Questions to Ask School Interviewer
Questions to put to the person interviewing you for a school post, aimed at what a job advert never says: how decisions get made, how workload is handled, how students are spoken about, and what happens to staff who struggle.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How long have you been here, and what made you stay?
Why ask it
The interviewer's own tenure is data. Someone in their second year at a school full of long-serving staff, or the reverse, tells you about stability before you have to ask about it directly.
What has changed most about this school in the last three years?
Why ask it
Recent change explains most of what you would walk into: a new head, a merger, an inspection, a curriculum overhaul. It also shows how they narrate difficulty when they have to.
How do decisions get made here, and who gets consulted?
Why ask it
Schools range from genuinely consultative to entirely top-down, and neither stays hidden if you ask for a recent decision and who was asked about it beforehand.
What happens when a teacher says they are overloaded?
Why ask it
This separates schools that manage workload from schools that talk about wellbeing. Ask for something specific that was actually taken off teachers' plates in the last year.
What's the hardest part of working here that you'd want a new person to know?
Why ask it
Inviting the bad news is disarming and usually answered honestly. Anyone who claims there is no hard part is either new themselves or managing you.
How do teachers here get better at teaching, and what does it cost them in time?
Why ask it
Development is only real if it is timetabled. Ask when it happens, whether it replaces something else, and whether teachers choose their own focus or are assigned one.
How much freedom would I have over how I teach a lesson?
Why ask it
Autonomy ranges from a scripted curriculum to complete discretion. Ask what is genuinely non-negotiable, because discovering it in November is how good teachers become unhappy ones.
When a teacher and a parent disagree, what does leadership do?
Why ask it
Complaints are inevitable. What matters is whether leadership investigates or simply concedes, and most interviewers answer this one carefully but honestly if asked plainly.
How are students talked about in the staff room?
Why ask it
How adults speak about children when no children are present is the most reliable measure of a school's culture. Ask the question, then listen for the answer yourself all day.
Which students do you think this school serves less well at the moment?
Why ask it
Every school underserves some group and generally knows which. A leader who can name it, and what they are doing about it, is far more trustworthy than one who says every child thrives.
How do teachers here work together, and is there time in the week for it?
Why ask it
Collaboration without protected time is a slogan. Ask what is in the weekly calendar and whether attendance sits on top of a full teaching load.
What's the culture around leaving on time and taking a sick day?
Why ask it
Norms about hours and illness are cultural rather than written. The answer, and any laughter around it, tells you what you would be expected to push through.
How does the school handle a teacher who is struggling?
Why ask it
How struggling staff are treated is how you would be treated in your worst term. Look for support with a timeline attached, rather than a process that mainly documents failure.
What would you want from me in the first term that wouldn't appear in a job advert?
Why ask it
Unadvertised expectations exist everywhere: a club to run, a trip to rescue, a group nobody else will take. Better to hear it now and accept it knowingly.
How do new staff usually make friends here?
Why ask it
Social integration determines whether people last. A school where nobody can describe how new staff connect is often one where everyone eats lunch at their own desk.
Where would I sit in the structure, and who writes my review?
Why ask it
Reporting lines matter more than the organisation chart suggests, particularly where two leaders both consider you theirs and neither takes responsibility for supporting you.
What's the plan for the next two years, and what does it ask of teachers?
Why ask it
Strategy translates into work for classroom staff. Ask which part lands on teachers and what has been dropped to make room for it, since usually nothing has.
What would make you decide I'm not the right person for this?
Why ask it
Asking for your own disqualifier is unusual and it surfaces the interviewer's real reservation, which you then get a chance to answer rather than wonder about.
If I take this job and it goes well, what does my third year look like?
Why ask it
It moves the conversation past appointment into development, and it reveals whether they think about staff beyond filling the vacancy in front of them.
What do you wish candidates asked you?
Why ask it
Ending here often produces the most candid minute of the interview, and it tells you what previous candidates failed to consider until after they had started.
Reading a school from the inside of an interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Read the room you are in
- Notice who is on the panel and who never speaks. A head who answers every question, including ones aimed at a department leader, is telling you how the school runs.
- Watch whether anyone contradicts anyone else, and how that is received.
- See whether they can name individual students and departments without checking notes.
- Notice whether they ask you anything about students, or only about compliance and paperwork.
- Ask who would be your closest colleague, and whether you can meet them today.
Where the honest answers are
Leaders describe the school they are building; classroom teachers describe the one that exists. Ask for a few minutes with a teacher without a leader present, and ask a student on the tour what happens when they are stuck or upset. The staff noticeboard, the state of the staff room, and how many cars are in the car park at five o'clock will each tell you something no interview answer will.
Asking about workload without sounding reluctant
Attach the question to sustainability and to students rather than to your own hours: how do teachers here keep going in the summer term, what was removed from staff workload this year, how often are books formally checked. Policy specifics are legitimate to ask about and difficult to soften, which is exactly why they work better than asking how many hours people work.
Warning signs worth acting on
- A pattern of vague answers to specific questions, particularly about turnover.
- Defensiveness when you ask why the post is open, or how many staff left last year.
- No willingness to let you speak to a classroom teacher alone.
- Every answer about support turning into an answer about accountability.
- Being pressed to accept on the day, before you have seen a contract or a timetable.
Before you accept
- Ask for the behaviour policy, the marking policy and your timetable in writing.
- Read the most recent inspection or external review yourself, including the sections nobody quotes.
- Confirm who your line manager is by name, and who writes your appraisal.
- Check what duties, clubs and cover are expected, and which of them are contractual.
- If something you were told in the interview is not reflected in the paperwork, ask about it before you sign.