The Interview

Well as it turns out, there is nowhere to park at the Falmer Campus. I spent the whole day worrying whether or not my car was going to get clamped. Thanks for the heads up, Brighton. (OK, so if I had read the email all the way to the bottom I would have known. UIt's a good job that Inititative is not one of the assessment criteria)

The interview day wasn't too bad. We started off with Death By Powerpoint, where they explained all about the PGCE course, the University and the funding available (£15,000 bursary plus anything that Hastings council might offer) - which will largely go towards my rail travel to and from Hastings. Awesome.

We then did a written English test, where we got given an article from The Times about league tables, and told to summarise it and write an opinion about it. This, she said, is purely to make sure that you can read and write coherant English. I'm pretty sure I aced that that one. I even used an expensive pen.

After that came a very strange group interview. We sat around in groups of 7 or 8 and had to discuss various statements which were printed on green card. They said things like "Children learn best when they learn by rote", "Children learn best when they are allowed to explore their environment", " Children learn best when they have a parent or carer at home". So we discussed these while important looking people with clip boards wrote things about us on orange paper. All the pieces of paper used that day were colour coded. How organised.

After that we were separated into our PGCE subject groups, which meant that the majority of the room left with the English department, most of the the rest went to Geography, one each went to RS, Maths and Business Studies and 5 to the Science department - 3 Chemistry, 1 Biology and 1 Physics. I guess the financial incentives are working. Except for Physics....nobody really likes Physics...

Anyway, we had a fun lecture in the labs from the heads of Science and a local Headmaster who reminded me a lot of our own dear James (personality, not looks, he had teeth like Bugs Bunny), during which they explained that Brighton is the best University in the world and turns out extremely good teachers who often get offered jobs by the schools they do their teaching placements in. Fab! The room we were in was just like at school, with those funny high stools and the very evocative smell of formaldehyde, gas and burnt wood that put me right back into my uniform, sitting next to Zoe opposite the fume cupboard with Mr Hart 'teaching'. It also had an interactive whiteboard which we were not allowed to play with, but I'm dying to have a go with it because it looks like a prop from Mission Impossible. I expect the novelty will wear off pretty quickly, but I thought it was quite cool.

I had my interview first, at about 12.30, by virtue of the fact that I had furthest to travel home. I did tell them I was only going back to Hastings but it didn't make any difference. I was glad not to have that awful waiting around time in which to get nervous and tounge tied.

We spent the first 5 minutes talking about the Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) course that I have to do in order to teach Chemistry as I didn't take it at degree level. I had applied to do the year long SKE course at Brighton before starting the PGCE or going straight onto the Graduate Training Placement (GTP) - where you learn on the job in school. The University won't have any idea about how many SKE places (if any) they will have until June, when the funding is confirmed, which means that they couldn't have offered me a place on the PGCE until June, as an offer of a place would be conditional on me accepting and completing the SKE......so......he offered me the chance to pack the year long course into 3 months distance learning starting in April and do it through Sussex University, leaving me free to start the PGCE in September this year, which effectively puts me a whole year ahead of my original plans. Hurray! I of course jumped at the chance, but I'm beginning to think that it might not be such a good idea because it will be an awful lot of work - 9 months into 3 for starters, plus a full time job and child to look after. There is the potential that I won't sleep for 3 months because I won't have the time. Mmm.

Anyway, once I'd got over being excited by this news, we went through the interview with the obvious questions like:

Why do you want to teach Chemistry when your degree was in Biology? (Chemistry's fun isn't it?)
What are the issues in the media surrounding teaching at the moment? (Pensions - no opinion. Directionless at the moment, with significant lack of good ideas by the people in charge....And you still want to be a teacher?.....er....yes?)
Did a particular teacher inspire you at school and how? (Mrs Dziedzic and the trout pressure chart. Priceless)
What is your experience of teaching? (I actually have quite a lot of this, just not in the classroom. Fun, memorable and some of the only times I would repeat over and over)
Have you ever witnessed a bad teacher and what was it that made them bad? And what would you do differently? (A Chemistry teacher in NZ who had obviously given up. I'd do better)
How was the Nuffield Chemistry course? (Dreadful)
You obviously have a lot of leadership skills and are used to being in charge (Husband take note). How will you manage when you are a new teacher and don't know anything? (I'm sure I'll be fine, I'm not a total moron with no social skills)
Describe a time in your life when you've been pushed to the limit and how did you cope? (Thank you Sandhurst for providing endless subject matter. Telling someone you didn't sleep for 3 or 4 days in a row because you were digging a giant hole with a teaspoon-sized bendy shovel always sounds impressive)

So, nothing too challenging but plently of traps to fall into for the unwary.

After that moderately uncomfortable 20 minutes I was set free and was home by 2.30 (no clamp on the car). I should know whether I have been offered a place by the end of this week. I will let you all know with shouts of joy if it's a yes.