Do Primary interviews take all day?

[flirtygerty]

If so I'm up the creek. Have just reread letter - says come for interview at 9. I'm assuming that my interview is then & I'll be done by 10 at the latest. Someone has just said to me that maybe all the candidates come then & we just hang around until its our turn.

If thats the case then I'll have 2 very pissed off children as only have childcare for 2 hours!

any experienced folk out there?

[gladbag]

Do you mean a job interview for Primary teaching post?

I think that often, these days, the interview process can be quite lengthy. Very few schools just do a questions and answer interview for 45 mins or so. You would usually be asked to teach a sample lesson, maybe have lunch with the rest of the staff, and have a formal interview (plus various wierd and wonderful variations - being interviewed by children on the school council, taking an assembly, informal chat with governors etc).

Having said all that, you may be lucky and it is just an interview. But the school should have made that very clear in the letter, with timings, and would certainly have told you if they expected something more, like teaching (or I would hope so ). Ring the school if you're not sure. Good luck!

[Hulababy]

I assume you mean an interview for a primary teaching job?

If like secondary - then yes, they normally are an all day affair, often finding out whilst there who has been offered the job.

[scrappydappydoo]

Could you ring the school and ask - for the purposes of organising childcare I think it is perfectly reasonable to ask how long interview is going to last and what it will consist of. Hope it goes well

[mrz]

Usually they last most of the day. Quite often interviews are in three parts Have they asked you to prepare a lesson/presentation?

[CodGuevara]

they do at ours

[AbbeyA]

At the school I was working in recently they took all day.

[flirtygerty]

cheers everyone. It just says you will teach a lesson & then have an interview so I was hoping to get away with it being 90 minutes max - can't see it going down too well if the first thing I say is that I have to go by 11.30!!!! especially when interview is tomorrow morning......then again it's their letter thats' unclear. Thanks everyone for your input.

[AbbeyA]

Good luck! Hope it goes well.

[fryalot]

dp is a governor at our local village school and is also a teacher himself.

Every time he has interviewed someone, it has been an all day job - they turn up, have a tour, teach a class, have some lunch, have a formal interview, have a mooch around, get to know the school a bit, chat with the teachers etc.

And every interview he has had has been an all day job - similar thing.

What they try to do is weed out from the application forms the ones that they think they won't want, and only interview the ones who they are really, seriously considering.

It may be all over in an hour or two, but I think it would be a good idea to see if you can arrange longer child-care cover.

Good luck with the interview

[fryalot]

and if it does go the way that they do it at our village school, please remember that when you are having lunch (sometimes they take you to the pub) they are still interviewing you.

They aren't trying to catch you out, but perhaps breathing a big sigh of relief, ordering a triple vodka and saying "thank fuck that's over!" isn't the best idea