New Primary Teaching Interview Preparation Guide

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You need to give evidence that teaching is your first choice, not a plan B. Tell them about your motivation and aim to show your passion for teaching. Provide good examples from your time in school and the specific teaching elements that you find satisfying. Avoid broad responses such as 'I have always wanted to be a teacher'.

One thing I have done is to pair up my younger students with older buddies. They get together a few times a month for an academic activity or art project. Also our school has a lot of whole school activities so of course we participate in those.

Students look at their teachers as role models and person who can guide them better for a bright future. As a role model the teacher should infuse positive attitudes towards life and encourage them to be good citizens contributing to the nation and society.

The interviewer(s) is looking for a well-organised person who can act as a teacher's aide. A successful candidate should be able to illustrate their organisational skills, based upon teaching experience or otherwise.

Use evidence from your teaching practice, work in school or observing in a school before your interview. Describe the school and reflect on your learning as well as what interested or surprised you. You can also talk about experience in other settings and with different age ranges than those you're applying to teach in such as nurseries, youth clubs or playschemes.

this is a term used instead of ‘mother’ or ‘father’, as many children today are raised by one parent or another person entirely, be it relative or friend. This term avoids calling attention to each child’s state. If there are children in the class whose primary caregiver is not the mother, sensitivity and forethought will allow you to tell all kinds of stories without upsetting or embarrassing children.

I have been working with the current institution for the last X years and it has always been a learning experience all the while. But feel that I am entering the comfort zone and hence change is a must to ensure there is some professional development.

Looking for a new and challenging work environment where enhancing my existing skills is a must.

Your answer should demonstrate how you achieve effective student management and control. Include aspects such as monitoring, modeling, environmental control and reinforcement. Explain how you are able to adapt your style according to the situation. Provide examples.

I keep a reflective journal. I write in it at least once a week and reflect on a lesson I taught that week or something that happened in the class and how I handled it. I started this during student teaching and have done one both years I have taught. It's a great way for me to reflect on my successes and think about how I can improve my teaching. It also lifts me up when I reread it on days things have not gone well.

Being a preschool teacher is not an easy job. And not everyone can be a preschool teacher. There has to be some aspects in yourself that made you desire such a position and that will make you the perfect candidate for a preschool teacher job position.
One of the most important aspects is that you should have a natural love for kids and enjoy helping them and being surrounded by them. There is no place for irritability, intolerance or impatience in the job and life of a preschool teacher. These are the concepts that you should bring out in the interview answers, with perhaps a brief, revealing anecdote or two.

This question may be best answered with the SAR technique (see above). Try to remember a similar situation when a bored child was amused in a stimulating, educational and non-disruptive way.

Teachers should understand that the capabilities of students differ from one another. Giving opportunities to perform to only those students who are bright and enthusiastic is not the correct procedure. This would actually lower the confidence levels of more than 50% of the class who fear of failure and poor performance.

One can say that, in the current institute, we make sure that each and every student takes part in both classroom activities and extra-curricular activities. This actually helps the student overcome fear of not performing well over a period of time and start gaining confidence and build self esteem.

The trick here is to turn this question on its head. Make sure you tell the interviewers about your positive behaviour management strategies you use and then you can go onto behaviour issues after, but leaving the emphasis on how you do promote good behaviour in the class.

A model answer could be something like:

"First and foremost I plan my lessons to be interactive and fun. With students engaged in their learning then it is less likely any behaviour issues would arise in the first place. This is backed up with positive reinforcement of what I expect from the children in terms of behaviour and the effort they are putting into their work."

"The next action I put into place is myself and how I act as a model to the children. I will always act like how I want the children to act. Being a positive male rolemodel is so important, especially where some of these children don't have one at home."

"Allowing children to feel good about what they have done is a great way to make sure they make the right decisions in terms of behaviour. So a well done in front of the class, or stop the class for them to show off their work and get applauded at the end or a massive praise from the teacher always puts a smile on their face. This is the attention children want. They want to feel good about themselves."

Education is the key for the development of the society and teaching is profession where a continuous learning and sharing of knowledge happens. Personally am a very enthusiastic learner and a good communicator with a strong zeal to do contribute to the society. Hence chose this profession to enlighten the young minds and drive them for a better life.

