I have been for two AHT interviews, done well in both, but hope to do better next week when I shall be interviewed for an internal AHT post at my current place of work…..wish me luck! 🙂
The general process in the past and some questions have been:
Processes:
Student Interview
Formal Interview
In-tray exercise
Data analysis exercise
Planning activity
Lesson observation and feeding back
Teach a lesson
‘Round table’ activity (observed group discussion)
I have even had to tell a joke!
Questions:
1. Why do you want to work in this school?
2. Why did you go into teaching?
3. Why do you want to be an AHT?
4. What do you think the difference is between being on a leadership team and middle management?
5. What leadership style do you use?
6. What leadership style do you use now and why and tell us about an occassion that you used a different style and why?
7. How would you go about leading departments that you line manage?
8. Describe a whole-school initiative that you have lead, how you set it up, ran it and analysed its success.
9. How do you think you would develop _____ (insert an aspect of that AHT particular role from the job description) in ______ school.
10. What do you look for in an outstanding lesson?
11. How do you feedback lesson observations to staff?
12. What aspect of ECM do you think is the most difficult to imbed in school and why?
13. How would you manage a difficult member of staff?
14. What would you do if a member of staff is not performing to a satisfactory level?
15. How do you ensure that staff take accountability for examination results?
16. Describe an occasion when you have worked with the local community as part of your role in school.
17. What outside agencies have you worked with? (There was more on this but I can’t remember it..)
18. Describe an occasion when you have been concerned about the wellbeing of a student and what action you took.
19. How do you think _____ (insert one of the processes they put you through) went and how would you improve it/ your performance in it.
20. What are your three biggest strengths?
21. What is your biggest weakness?
22. How would you contribute to the school ethos? (It was a faith school).
Please feel free to answer these questions by adding a reply to this blog. Thank you
Donnelly's Blog 
The best responses are always credible and backed up by real life experience. You should try to give answers that say what you did to bring about change. Don’t undersell yourself, if you’re getting an interview then you’re already proving that you know your stuff. I’ve had two AHT interviews and got good feedback – they liked my authenticity and honesty (I didn’t get the jobs by the way, but got a job in my own school). They liked the fact that I distilled the data into simple terms that told a story.
For 14, put simply, ship up or ship out. At AHT level, it’s all about challenge, so I would talk about putting support in place that is time-lined and is realistic, with targets that are transparent. You do have a duty of care to the staff, but the moral purpose is to the kids.
Hope that this helps and good luck.
Very useful. many thanks. My interview is tomorrow and these examples have certainly helped focus my oreparations
How did the interview go? Did you get the job? What useful pointers could you add?
Hi Christopher, sorry for the delay in replying. I’m hoping to spend a bit more time on my blog this year. I did get an Assistant Head job at my school for a year before returning to be HoD. I have since taken on lots of consultancy work and focus all my time on that currently. Maybe one day I’ll see if senior leadership is for me, but currently my company is keeping me too busy to take on the extra time an AHT role requires. Hope you end up getting a role you are happy with.