonial Africa which is taught in my Teaching Practice school. Green’s research allowed me to weave the complexity of the Kingdom of Kongo into our lessons on trade and power. This meant pupils moved away from seeing African history solely through the lens of the transatlantic slave trade and started to understand there was a history for African people before C16th, one that wasn’t framed in purely Western colonial terms. My Teaching Practice school has now adopted these lessons in their scheme which is something I’m proud of having contributed to the department. For me, my subject knowledge enhancement is about ensuring the substantive knowledge I’m giving pupils reflects current scholarship and an ongoing debate.
Show them who you are and what you do
Teachers are made through a process of trial, error, and deep, disciplinary reflection. In your next interview, don’t try so hard to convey a perfect, polished impression of yourself that you lose the very thing that reveals your capacity for growth and ongoing professional development. Instead, be the teacher who can talk about their mistakes, their pupils, and their love for the complexity of their subject and the opportunities that provides for ongoing intellectual engagement.
The panel isn’t looking for a finished product; they are looking for a colleague they can work with and who can do what they say in the classroom once their boots are on the ground. Make sure your preparation for interview includes thinking through those examples. It could be the difference between you getting the job or being pipped at the post.
Becoming a History Teacher 