Any interviewee can expect to answer a number of questions about the school, so learning a bit about the place beforehand is vital. Prior to the interview, find out as much as possible about the school's extracurricular activities, Ofsted results, what type of backgrounds the children come from, etc. so that the answer provided is well-informed.

This question is more or less aimed at finding out whether you can think on your feet and how child-appropriate your course of action or thought is. Describe how you handle children wanting the same toy. Or what you would do if one child ruin’s his classmate’s art project or kicks and hits.
Detail how each child is spoken to; how you focus your attention on the injured party.

Usually there is a governor on the interview panel and they will be interested in how you involve parents in their children's education.

Schools want to see teachers making extra effort to get parents involved in their child's education. Less and less parents are coming into schools for one reason or another but the more a parent is involved with their child's education, the more support they offer and therefore the better their levels will increase during their schools years. Surely that's a win win.

The things you should mention are:

☛ What do you think to parent involvement?
☛ How do you communicate with parents?
☛ Do you make time for parents?
☛ Will you go that extra mile to get the support from parents?

The enthusiasm that students show in the class and the kind of doubts that they ask are the driving forces for any teacher. Learning is a give and take process. Making the students understand complex concepts in a simple manner that they remember gives a lot of satisfaction for a teacher.

Recollect a situation where you were not in your usual mood in the class but how you were made to recoup to normal by your students.

Interviewers will want to hear that you're aware of the challenges in your PGCE, teacher training or NQT year and have the stamina and dedication to cope. Perhaps describe a demanding situation or course giving details of how you successfully managed the varying demands. This could be your experience of studying and working at the same time, especially relevant would be experience of preparing lessons and managing a teaching caseload.

Teachers regularly experience various types of disruptive student behavior, from the frustrating but relatively minor problem of talking during class, to more challenging problems, like students confronting the authority of the teacher. Provide a specific example and in your answer show your ability to have planned ahead for such instances by having measures in place and a clear action plan to deal with serious discipline problems.

Support any disciplinary action you took with reasons as to why it was effective and why you used it. The interviewers are looking for an effective classroom behavior management plan.

Again this can take various guises but can be answered in similar ways. It is basically asking you to sell yourself and tell them what you are good at so they can see if you would help the school move on. Maybe they are looking for a music teacher as they lack that sort of expertise, maybe they are looking for a science teacher to lead the school forward in that area.

Other questions they may ask are:

☛ Would you be interested in doing an after school club?
☛ Would you be available to go on residential with year 5 or 6?
☛ Can you outline your strengths?
☛ What weaknesses do you have? (This should be turned upside down and make it into a strength because you have combated it and come out successful at the other end.)

Sell yourself here and if you tick the boxes then you are well on the way to earning yourself that new job you want.

I have experienced that the fear of punishment is always a good tool to improve the performance of a student.

Punishment should not physically hurt the student as it would only deteriorate the student-teacher relationships.

The punishment should only motivate the student to put extra efforts to improve their knowledge on the subject and also secure good score in the examinations.

By asking this question, the hiring committee is attempting to assess the following:

☛ Do you understand what traits contribute to the success of a principal. As a teacher, what traits do you value most.
☛ Your response may indicate or suggest possible conflicts with the current principal.
Responses to this question may include:

It is important that a successful principal...

☛ has a vision and a plan to reach that vision...combined with the ability to bring faculty members together to form a cooperative team and motivate them to reach district goals and objectives.
☛ be visible... the principal's presence should be evident on a continual basis. He or she must be easily accessible to both students and teachers.
☛ has a great sense of humor, and can relate well to a diverse group of individuals.
☛ genuinely cares about the students, teachers, parents, and the district.

To answer this question, you can say something like - Yes, I contributed to many initiatives that helped in making our institution a renowned one in the primary school education in the town city.

Illustrate with how you have taken initiative and implemented with the concurrence of the Principal & colleagues. For e.g. ,

1. Introducing practical sessions for all the classes irrespective whether it is a School Board mandate or not. This was a welcomed by all the colleagues and principal as this would help the students in understanding the concepts better.

2. Conducting quarterly extra- curricular assessments of the students in the activities that they have opted during the start of the academic year. This has actually helped in making the students focus on extra- curricular activities and not just the subjects.

I would follow the safeguarding procedure of the school and report the incident to the named senior member of staff responsible but not disclose this to anyone else. I would try to reassure the child and keep them updated on what’s happening.