"How was the interview then?!"

So, how did it go? Not awfully. Not 100% confidently amazing. Yes, I'm sitting on the fence! We don't find out for another couple of weeks so it's quite hard to gauge...

But here's how the day was laid out:

1) Short written task
We had to write about a current educational issue; its key points and how it would affect us as new teachers. Perfect, I'd been reading the TES as well as the BBC and Guardian websites for the past few weeks! Only... When it came down to it I just went blank. I sat there staring at the paper for a good five minutes before I started writing anything - and that's out of a total of 10 minutes for the task! But in the end I went with the story about the phonics tests using made up words, as that's the only story I could remember with any detail. Let's just say it wasn't my finest piece of writing ever.

2) Group scientific enquiry
We were given a bag of different sized balls and asked to come up with ideas about how we could use them in lessons. Here are some of the ideas we came up with together:

• Solar system - to show the order of the planets (My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming) & their relative sizes, planet orbits (drawn on playground or a child in charge of a 'planet' out on the field).
• Forces - gravity (Galileo experiment), speed & flying.
• Sounds - different materials making the balls make different sounds when hit; cross reference to Music.
• Exercise - use the football for an exercise/pulse rate investigation; catching/reflexes.
• Materials & their properties - identifying what materials made the balls, sink/float, bounciness.

I think I contributed a decent amount to that discussion (when I could get a word in) - I'm very glad I decided to read up on the National Curriculum for Science beforehand! At least helpful for some inspiration.

3) Individual interview

Well this I much preferred to the hideous group 'interview' I had at Bath Spa! A much friendlier atmosphere, a comfy chair - and proper interview questions.

• Asked about Bath Spa interview & if they gave me reasons for their rejection. Torn between lying (saying no) and telling everything - in the end I just mentioned the "purpose of education" thing, and how I didn't know where they got that from.
• Why go from Human Genetics to teaching Primary Science? Basically for me that's because I'm not a lab person! Learning is my passion and I want to encourage that in others.
• What will you do to engage young minds in Science? I said I'd like to make it an event, do as many [fun] experiments as possible to make it memorable - as well as showing a practical application so they know it is relevant.
• What are the downsides of teaching? I started with the route into it - getting onto a PGCE course is competitive, and the course itself is very hard work. Once you get into the job you have to consider the pastoral side as well as teaching.
• A little bit of 'teaching' - explain day & night using a globe. After a bit of a false start, it was basically day = light, light shines on country means it's daytime, the Earth spins as day goes on, when the UK is on the opposite side to the light it's night, night = no light. I actually turned the globe clockwise and pointed out that I didn't think I'd turned it the right way, so my interviewer did some teaching as well! (From what I heard back from my fellow interviewees they managed to confuse themselves about that a bit too!)
• How would you deal with misbehaving children in a lesson? Somehow I came up with a few suggestions: make something of it/draw attention to the child, ignore them (stop reinforcement), write names on the board (indicating later punishment), ask them to go out of the classroom and talk to them later... My interviewer suggested getting them involved - a much more positive way to deal with it, and something I should really have thought of, given the education psychology books I've been reading!
• Personal statement related questions - piano playing, learning Italian and interest in History & Science.
• Asked if I'd done any regular sporting activities - helping at a school or otherwise. Well, I've not done any regular sport since college when I played squash (more into the cheaper option of running), but always loved competitive team games at school so no problem in teaching them.
• Where do you see yourself in five years? I don't like these kind of questions - I'm not one who tends to plan that far ahead! So obviously I said "teaching". Settled eventually for "probably around here, given debts & money issues, not minding being in a big or small school".

And that was it! All done by about 11.30am. Back home for lunch!!