Questions to Ask a Principal During an Interview
Questions for a teacher or support staff candidate to ask a school principal during an interview, ready for the moment you hear "what questions do you have for me." They cover the specific vacancy, the timetable, the class you would take and the support around it, then turn to the people in charge: which administrators you would deal with, how decisions get made, how staff are backed when things go wrong, and what it is like to work for this principal.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Why is this position open?
Why ask it
The most informative question you can ask first. A retirement, a growing year group, a promotion, and a resignation in November are four very different situations, and the answer sets up everything else you ask.
Who had this role before, and where did they go?
Why ask it
A post that has turned over three times in four years is telling you something the job description will not. Note whether the principal speaks about departed staff with warmth or with an edge.
What would my timetable actually look like: how many sections, how many separate preps, and which duties?
Why ask it
Preparation count is the real workload figure and it rarely appears in the posting. Four sections of one subject and four different courses are the same teaching load and not remotely the same job.
How many students would be in each class, and how many have support plans?
Why ask it
Ask for both numbers together. A class of twenty-eight with nine support plans and no assistant is the situation new teachers most often discover in September rather than in the interview.
Who would I plan with, and when in the week does that happen?
Why ask it
Collaboration either has a slot on the timetable or it does not exist. If the answer is that teachers find time informally, expect to plan alone in the evenings.
What curriculum would I be given, and what am I expected to write myself?
Why ask it
This determines your first two months. Being handed a full scheme of work is a different starting position from being handed a standards document and a shelf of old folders.
If I started in September, what would you want to be different by December?
Why ask it
Turns the vague question about expectations into a concrete target, and it reveals the problem they are actually hiring to solve. A principal who cannot answer has not thought past filling the vacancy.
What does support for a new teacher here look like in the first term, week by week?
Why ask it
Every school claims to have a mentor. The useful details are who it is, whether they have release time, and whether anyone checks in after October, when the goodwill usually runs out.
How often would I be observed, by whom, and what happens after an observation that goes badly?
Why ask it
The last part is the one that matters. Coaching and a follow-up visit, or a note in a file and a formal process, are the two possible cultures and both exist.
What happens when I send a student out of my room?
Why ask it
The concrete test of the behaviour policy. Whether there is a named person, a room, and a conversation afterwards decides how much of your energy the hardest classes will take.
How do you handle a parent who comes straight to you instead of to me?
Why ask it
A principal who redirects parents back to the teacher, with support, is describing a school where teachers are trusted. One who handles it personally is describing a school where they are not.
How are duties, clubs, and cover assigned, and which of them are paid?
Why ask it
Unpaid extras are the difference between a manageable job and a sixty-hour week. Ask what the typical load is rather than what the contract requires, and expect the two to differ.
What is there for classroom materials, and how do I ask for something?
Why ask it
The process matters as much as the number. A small budget you control is often better than a larger one that requires three signatures and a six-week wait.
When does the building open, and when do people actually leave?
Why ask it
Asks about the real expectation rather than the contracted hours, and principals tend to answer it honestly. Compare it against what you saw when you arrived for the interview.
How much of the teaching day is protected from assemblies, announcements, and pull-outs?
Why ask it
Frequent interruptions are a management choice and a common source of teacher frustration. A school that has counted them and reduced them will say so with some pride.
Who has been on this staff longest, and what keeps them here?
Why ask it
Long service is the strongest available signal about working conditions. Listen for whether the principal knows the answer in any detail or has to reach for it.
Can you tell me about a time a teacher pushed back on one of your decisions?
Why ask it
You are listening for whether such an event is imaginable to them, and how the teacher fared afterwards. "That doesn't really happen here" is itself the answer.
Could I speak with a teacher who joined in the last two years?
Why ask it
A reasonable request that is easy to grant and revealing to refuse. Recent joiners remember what surprised them, and they have not yet learned to describe it diplomatically.
Is there anything in my application that gives you pause?
Why ask it
Lets you answer the objection in the room rather than lose the post to it silently. Most interviewers will tell you, and the answer also shows you how directly they handle awkward conversations.
What are the next steps, and when should I expect to hear from you?
Why ask it
Practical, and worth asking even when you suspect the answer. A vague timeline from a school that is hiring in July usually means you are the second choice.
What grade and subject would I be teaching, and is that assignment settled?
Why ask it
Assignments shift into August as enrollment moves. A principal who says it depends on numbers is being honest, and that answer tells you to ask what the second most likely assignment is.
