This enabled people interested in working at Manchester Hospital School to meet with colleagues, including our Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher and School Business Manager. It was an ideal opportunity for them to describe what it’s like to work at Manchester Hospital School and the qualities that we are looking for in candidates. It also gave people an opportunity to ask some very practical questions about the roles, and we thought it would be useful to share a number of these here.
The following questions may relate to different roles than we are currently recruiting to, but we have retained them on the website to help candidates build up as full a picture as possible of what it's like to teach at MHS.
General questions
Are there part time opportunities available?
As a primary teacher do you still teach one subject?
Can you apply for both a Lead Practitioner and Secondary teacher role or would you prefer both roles to be mentioned on one application?
Do we teach a specific key stage or do we have to be able to teach Early Years up to secondary?
Are the lead practitioner roles for candidates with Secondary experience only or would Primary applicants also be considered?
What is the teaching responsibility for the Assistant Head position?
Teaching and Learning at MHS
How does curriculum planning work? Is the teaching based on the home school SOW or do you have your own?
What does the Inspection Framework look like at your school? Is it the same schedule as mainstream schools? Section 5 and 8s?
How is PPA arranged? Do teachers have this as a team?
How do you assess and track progress?
What technology and resources are available?
Do you have a budget for each subject?
Do you have a specific number of hours for a student in a week, or is it very bespoke? How much time, for example, would a secondary student spend on maths?
Do you ever all meet as a teaching team?
Are there opportunities to meet with pupils and do some mentoring work?
Do you tend to have the same children weekly or can different teachers swap children?
How do you measure progress for your pupils?
How are lessons objectives/outcomes recorded?
Would there be opportunities to learn Makaton, strategies to teach deaf children etc?
How we work with Home Schools
Is there much contact / liaison with the pupils’ main schools?
What is your involvement when children leave hospital but are not yet ready to go back to school?
Are there any days where children stay at a base school?