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Showcase  Your Skills and Experience

How to Showcase Your Skills and Experience as a New Teacher

As a new teacher, you may feel overwhelmed by the challenge of establishing yourself in the competitive field of education. It's essential to know how to showcase your skills and experience effectively to make a lasting impression on potential employers, colleagues, and students. In this blog post, we'll explore different ways to demonstrate your capabilities as a new teacher and help you stand out in your profession.

Create a Comprehensive Portfolio

A well-organised portfolio is an excellent …

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6 unknown ways you're making a difference in school

1. As a student, I'm so happy that you listen to my news.
2. As a parent, I'm so relieved that you're noticing that my child has dyslexic tendencies. I really struggled in school.
3. As a principal, I'm grateful that you hand in your cuntas míosúil in time. I hate going looking for them
4. As a student, though I can't articulate it properly - my movement break really helps me listen better through the day.
5. As an AP post holder, I really appreciate that you're helping me with this project. Thin…

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7 Templates You Need in Your School

  • A template with actions to undertake when a new student enters your class.

  • A template to outline the steps for organising school trips

  • A letter template for quick notes home.

  • A template with methodologies you’ve tried – when helping students with SEN

  • A template to help new teachers get to know the school quickly and independently

  • A template that outlines when special learning weeks (e.g. Maths Week etc) will happen each school year.

  • A template with ideas that you could post to your LinkedIn or social …

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AP2 roles - are they worth it?

After reading lots of teachers talk about teacher burnout - I’m sharing my thoughts on applying for AP2 roles.

When making changes to your life - always weigh up the pros and cons. Know what you have to give and plan in advance what you are WILLING TO GIVE.

My energy is a positive and loving one here - I’ve made decisions in the past and regretted them in the end - but coaching has greatly helped me to understand my decision-making processes and treat myself and others with greater compassion. It’…

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Evidence of LAOS

What Are The Most Challenging LAOS Topics?

The main concerns in interviews that my clients have are...

  • How to answer the conflict question.
  • How to answer the challenging situation question.
  • The fact that they feel that their competition ‘is high’ for the role
  • How to answer the ‘vision’ question.

School principals can avail of coaching to help them plan their vision, to help them strengthen team dynamics, to help them reflect on how they responded to incidents of conflict or discuss challenging situations. Isn’t that cool?

Most …

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How is LAOS 2022 different to the LAOS 2016 version?

How is the LAOS 2022 different to the 2016 version?

I've always loved the Looking at Our Schools Document because it provides us, as teachers, with a framework to assess and reflect on how we are developing as professionals. I created a resource with practical questions that help teachers to reflect on how they are progressing in their careers. You'll find it here.

As we progress and make changes in the education system the LAOS document is a fantastic place to allow career and executive coaches to support schools as an organisation and their sc…

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How do you answer the question on the vision for the role/vision for the school?

How do you answer the question on the vision for the role/vision for the school?

This question is one I get again and again from clients and they need to put their thinking caps on! 

How do you answer the question on the vision for the role/vision for the school?

One thing that I noticed when I began leadership coaching is that teachers sometimes were sometimes frustrated and they could sometimes use this question as a chance to vent. For this question, I always recommend that the energy is positive. This question IS NOT a chance to rant and tell them what you believe is g…

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How do I answer what is your vision for the school/post of responsibility? 

My clients often find this question tricky! Why? Because they haven't taken the time to dream about the changes they could make. A great way to think about it is - If you had a magic wand and you could make changes - what would they be?

Here are some further tips: 

  • Be authentic – Think about what difference you would love to make in the school. Reflect: How would the school be different in 5 years’ time? What opportunities might the staff, pupils and community have? How would they be acting?…

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Your Inside Guide to Looking at Our Schools – A support document for aspiring and existing school leaders

Your Inside Guide to Looking at Our Schools – A support document for aspiring and existing school leaders

Picking up this document – whether to self-reflect or when applying for a new role in management is a good idea to allow you to align with your current teaching practices. Working on your career vs working in your career – there’s a difference! Looking at our schools is a great document to allow for self-reflection.

There are a number of elements outlined in this document that you should consider when working on your career.

1. Reflection

Reflection is key to teaching and this framework serves as a…

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Teaching Interviews

Teaching Interviews: What if I get the feeling that they didn’t like me?

The job-search can be a very daunting thing.

  • You know that you are up against many other applicants, and you hope to be the one to be selected for that great teaching job.

  • You have all the qualifications you need but feel that you may not have come across as well as you had hoped in your interview.

  • You are already working in the school - but you know that your principal will base the job on your interview performance so you really want to impress.

  • Was there something about the way you came across th…

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