Working in a school office.

Spendless

Format- it says formal interview, the date is mid March. It is in a Primary school, I have worked in one before for 6 months (in a different capacity). I am being helped look for work by a 'back to work' organisation so will fetch up this interview with them next week when I see them. I only got the letter yesterday, so far I have looked at the school's website and read their latest Ofsted report.

Savvy_Sue

Spendless wrote: »

Cheers need to work on this as I have an interview.:j

Congratulations!

What Nemo said about the confidentiality question is spot on: you must never promise not to tell anyone else. And your first duty would be to report it to the designated Child Protection Officer (every school will have one), without probing any further - that's quite important too.

Also you'd have a duty to tell the CPO of ANYTHING you became aware of like regularly arriving in dirty clothes, appearing permanently hungry and looking malnourished, telling you they'd been hit or shouted at - again without further probing into what happened.

(Mind you if Nemo disagrees with any of that, listen! I could be wrong!)

Confidentiality: "What would you do if a Social Worker phoned and asked for a parent's phone number / address, claiming they have had it but lost it?" Wrong answer: "Give it to them!" You have to make sure they are who they say they are - get full details from them: name, office, phone number, and ideally get them to fax the request through. (I say "ideally" because I don't know for sure that all schools and Social Services departments have fax machines these days although I imagine they still do!)

You're a) buying yourself time, the school may have a policy that you double check with another member of staff about releasing such details to anyone and b) checking that they really are who they say they are and not an aggrieved former partner stalking the ex.

And talking of stalking, another 'best practice' response is not to admit whether or not the child is on the school roll until you are sure of who you are talking to. This is easy as long as you are "quite new here, I'd have to check" or you "only work in the office, I don't know all the children's names".

Equal ops: how that's approached might depend on the 'mix' within the school, but say there's a lot more girls / white / black pupils than boys / black / white pupils, it might go along the lines of ensuring that the needs of the minority - whatever that is - are looked after in reality, rather than just written in a dusty policy which never sees the light of day. I don't know how you'd start to answer that - strong role models, an attitude that anyone can aspire to anything, and identifying barriers and removing them, I guess. Those who work in schools might know better.

All of the above may be very obvious and I apologise if it is, but I've had some disastrous answers given to exactly that kind of confidentiality question by interviewees who really should have known better, because they were working for organisations where 'my' right answer should have been the norm.

Oh, and the other classic: "What would you do if a colleague (or a child) told a racist joke?" to which the answer is NOT "It would depend how funny it was."

Spendless

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Congratulations!

What Nemo said about the confidentiality question is spot on: you must never promise not to tell anyone else. And your first duty would be to report it to the designated Child Protection Officer (every school will have one), without probing any further - that's quite important too.

Also you'd have a duty to tell the CPO of ANYTHING you became aware of like regularly arriving in dirty clothes, appearing permanently hungry and looking malnourished, telling you they'd been hit or shouted at - again without further probing into what happened.

(Mind you if Nemo disagrees with any of that, listen! I could be wrong!)

Confidentiality: "What would you do if a Social Worker phoned and asked for a parent's phone number / address, claiming they have had it but lost it?" Wrong answer: "Give it to them!" You have to make sure they are who they say they are - get full details from them: name, office, phone number, and ideally get them to fax the request through. (I say "ideally" because I don't know for sure that all schools and Social Services departments have fax machines these days although I imagine they still do!)

You're a) buying yourself time, the school may have a policy that you double check with another member of staff about releasing such details to anyone and b) checking that they really are who they say they are and not an aggrieved former partner stalking the ex.

And talking of stalking, another 'best practice' response is not to admit whether or not the child is on the school roll until you are sure of who you are talking to. This is easy as long as you are "quite new here, I'd have to check" or you "only work in the office, I don't know all the children's names".

Equal ops: how that's approached might depend on the 'mix' within the school, but say there's a lot more girls / white / black pupils than boys / black / white pupils, it might go along the lines of ensuring that the needs of the minority - whatever that is - are looked after in reality, rather than just written in a dusty policy which never sees the light of day. I don't know how you'd start to answer that - strong role models, an attitude that anyone can aspire to anything, and identifying barriers and removing them, I guess. Those who work in schools might know better.

All of the above may be very obvious and I apologise if it is, but I've had some disastrous answers given to exactly that kind of confidentiality question by interviewees who really should have known better, because they were working for organisations where 'my' right answer should have been the norm.

Oh, and the other classic: "What would you do if a colleague (or a child) told a racist joke?" to which the answer is NOT "It would depend how funny it was."

Cheers Sue. I've spent time recently working voluntarily for a disability welfare charity so can relate to the confidentiality aspect. Cheers Nemo too, whilst when I read your words I was aware that I couldn't say that I could promise confidentiality I didn't know how to phrase the answer instead- thanks for that.

Nemo

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

(Mind you if Nemo disagrees with any of that, listen! I could be wrong!)

Having worked in just one school, I can only tell you how it is in the one I work at. There could be some differences in primarys, although I think it should be much of a muchness. If a child wants to tell you something then take the opportunity to listen rather than stopping them and hoping they'll talk to someone else later...BUT immediately inform the Safeguarding Office (or equivilent) of any concerns, or if unavailable, the Headteacher.

Sue is correct regarding such things as people trying to find out things about students or their families. You'll get family splits where one of the parents isn't allowed access, or where children have been removed from the home and you need to ensure that they aren't allowed any contact. It's a bit of a minefield at times.

You'll have to get across in the interview that you don't just see it as an office job that happens to be in a school, but that you're genuinely interested in the students welfare (even the ones that need a slap;))

Spendless

So I've had the interview but didn't get the job, apparantly there was a couple of candidates with experience of working in a school office (the only 'desirable' I didn't meet- I said the job mkarket here is tough). Format was interviewed by HT and 3 Governors and each asked a question in turn- 7 questions in total, from what skills could I fetch to the job to what if I saw a parent smoking in the playground. I have asked the HT for feedback on my answers and what she was looking for and will take the notes tomorrow to the organisation supporting me looking for work.:(

Savvy_Sue

Sorry to hear that Spendless.

Spendless

I did a huge amount of research for this interview from knowing more about the school to knowing more about the area but at no point was there the opportunity to fetch any of this up. I felt like I'd revised for a History exam only to find I was taking one in English instead. I need to talk through the questions and my answers with my employment support office.r

The HT at my kids school has said I can do voluntary work in the office there 1 half day a week to get the experience.

peachyprice

Defo try the voluntary helper route, I have a number of friends who have secured permanent jobs this way both in the office and as teaching assistance, qualifying on the job. Another good way is, once you've started as voluntary is to get yourself on the payroll as a mid-day assisstant.

Savvy_Sue

Agree with peachy, voluntary work in schools gave me experience to get me back into full-time work doing things I'd never have dreamed of ...

also did you say somewhere about signing up for the local council's bank worker scheme? That can be another way into lots of positions, and you get to set your hours ...

Spendless

peachyprice wrote: »

Defo try the voluntary helper route, I have a number of friends who have secured permanent jobs this way both in the office and as teaching assistance, qualifying on the job. Another good way is, once you've started as voluntary is to get yourself on the payroll as a mid-day assisstant.

I've never seen myself as teaching assistant material. Mid day assistant jobs are pretty easy to get into here. I did have one (but left to update skills at college).

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Agree with peachy, voluntary work in schools gave me experience to get me back into full-time work doing things I'd never have dreamed of ...

also did you say somewhere about signing up for the local council's bank worker scheme? That can be another way into lots of positions, and you get to set your hours ...

No not me. Never heard of it. Interested in knowing more.