What did the person who held this job before me find hardest?
Why ask it
Principals will usually answer this honestly because it does not require criticizing anyone. It surfaces the specific difficulty of this room, this schedule, or this group of students.
How is planning time protected, and how often does it get taken for meetings?
Why ask it
Contract planning time and real planning time are different numbers. Ask how many of last month's planning periods went to meetings, coverage, or testing duty.
How is special education staffed here, and how are co-teaching duties split?
Why ask it
You are trying to find out whether the co-teacher is genuinely in the room or is pulled for testing and coverage. Ask how many rooms each support teacher covers in a day.
How are IEP and 504 accommodations passed to me, and who follows up?
Why ask it
You are legally responsible for implementing accommodations, so ask when you receive the documents, who explains them, and who checks. A vague answer here is a compliance risk you inherit.
How is student data used in a normal week, and what are teachers asked to report?
Why ask it
Distinguishes schools where data drives small instructional changes from schools where it drives paperwork. Ask to see the form teachers fill in, if there is one.
How do you expect me to communicate with families, and how often?
Why ask it
Expectations vary from a weekly newsletter to same-day replies to every email. Ask what the response-time expectation is, because that is the piece that quietly eats a first year.
What happens when a family disputes a grade I gave?
Why ask it
Ask whether grades have ever been changed over a teacher's objection. The answer tells you how much your professional judgment will hold up under pressure.
What professional development is required this year, and who chooses it?
Why ask it
Distinguishes learning you would have chosen from days you must sit through. Ask how many days, whether they are on contract time, and whether there is money for anything you propose.
How many teachers left at the end of last year, and where did they go?
Why ask it
Departures to other schools in the same district are the ones to notice, because those teachers kept the pay and the commute and still chose to leave this building.
What are the school's goals this year, and where did they come from?
Why ask it
Goals written by the staff get referred to in October. Goals handed down by a district office get printed and forgotten, and you can usually tell which you are hearing by how precisely the principal can recite them.
Which students struggle most here, and what is currently in place for them?
Why ask it
The pairing matters. A principal who can name the group but not the intervention is describing a problem they have not resourced yet.
What is the hardest problem you are working on right now?
Why ask it
Invites candor, and most principals will give it if the question is asked plainly. An answer of "nothing much" from a school leader mid-year is not reassuring.
What do you want to be true about this school in three years that isn't true now?
Why ask it
A better version of the question about vision, because it forces an admission of a current gap. If the answer contains no gap, you are hearing a prepared statement.
What surprises people who are new to this school?
Why ask it
An open-ended question that tends to produce the honest, unscripted detail: a commute, a bell schedule, a community expectation, a facility problem.
Which administrators would I deal with week to week, and what does each of them handle?
Why ask it
In a large school the principal may hire you and then be someone you mostly see at assemblies. Knowing that behaviour goes to one assistant principal and the timetable to another saves a first month of emailing the wrong office.
How long have the administrators here worked together, and is anyone on the team new this year?
Why ask it
A leadership team in its first year together is still settling who decides what, and new staff feel that as mixed messages. It is no reason to turn the post down, only a reason to ask who your one point of contact would be.
If you were out of the building for a week, who would I go to?
Why ask it
Finds out whether the school runs on one person. A quick, named answer means the work is shared, and a long pause means most things wait for the principal to come back.
What do the administrators here take off teachers' plates?
Why ask it
Listen for something concrete: a lunch duty covered, a difficult meeting attended, a cover list sorted before it reaches you. An answer about appreciation breakfasts is a different answer.
How often are you in classrooms, and what are you looking for when you're there?
Why ask it
The second half is the important one. "Checking the learning objective is on the board" and "seeing which students are doing the talking" describe two different kinds of supervision to work under.
How would the teachers here describe your leadership?
Why ask it
Everyone has an answer ready. The useful follow-up is what the teachers who find them difficult would say, and whether they can name that group without irritation.
How do you prefer to hear bad news?
Why ask it
You will need this within your first month. An answer with a route in it, straight away and directly to them, beats a general statement about an open door, which usually means bad news travels sideways instead.
Which decisions are made by teachers, which by you, and which by the district?
Why ask it
This is the single most useful question about a school's culture, because it maps the actual limits of your autonomy. Watch for whether they can name a concrete example in all three categories or collapse everything into district mandates.
