Education Recruitment: Top 20 Headteacher interview questions

As we move towards a busy recruitment window, you may be planning your interviews, including the questions you might ask.

A Headteacher is a pivotal and important role in a school, and choosing the right person for the role is vital. Our latest blog will provide you with 20 top questions to ask in a Headteacher interview, vetted by our education HR specialists and Safer Recruitment Accredited Trainers.

1. From what you have seen or know, what are your views of this school and why have you applied to be its headteacher?
2. What issues did you identify from the school’s latest Ofsted report?
3. What would you do in your first 100 days?
4. Who is the first person you would like to speak to on your first day?
5. What did you notice about the atmosphere the first time you visited the school?
6. Can you please describe a complex case that you have dealt with in relation to managing people and what was the outcome?
7. Describe the characteristics of a successful leader. Which of these qualities do you possess?
8. What can your staff expect of you?
9. Give an example of the management of change. How would you deal sensitively with resistance?
10. In a case where there appeared to be over expectation on the part of parents and/or under expectation on the part of a teacher, how would you handle this as a headteacher and how might you advise a teacher where this had become a problem?
11. What methods would you use to improve attainment?
12. Give examples of how you would you assess standards throughout the curriculum?
13. Tell us about your recent experience of driving a whole school initiative?
14. Tell me how you would go about getting the whole community behind a school initiative?
15. Give examples of how you have contributed to school improvement at your current / previous schools and what would you do here?
16. Where would you begin with a new curriculum initiative?
17. What role do you feel assessment has in raising achievement in schools?
18. Where would you expect this school to be in 3 years and why?
19. What do you do to make sure that pupils have high expectations of their work and themselves?
20. What measures do you take to ensure that teachers receive adequate support to meet their specific needs?

If you have upcoming recruitment in your school, college or Trust, you might be interested in how Safer Recruitment software can support you to get recruitment right as well as making the process seamless.

FACE-Ed is Safer Recruitment software for education developed by education HR specialists. Supporting you from vacancy creation all the way to section 1 compliant onboarding, FACE-Ed is education recruitment’s best sidekick! FACE-Ed also integrations seamlessly with our HR software, SAMpeople, to ease the manual admin when it comes to taking on a new hire. Learn more about FACE-Ed in a demo.