PREPARING FOR YOUR INTERVIEW
PARTNER LED PGCE with QTS
Once you’ve applied, your application will be sent to the Lion Alliance for us to review. Don’t worry if you don’t hear from us immediately, we may be working hard behind the scenes to confirm your eligibility, references and more before we proceed to the next stage of the process.
INVITING YOU TO INTERVIEW
Once we have reviewed your application and are happy to proceed, we will invite you to a private interview with a panel of teaching professionals usually including the Head of the Lion Alliance, ITT Lead and Head of Department at the school you’ve applied to.
We currently hold all of our interviews virtually via:
– ZOOM – www.zoom.us
These are usually around 1 hour long.
You will receive an invitation via email from the Lion Alliance that outlines everything you need to know about your virtual interview*.
This includes:
– Date and Time of the virtual interview.
– Unique link to the ZOOM interview.
– Information on a ‘Lesson Task’ that we ask applicants to prepare for and deliver.
– Information on a Skills test that applicants need to complete following the interview.
– Outline ID and Qualification documents that you need to send us scans of before the interview.
– Outline any forms that you need to complete and return before the interview.
*Please note: due to the encryption system that the Lion Alliance and its lead school, Finham Park, uses, our emails may sometimes go into junk/spam folders. Please check these regularly throughout the application process for information from us.
THE LESSON TASK
As part of your interview, you’ll be asked to prepare a 15 minute lesson on a particular topic.
We understand you are not yet a trained teacher so really this is an opportunity for you to showcase your subject knowledge alongside your understanding of teaching approaches. Some key points to consider when planning:
STARTER
Although only 15mins long, you should consider how you’ll start the lesson. Ideally you want something to really ‘hook’ students and engage their curiosity in the topic. You’ll then want to make sure the learning objectives clear, highlighting the most powerful knowledge and crucial vocabulary.
MAIN
Your main activity(ies) ideally would be a combination of some teacher-talk outlining key points, this may include modelling a process (‘I do’) followed by a worked example as a group (‘We do’) and culminating in some independent practice (‘You do’).
PLENARY
To end your short session, you need to consider how you will gather information about student learning. Consider how best to gauge this for for the whole class as it would inform your next steps or lessons.
Of course, there won’t be ‘real’ students in front of you so make it very clear in your lesson plan what students would be doing at each stage. If you’d ask them questions or to move into groups or come to the front of the room, etc. just make it clear. Of course as it’s an imagined classroom feel free to reference any appropriate resources – mini whiteboards, sugar paper, art supplies, musical instruments, etc
And finally – do try to enjoy the lesson!
Real or not – this is your opportunity to share your passion and enthusiasm with a captive audience.
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS TEST - LITERACY & NUMERACY
As part of the interview process you will also be required to complete a Professional Skills test in literacy and numeracy. This is nothing to be worried about and is only used by the Lion Alliance to determine if you need any additional support in these areas during the course.
We usually ask you to do this following your interview – further details will be provided at that time.
ONE THING TO NOTE
Any answers to the task will need to be written down on paper – please have paper and writing equipment ready.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Following your interview and skills test, we will review your full application one final time.
You should expect to receive an outcome within 1 week. You will receive verbal confirmation via a 1 to 1 telephone call from the Head of the Lion Alliance. The vast majority of our decisions are made within 2 days, with only rare cases taking longer than this, but we do advise for you to wait up to a week as sometimes events in school can delay things.
We will then process the outcome with the relevant university partner.
Disclaimer: Our university partners reserve the right to alter your offer before submitting any official offers to the ‘DfE Apply’ portal. This is outside of the Lion Alliance’s control and you will be informed of the conditions once you receive your offer.
Please note: if you are successful interviewing with The Lion Alliance, you will also need to interview with Coventry University. We will pass on your successful status to them and you will be contacted by them to arrange this.
This is not applicable when applying to courses ratified by the University of Warwick or Birmingham City University.