What have you said no to from the district or the board?
Why ask it
Tests whether they buffer their staff or pass everything down. A concrete example of pushing back, even a small one, is the best predictor of whether new initiatives will land on you unfiltered.
How do you decide who teaches the most difficult class?
Why ask it
Every school has one, and the allocation reveals the fairness of the place. Rotating it, or giving it to the strongest teacher with extra support, differs sharply from quietly handing it to whoever is newest.
When do you overrule a teacher's judgement?
Why ask it
There are legitimate answers involving safety, law, and equity. The concern is a principal who cannot think of a limit, or who reverses grades and consequences whenever a family complains.
When a teacher brings you an idea, how do you decide whether to say yes?
Why ask it
Ask for the last idea a teacher brought and what happened to it. That single example tells you how much room you will have to try things.
How do you handle a teacher who is struggling in the classroom?
Why ask it
Ask for the sequence and the timescale. Coaching, a mentor, and a second observation is one culture, and a documented improvement plan within a fortnight is another.
What happens here when two teachers can't work together?
Why ask it
Principals either mediate or reorganize around the problem. The answer tells you whether conflict gets addressed or turns into a permanent feature of the timetable.
What's a decision you made that staff disliked, and how did you handle the reaction?
Why ask it
Requires a real example, which is why it works. Note whether they explained the reasoning to staff, adjusted anything, or simply waited for the complaints to fade.
What do you do when you get something wrong in front of staff?
Why ask it
A principal who can describe a specific correction they made publicly is one you can safely disagree with. An abstract answer about growth suggests the opposite.
What's changed in how you lead since your first year in the role?
Why ask it
Reveals whether experience has produced learning or just routine. Common honest answers involve talking less in meetings and moving faster on staffing decisions.
What kind of teacher struggles under your leadership?
Why ask it
The most useful closing question, and one few candidates ask. A self-aware principal will describe a real mismatch, and you will know within a sentence whether it describes you.
Interviewing the School While It Interviews You
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Getting Real Information Out of an Interview
Ask about this vacancy, not the school in general
Most of what you need to know is in the specifics of the post: why it is open, who had it, what the timetable holds, which class you would take. The rest is in how the principal talks about their own decisions. Broad questions about culture invite the answer the school gives every candidate.
Ask for numbers and write them down
Class sizes, support plans, preparation count, contact hours, budget. Numbers are checkable later and they let you compare two offers without relying on how each visit felt.
Get five minutes with a teacher alone
Ask to be shown to the exit by a classroom teacher rather than an administrator. The corridor question that works is "what would you have wanted to know before you started here?"
When other administrators are in the room
A teaching interview is often run by the principal with an assistant principal or a dean alongside. Put the timetable and class questions to whoever would supervise you day to day, and keep the ones about decisions for the principal. How they answer each other shows whether the administrators work as a team.
Watch the staff room and the corridors
Whether adults talk to each other at break, whether children are greeted by name, and what condition the shared spaces are in will tell you things no answer in the interview will.
Save pay and leave for the right moment
These are legitimate questions and they belong at the end, or with whoever handles contracts. Leading with them in front of a hiring panel reorders their impression of you for no gain.
Signals Worth Taking Seriously
Warmth in place of detail
"We're a family here" is often said by schools that ask a great deal for free. Follow any statement about culture with a request for an example from the last month.
Bad-mouthing the person who left
A principal who explains the vacancy by criticizing their former colleague is showing you how they will talk about you. Note it, and ask a second, quieter question about turnover.
No answer on behaviour support
If nobody can say what happens when a student is removed from a lesson, the answer is that nothing happens and the classroom is yours alone. This is the most common reason new teachers leave.
Pressure to accept on the spot
Asking for an answer before you leave the building suits the school and not you. Asking for a day, or until the end of the week, is standard and a reasonable principal will grant it.
If You Only Get Three Questions
First teaching post
- 1"Why is this position open?"
- 2"What does support for a new teacher look like in the first term?"
- 3"What happens when I send a student out of my room?"
Experienced teacher weighing a move
- 1"How many separate preps would I have?"
- 2"If I started in September, what would you want different by December?"
- 3"Who has been on this staff longest, and what keeps them here?"
Closing the interview
- 1"Could I speak with a teacher who joined in the last two years?"
- 2"Is there anything in my application that gives you pause?"
- 3"What are the next steps, and when should I expect to hear?"