#Interview questions

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 …

Let’s talk about tips for ➡Time Management⬅.

It’s one of my FAVOURITE topics to help clients with - because there are loads of ways they save time and they don’t notice it.

In this interview question, you need to tell them all the ways that you manage your time.

Examples here might be: 

• Your calendar/diary/wall planner - ensures that you have records of things you need to do. If you manage your diary correctly – you won’t miss important events etc. Is this something you do?
• You may forwar…

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…

Sometimes I receive interesting queries from clients and I know that you will find them useful. So, I've decided to create a series of blog posts with FAQs. I received this query from Mary*  who wants to know: (*anon)

If a principal job is advertised and states you will be interviewed under the 4 domains but it is likely a teaching principal, what are the chances of classroom practices and teaching the curriculum and, for example, Irish questions coming up?

My thoughts are this:

In eve…

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…

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?…

My key piece of study for 2020, was asking a wide variety of primary and second-level principals what they actually want in teachers in their schools. *These points are a shortened version of my freebie for teachers. Get the full version here.  Their answers included:

• Top necessary skills: teamwork, communication, emotional intelligence, flexibility, leadership potential, enthusiasm
• Knowledge of the subject area
• Passion for teaching and willingness to develop their practice
• A personality t…

So you are applying for a deputy principal role in your school and you have heard that panels often ask scenario-based questions?

In the interview, they will set the scene to say something like “A child fell on the yard and was hurt - what would you do?” First of all - reflect ‘has this ever happened to you and what did you do?’ What was good about how you resolved the situation and why? It’s important to note here that the panel are looking for reassurance about an aspect of school life that the…

I’m most known for helping my clients use the STAR technique. Why do you need it? Teachers need to harness the powers of the STAR technique because it is the universally known technique for competency-based interviews (the types of interviews that are used in education). The STAR framework is the best one to help interviewees tell stories about their actually experience and not tell stories about ‘best practice’ or what they think ‘should’ happen - and give evidence that you have experience and …

Here are some pieces of advice I received from teachers working in DEIS schools at both Primary and Post Primary levels. Working in a DEIS school requires certain qualities and awareness and sometimes teachers struggle with the challenge of classroom management or understanding where some pupils are coming from. You can learn lots more about how to make a good impression in your job application and if you’re well suited to the DEIS Setting in my Masterclass called ‘Insider Tips from DEIS Teacher…