Your Opinion please

franktennis

I received a call from my local school last week regarding a position in the school next year. The principal was very forthright with me and asked me would i mind taking another subject along with my main one. I was clearly delighted with this. Today he rang again and asked me to meet him in the school next week for a chat. Is this an interview cos the job has not been advertised or anything? Is this legal?

gaeilgegrinds

I don't know about legal or not. He/she is the boss. I can see why you're querying it though.

rainbowtrout

Hard to say really, sometimes principals have an informal chat with someone they are lining up for a job and then put the job in the paper. Formal interview will still have to be completed but essentially the job is gone. I've known this to happen on a few occasions.

You probably won't know until you meet him what the story is.

franktennis

That chat turned in to a full blown interview today!!! I was sure it was only a chat. Anyway it was very short, lasted about 10mins. They informed me that it was a contract position but were worried that half of the 22 hours were PE which i am not qualified in but am in the other half of the hours. The vice said that he would look into me being able to teach PE. I found the whole experience very strange to be honest. Do i think i got it. Probably not but i think i will know very soon either way.

Munster Gal

I had practically the same experience when I began teaching almost 20 years ago. I was working in an office and the principal called in to my workplace!! I'd sent off a bunch of CVs on spec. For 2 years I taught PE along with the subjects I'm actually qualified to teach. The job became permanent after that but was advertised for my subjects, a bit of re-jigging was done in the school and PE was advertised with a different subject. It helped that I was into sports and had take a course in coaching mini rugby but still I wasn't a qualified PE teacher.
Best of luck!!!

franktennis

Thanks, my head is all over the place to be honest. I think they want to give it to me but are worried about the PE and are checking it out. They said they had other interviews after but i think they were bluffing.

linguist

Well I've been in these situations before - informal chat/interview prior to the job being advertised etc... They can be 'pleasant' if you're the party involved, particularly if you do get the job afterwards. However, frankly, they are the epitome of the appalling recruitment standards people have to put up with in teaching. This summer is a complete nightmare for so many people and the uncertainty could be eased significantly if decent, transparent recruitment procedures were followed.

I believe that job ads for teaching should state the proposed interview dates as a minimum and preferably the date by which shortlisted candidates will be informed. Add to that the farce of VEC recruitment where you're not even told the name of the school involved when applying. We are talented graduates and yet fellow professionals, i.e. principals - who are quick to moan about their lot - get away with treating us like sh*t.

Having said all that, I reckon you stand a very good chance Frank. If they want you, they will do everything they can to get around the PE thing and, as you'd hardly ever be teaching PE by yourself, you're not going to go too far wrong. Good luck to you but again that sort of behaviour by principals ultimately, in my view, does more harm than good to the integrity of the profession.

beemurf

linguist wrote: »

Well I've been in these situations before - informal chat/interview prior to the job being advertised etc... They can be 'pleasant' if you're the party involved, particularly if you do get the job afterwards. However, frankly, they are the epitome of the appalling recruitment standards people have to put up with in teaching. This summer is a complete nightmare for so many people and the uncertainty could be eased significantly if decent, transparent recruitment procedures were followed.

I believe that job ads for teaching should state the proposed interview dates as a minimum and preferably the date by which shortlisted candidates will be informed. Add to that the farce of VEC recruitment where you're not even told the name of the school involved when applying. We are talented graduates and yet fellow professionals, i.e. principals - who are quick to moan about their lot - get away with treating us like sh*t.

Having said all that, I reckon you stand a very good chance Frank. If they want you, they will do everything they can to get around the PE thing and, as you'd hardly ever be teaching PE by yourself, you're not going to go too far wrong. Good luck to you but again that sort of behaviour by principals ultimately, in my view, does more harm than good to the integrity of the profession.

I thought teachers mostly taught their classes alone, they did in my school. I also thought a school couldn't employ unqualified teachers in practical subject areas like Home Ec, Woodwork, PE etc for insurance reasons?

linguist

A couple of classes are usually combined for PE. It allows different sports to be run concurrently. I'm not a PE teacher but that's the way it's been in any school I've ever worked in.

Munster Gal

I taught PE for 2 years all by myself and wasn't qualified. During that time I took groups for training after school, I brought teams away for matches and I had visiting teams come to my school. I did ask the principal about insurance cover and he said it was fine. Like any other class if there was an injury/accident I filled in an accident report form and there was never any problem. Though I'm not a qualified PE teacher I had coached mini-rugby but that wouldn't have counted for anything.

You regularly get unqualified teachers taking sole responsibility for practical classes, e.g. student teachers on TP.

Delphi91

Munster Gal wrote: »

...I did ask the principal about insurance cover and he said it was fine. Like any other class if there was an injury/accident I filled in an accident report form and there was never any problem. Though I'm not a qualified PE teacher I had coached mini-rugby but that wouldn't have counted for anything...

You're very lucky that an incident didn't happen which resulted in a court case! It would have been a cut and dry situation on behalf of the claimant. As for the Principal saying that it was fine....:eek:

...You regularly get unqualified teachers taking sole responsibility for practical classes, e.g. student teachers on TP.

That's a very dangerous road to go down. In my school, when it comes to practical classes, we take the approach that the student is NOT qualified to be there on his/her own and the timetabled teacher will usually sit at the back of the class. I did it regulalry when I had science students in for TP.

Munster Gal

I was initially employed up to the end of the school year and then the contract was extended for a further 2 years and the interview panel knew I wasn't a qualified PE teacher. I brought up the insurance question with both the principal and deputy principal yet I still got the job. The answer he gave me was that the buck would stop with him personally if anything happened and that exercising due care and caution counted for more than qualifications! I had played sports myself up to national schools level and continued in college for a year or two. I also had First Aid with the Civil Defence so I was confident enough to take the job on. I was bricking it for the 2 years, TBH in case something did happen and you never saw kids warm up and cool down as carefully as my gang did!

avalon68

linguist wrote: »

They can be 'pleasant' if you're the party involved, particularly if you do get the job afterwards. However, frankly, they are the epitome of the appalling recruitment standards people have to put up with in teaching. This summer is a complete nightmare for so many people and the uncertainty could be eased significantly if decent, transparent recruitment procedures were followed.

Well said. Unfortunately these practices are not confined to teaching, but it is a very sad state of affairs indeed