Our interviews are designed to assess your potential to train to teach. We are not expecting you to be the finished article. If you are invited to an interview with GITEP SCITT, you will find the following guidance helpful.
What will the interview involve?
- It will take place either at the GITEP SCITT base at Cheltenham Bournside School, or at one of our partner schools
- It will be with a member of the GITEP leadership team and the subject lead
- It will typically last for no more than two hours
- Let us know beforehand if you have any access requirements or need any reasonable adjustments provided
- It will include a short teaching episode presented to the interview panel, a subject specific task, a formal interview, and English and maths
- There will also be an opportunity to discuss the programme, any particular needs you may have and potential placement schools.
We work with four School Direct lead schools across the county (Balcarras, Pate’s Grammar School, Marling and The Cotswold School) and many of our applicants apply to one or more of these as well as GITEP SCITT. Someone from GITEP will be on the interview panel for School Direct interviews and we will do our best to avoid calling you for a separate interview with GITEP – the process is the same.
What is the teaching episode?
- A presentation to the panel explaining how you could teach a particular topic or concept in your subject to pupils
- It should last no more than 10 minutes
- You can use PowerPoint, or other presentation software, but this is not compulsory
- You can bring examples of classroom resources you might use, but this is not compulsory
- You should be prepared to discuss how your teaching episode would fit within a whole lesson or series of lessons – what might have come before it, and what might follow afterwards
What is the subject specific task?
- These will be different for each subject – you will be given clear instructions in your interview pack
- You will need to discuss and evaluate your current subject knowledge
- You will need to demonstrate your enthusiasm for developing your subject knowledge further and have some ideas for how you might do this
- You might need to discuss issues that are current in teaching in your subject
- You will be able to prepare for the subject specific tasks before the interview
What type of questions will be in the formal interviews?
- Why you want to train to teach – and why with GITEP
- What qualities and values you think are important for teaching
- What characteristics you have that will help you to be successful during the training year and beyond
- Managing workload
- Responding to feedback
- Pupil behaviour
- Safeguarding
Remember that we do not expect you to know everything about teaching, or to have had experience with any of these things. The interview questions are designed to give you an opportunity to reflect on some of the things that are involved with being a teacher and explore your current understanding of them.
What type of people are we looking for?
There is no personality profile for the perfect teacher and no one way to be a great teacher. We are looking for people who can demonstrate:
- Enthusiasm for their subject
- Clear communication skills
- Interest in how children learn
- Commitment to doing their best for every child
- Seek and act on feedback
- The ability to be reflective
- A desire for improvement