BenTapestrySupport

You're sitting there. Waiting for your time to come. Your moment to shine. You’ve probably walked around the school (and if so, make sure you've used this time to speak to the teachers and children to find out more about what the school is really like!) and now it's time to have your ‘chat’. As easy as it is for me to say this, try not to let yourself get too nervous. See it as a chat with someone about why you want to be a teacher at that school. Let your passion show and have faith in yourself. Normally, the interview panel (it could be the Head teacher and a governor, or even some children) will ask you some questions about yourself, your teaching experience and your approach to certain aspects of education. If you have done a lesson observation, there will almost certainly be reference to this, so be prepared. Don’t be too harsh on yourself here – remember this is your time to sell yourself. Having something to talk about during the interview, such as what the children achieved or what the adults did, helps keep you in control of the chat. It means that you can talk for longer about what you want, and while the panel will have their questions to ask you, anything you can do to keep in control will help. It is okay to take time to think about your answer. Acknowledge the question and then answer it when you’re ready - within reason! If you don’t know the answer, try not to waffle your way through it. It is better to say that you’re not sure but that you think such and such, or that you will find out, than to say something that you may regret afterwards. Your interviewers will know that you're an NQT and they won't expect you to have a pile of knowledge and experience at your finger tips. Part of your preparation may be to bring in a portfolio of work. I remember when I was training, some of the more artistic people on the course spent days creating these amazing portfolios, but I wasn’t artistic and worried that my paper folder with a few pieces of work that I was going to talk about wasn’t enough. But I shouldn't have worried. For that first interview I had been asked to bring in some work that showed progression of teaching, so I selected some pieces from a child over a period of time and photocopied them to give out at the interview. I used these as a reference while I talked about how I had helped the child make this progress. It was simple yet effective. I wasn’t spending time trying to find the right page – it was all there in front of everyone, and I knew exactly how I had achieved this progress with the child, so I could talk about it with confidence. The interview will usually end with you having the opportunity to ask a question. This is a great time to ask about something that you have seen while visiting the school or when walking around before the interview. If you haven’t had the opportunity to do this, you could ask about extra-curricular activities that go on at the school, which gives you the opportunity to share what extra things you could bring to the team. After the interview, you wait some more. Make sure you keep your phone nearby and on loud, so you don’t miss the call. If it’s bad news, ask for feedback so that next time you know what you can work on. Hopefully it will be good news, and you’ll be on your way to a fulfilling career as a teacher! Good luck!

I remember very clearly when I had to start applying for my first teaching job. I was in my final placement school and 2 jobs came up. There were 3 student teachers in the school at the time, and we were all interested in working there – it was a great school, with a wonderful staff team. The 3 of us felt we all had a chance – we were there teaching every day and they knew us better than anyone else! Part of the application process is the covering letter. We sent ours in, and all 3 of us got no further! Maybe it was because they didn’t like our teaching style, but we knew we were doing well in our placement, so we doubted it was that. I went to speak to the Headteacher, who showed me the pile of letters he’d received. To my surprise, the pile he was pointing at was the ‘thank you, but sorry’ pile. The pile next to it (which was equally as big) was the ‘consider’ pile. He explained the the difference between the two. The pile our letters were in was full of people who were training to be teachers or those who were looking for a new school to teach at. Everyone in the pile was going to have a teaching qualification. Everyone in that pile could teach a lesson. Everyone in that pile was keen to work at his school. And no one in that pile stood out. So what got you into the 'consider' pile? Everyone there also had a teaching qualification, could teach a lesson and was keen to work at his school. The difference was that they all brought something else they could offer the school. Some were singers, some were gardeners, some were able to speak another language fluently. Not only did they have these skills – they mentioned them in context in their letters. The singers wrote about running after school choir, the gardeners wrote about creating an allotment for the children to grow their own food in, and those with another language wrote about building links with schools in other countries. This was years before the ‘Cultural Capital’ buzz word was even thought of, but this was exactly what these applicants were offering: creating and expanding experiences for children in the school. This was why they made the ‘consider’ pile. Think about what you can offer a school that will make you stand out, and write about that in your application letter. We all have something unique to bring to the table, however small it may seem to us. If you’ve visited the school you're applying to, make sure you mention something you remember from your visit. If you haven’t had a chance to visit, let them know you’ve explored their website by talking about something you liked on it. A generic letter can be spotted a mile off, so try to make sure you’ve added some personal bits about the school, even if the bulk of the letter is the same for different job applications. Before sending your letter, make sure it has no spelling mistakes, especially the school or Head teacher’s name! After that, print it, send it, and wait for the call inviting you to an interview!

You’ve spent your weekends and evenings cutting things out, collecting things, making things. The children are now using these resources in the setting. But not in the way you thought they would use them… What do you do next? This is the perfect opportunity for you to step back and observe. When observing, try to make notes for everything you see and hear. Nothing is insignificant at this point. These notes will help you later on when you’re reflecting, assessing and planning the next steps. If helpful, take photos and videos, or record the child’s voice. Whether you get involved is up to you. There may be a moment to 'steer' the children’s learning so that it doesn’t remain “comfortable” for them, and so you lean into their learning a little. It is important to realise though that just by being there, you may affect the behaviour and choices the children make. Children will often do what they feel is safe, even if they look like they’re really engaged, which they may well be. But without modelling from someone else, they may never move on. Ask questions that get them to think. Ask questions that get them to try another way. Once you have made your observation, you can reflect on what you have seen and heard. Was there anything that the children/child said or did that stood out? Make notes about these thoughts, remembering that the observation doesn’t have to make sense to others – they are there to help you make your judgement and provide evidence to back up your thoughts. If you use an online journal like Tapestry, you can frequently share a picture with the family, with or without a little bit of text, and you can then make observations of significant moments with more notes for yourself and your team. The next step for you is to assess what the child has shown you about their learning. Do you have to do this for every observation? Again, this is completely up to you, but unless you have observed something new, and you feel that you need more evidence for an area, ask yourself whether assessing it the best use of your time? When you are assessing an observation, think about ALL the areas it covers. If the child was at the sand tray, making a sand castle and decorating it with shells, whilst sharing things with other children, or not getting upset if it collapses, there are so many different things you can assess – PSED, CL, MH, EAD – all from one observation. Finally, you need to think about what you can do to help move the child on from where they are. What are the next steps? Look at Development Matters and see what kind of things the child needs to be doing to be secure in the age band that they’re working in, or if they are already there, what do they need to be doing to move on to the next age band? It is important to remember that Development Matters only contains suggestions as to what the child may be doing – it is not a tick list that needs to completed. Use your professional judgement to place the child in the age band and refinement you think they are most realistically working at. Can you talk confidently about your judgements with your team and other practitioners? Remember, you don't need reams of evidence. The observations provide a useful reference for you, prompts in conversations about a child, points of comparison to show their individual journey. Children benefit more from your carefully chosen interventions, questioning and discussions, the sustained shared thinking you do with them, the time you spend with them, more than the number of observations you have on them.