The interview....

Okay, so on the TES forums there are load of threads about interview questions and it mainly boiled down to:
- Why would I make a good teacher?
- How has my own education helped me?
- What is my motivation to become a teacher?
- What contributions have I made/can I make in and out of the school environment?
- What makes a good or bad teacher?
- How would you deal with a child that is being bullied?
- What have you learned from your previous classroom experience?

So I practiced answers for these questions, making sure I thought about them regularly and, when I could, I would answer them aloud so that I was kind of reinforcing my memory by listening to the answers as well as thinking them.

I read up on current issues: Every child matters, phonics, mfl for primary.

For the starter I had to talk about 'maths starters for yr 2 pupils, focusing on mental and oral starters and talking about resources and ensuring they are appropriate for the age of the child'.
I made a fan with pictures of various shapes on, and blank clock face to use during the presentation. I decided to talk about why we use starters, how to differentiate during a starter and then give a couple of examples of starters which don't need resources and a couple which do. I also made a hand out with examples of possible starters to hand out afterwards.

The bit I was least worried about was working with the kids and reading them a story. I hadn't read a story in a class situation before, but had to groups of children at the toddler group I used to run, and a million times to my own sons. My youngest sat in front of me a few times and we pretended I was being teacher and he was a pretty tough crowd. That bit should go okay.

Then I worried and stressed and panicked about what to wear (brown cord skirt, brown top and knee high brown heeled boots - sensible, possibly boring, comfortable).

The day itself

I arrived three quarters of an hour early and sat in my car, going over questions in my head and read the kiddies book again. When I went in I was given a sheet to fill in (we had to bring various documents to prove who you were and passport photos for the CRB if you got through which I handed in then) and I was led through to a room where the 4 other candidates were.
I had brought my book (just a normal picture book), my shape fan and clock face, little cards as prompts during the presentation and my handouts.
The others had brought those giant reading books, great big number lines with beads that clack back and forth and all sorts. I felt very under equipped. They were all also TA's already, had borrowed equipment from school and had loads of experience in the classroom. Hmmm. It wasn't looking good.
Someone came in and gave us an over view of the day ahead which we all promptly forgot due to stress, then the other interviewers (4 in total) came in and introduced themselves.
We were left with the ICT, Maths, Science and written tests to fill in as the day went along and told we would be called up to read to the children.

The tests
The ICT one wasn't a test at all, more of a self audit, e.g. How well do you know Word/Excel/E-mail packages, and in what context?

The Science and Maths tests were at KS2 level, I guess. Science was respiration, food chains, solids, liquids etc.
The maths one involved knowing the difference between mean, mode, median and answering questions about it, reading a graph and something about weighting answers in a test which none of us seem to understand. I don't know how well I did with that one. I'm not great at maths.
The written test was a choice between two titles ('If only....' and 'The best and the worst of my current situation...') which had to be 300 words long. I chose the second title and basically said that the best of current situation was that I was on the verge of doing something really exciting that I have wanted for years, and the worst was that if I didn't get on the course I would have to wait a whole other year before I could apply again. I also talked about how my current job was good because I got to watch children enjoying books and paying for their own, but the worst was that I wanted to work with the children and not just watch.

Reading the book...

While doing my science test I got called in. It was such a weird situation, I sat in the library with the 4 interviewers at the back of the room with their clipboards. After some chat some small anxious looking children were led in and lined up in front of me. I introduced myself and read the book. I clean forgot to ask questions while reading, and realised that the children might have trouble seeing the pictures. I could see from some of their faces that the children were enjoying the book (it was 'Something Else' by Kathryn Cave, btw) I finished reading it and asked a few questions. 2 children squeeked some answers and at a loss for what to do next I just kind of said 'that's it' and was led out.
It didn't feel great. I was expecting some time in the classroom from what the letter said, and I was so nervous at the start that I'm not surprised it didn't go so smoothly.

Presentations

When we had all finished our readings we were to do our presentations.
One woman was using Powerpoint, so she went first. Pretty much all the presentations were basically actual maths starters but with us pretending to be the kids (the applicants lined up in chairs in the front and the interviewers and their clipboards at the back). We were asked to clap our hands a lot and count up in 2's, 5's and 10's on the number lines. I was beginning to worry that I'd got it wrong with my interpretation of the of what they wanted from the presentation. Mine was about the why's and how's of a maths starter - not a real one!
After 2 people had gone up and done similar things I decided to volunteer and get it out of the way. I glanced at the clock at the start but have no idea how long (or short) I whittered on for. I remember my voice trembling slightly, but I made sure I looked into everyone's eyes and cracked my 'here's one I made earlier' gag when I brought out my shape fan. At the end of all the presentations I realised that I had forgotten to hand out my handouts so I offered them informally. The other candidates all wanted one as they liked the sound of some of my ideas, and one of the interviewers took one too.

Lunch - sandwiches (all with pickle, bizarrely) and fruit and biscuits. Tea and coffee.

Left to carrying on our tests until we were called in for the actual interview.

The actual interview....

They were very nice, and the guy was the one I gave the handout to, I was pleased to see.
Trying to remember the questions:
- Why do you want to be a teacher?
- Tell us about a good teacher you've had.
- Tell us about a bad one.
- Tell us about your work history.
- Now tell us a bit more about your time as a TA.
- During your time as a TA, tell us about a time when something happened that was rewarding.
- This doesn't happen very often anymore but we like to ask it as we can see how well you can think on your feet: If another teacher was off sick and the head brought round 5 children for you to have in your class for a morning, what would you do?
- Why did you choose our course?
- Which age would you prefer?
- How much support do you have at home?
- If you were given a great big pile of work to do, how would you cope? (I'm not sure how my answer went down, I said things about prioritising, and then having a bottle (i meant to say glass) of wine at the end of the day! I also mentioned how my OU degree while working and with kids was good practice at handling stress and large workloads.
When asked: Have you got anything to ask us? I said: Are there any qualities in a teacher that you are looking for that you do think you've seen in me today? (I got this cool question off of the TES forums). They seemed taken aback, and possibly impressed. They answered that they would have to discuss that later but they were really impressed with the interview (YEAH!) but my book reading showed my lack of experience. However (she said) they often give offers on the condition that the candidate gets more experience before the course starts (Sounds promising).
I also asked about which school I would train in and expressed a preference to the ones closer to my home.
Phew. Then it was over. They said they'd gave me a ring at the beginning of next week (interview day was a Thursday) and I went back and finished my tests.
When I finally left the building at 2:20 I began to shake with relief.