Blog

#Interview Preparation

Domain 2 Blog

Sarah's Journey in The Career Accelerator Programme

Craving a change? Know that you have more to offer and just need that first break to get to the next step? 

As teachers enrol in The Career Accelerator Programme right now - I'm sharing the story of Sarah who invested in the Programme when it first launched in early 2023. Reflecting on the clients who have enrolled to date - they all have one thing in common - they are HUNGRY for a new role and they know that they have got what it takes.  Does this sound like you too? 

Sarah's Story

Sarah had…

Continue Reading.....

Copy of Chris - Images For Website (Instagram Post (Square))

FAQs About The Four Domains Simplified Course for School Leaders

Are you curious about the Four Domains Simplified Course?

I know that you may have questions that you'd like answered. 🤩 So I thought I would address some of the questions that I’ve been getting about it. Here are the top questions I'm being asked. 

1. Is ‘The Four Domains Simplified’ better than ‘Help I’ve an Interview in a Week’?

In ‘Help I’ve an Interview in a Week’, I teach Looking at Our Schools through the lens of a variety of interview questions – each starting with the phrase ‘How do …

Continue Reading.....

IMG_3602_ppcol

Working with Me as The Teacher Promotion Coach (non-principal!)

If you're an aspiring school leader you may be wondering how I can help you if I'm not a principal.

Truthfully - teachers don't work with me because I'm a principal. As an independent mentor, I think that's my superpower!

Teachers work with me because they know me from my social media presence and they've seen firsthand the helpful information that I share online to help teachers.

Teachers work with me - because I make things easy for them to shift their mindset from working IN their JOB t…

Continue Reading.....

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 …

Continue Reading.....

unsplash-image-ku-k73lSg00-800w-600h

5 new tips for the STAR technique

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 …

Continue Reading.....

ETB-2BApplication-940w-788h

Applying to ETB Schools


When applying for ETB teaching vacancies, there are many things to consider. Your application must be typed and you must provide two copies of the application; one of these to be the original. Job advertisements are published on ETB county websites, in professional, academic journals, in newspapers and on social media. Here are a few things for you to consider when applying for ETB positions.

Final year initial teacher training applicants

If you are in your final year of training, you are still el…

Continue Reading.....

Top Tips for teachers applying for DEIS schools

Top Tips for teachers applying for DEIS schools

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…

Continue Reading.....

Further questions from recent leadership interviews

Interview questions for Principal Jobs in Ireland

Are you searching for potential questions for leadership positions? If you’re reading this - I’m betting that you are!

Working 1-1 with 100s of teachers each year - puts me in a great position to hear what the latest questions are that are being asked. I hope you find them useful!

  • Intro: What have been three achievements in your teaching career to date?

  • What was a teaching and learning initiative that you introduced?

  • How do you self-evaluate?

  • What makes you ready to take on …

Continue Reading.....

How can I be more confident in interviews

How can I be more confident in interviews?

You are a great teacher and you are confident in your abilities, but what do you do with the dreaded interview fear? Are there ways to get past this and shine in your teaching job interview? Of course there are and I am here to help you.

Develop self-compassion and improving your self-talk

So many of my clients come out of an interview and do a postmortem of it! They berate themselves for the bits they slipped up in or couldn’t answer well and focus mostly on that. Try refrain from doing that by d…

Continue Reading.....

Checklist for filling in your job applications

Checklist for filling in your job applications

Here a few important things to bear in mind as you embark on filling in your SAF. This document will most likely be your initial introduction to a potential employer and it is worth taking the time to fill it in as well as you can. Consider the following points when filling in your form.

What are they looking for in a candidate?

Have you checked the job advert for clues as to what's important to the school? A job description will sometimes state the kind of person the school is looking for. The sc…

Continue Reading.....

Categories