Picking the right candidates – creating success stories
Advertising a vacancy in your school can be an anxiety-inducing event. The hope, naturally, is that an array of ideal candidates will apply and you will be spoilt for choice. The fear, however, is that the best of the best will slip through your net and you will be left making lacklustre selections. Does this sound familiar?
Getting the right candidate in place is the culmination of a string of “getting it rights”! You need to get it right on the people who see your vacancy, then get it right on the people who act on seeing the vacancy and actually put in an application. Then get it right on shortlisting, and get it right on designing an interview that will draw out the best in said shortlisted candidates. Finally, you need to get it right on picking the one who will take up the post and perform to your highest expectations. In an ideal world, at least.
Assuming you are actually shortlisting, and not relying on AI to do the donkey work, make sure your criteria are tight and drawn from the person specification for the job. It helps to utilise a scoring system so that each candidate is treated fairly. As Kaley Foran points out in Headteacher Update, a candidate will either offer no evidence that they meet a criterion, evidence that they do not fully meet a criterion, evidence that they meet a criterion, or evidence that exceeds a criterion. Those who meet or exceed your points threshold get shortlisted (Source: https://bit.ly/4gxniIk).
The actual interview is where the real selecting happens. You will have a set of questions for candidates to answer and some activities for them to do, some more meaningful than others. While the jury is out on how effective teaching tasks are at helping candidates to shine – this really does seem to be the “Marmite” of interview tasks as some schools love it, others hate it as a method of sifting candidates – one thing is certain, what it tells you is how a candidate deals with the task in hand, not how effective a teacher they are on a daily basis. For this reason, I would probably favour other tasks as potentially more revealing, but I know this is a controversial view in some quarters!
It can really help at least to have candidates sitting down with a select group of children for a guided chat about meaningful issues in the school. Observers can glean valuable information about rapport built and views shared in a relatively short space of time.
Other interview tasks that can help to make the process more fruitful all round include:
- A presentation – a relatively short presentation on a pre-determined topic can be an excellent way of offering candidates the opportunity to provide evidence of how they meet the person specification. Choose a topic that is relevant to the professional learning currently going on in your school. Asking candidates to present to the panel, which may or may not include children, and then take a few relevant questions afterwards can be enlightening.
- A lesson design activity – rather than asking candidates to teach a lesson, which is not always a great way of seeing who might best fit the person specification, ask candidates to design a lesson or lesson segment. As long as you know precisely what you are looking for in order to be able to say a candidate has, or has not, met your criteria for the task, this can work really well at enabling candidates to show creative thinking and their understanding of the curriculum.
- Observing a lesson – instead of teaching a lesson, candidates would observe part of a lesson and then offer reflections and constructive feedback. You would be looking to see if there was a close match between your observations and those of the candidates.
- A cross-curricular focus – ask candidates to consider how they would plan for a cross curricular approach to an educational theme such as oracy or reading for pleasure. This offers the opportunity to assess candidates’ responses against your school’s philosophy with regard to the topic chosen.
- Writing to parents – communication with parents is a key part of the role of a teacher and an activity based around a letter or email home can offer useful insights. Give candidates scenarios to respond to. Not only will this allow candidates to demonstrate their literacy skills but it will also help the panel to determine a best fit in terms of ethos and understanding.
Fairness must rest at the heart of all interview design. Action must be taken to iron out unfair advantages, for example of internal or known candidates. An interview is as much about helping candidates see your school as a fair and positive place to work as it is about you deciding who is the best candidate for you. Undertaking interviews in this spirit just might lead to better, more authentic outcomes, and that has to be a positive thing.
About the author
Elizabeth Holmes
After graduating with a degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of Reading, Elizabeth Holmes completed her PGCE at the Institute of Education, University of London. She then taught humanities and social sciences in schools in London, Oxfordshire and West Sussex, where she ran the history department in a challenging comprehensive. Elizabeth specialises in education but also writes on many other issues and themes. As well as her regular blogs for Eteach and FEjobs, her books have been published by a variety of publishers and translated around the world. Elizabeth has also taught on education courses in HE and presented at national and international conferences.
