A Derby school has been helping prepare the future generation of teachers by putting them through their paces in the interview room.
Murray Park Community School, in Mickleover, welcomed 14 students from the Developing Teachers Schools Academies (DTSA) for mock interviews so they could learn more about the process with members of the school’s leadership team.
It comes as the new figures from the Department for Education found that it has missed its targets for recruiting people into teacher training by 50 per cent for secondary schools this year.
Deputy headteacher George Hagen said: “As a successful local school we want to make sure that we do all we can to help trainee teachers across the city as this is for the benefit of everyone, given the current national challenges in teacher recruitment.
“We have supported trainee teachers from DTSA for a number of years and have a close working relationship with them so we were glad to help.
“We were asked if we could support the organisation with mock interviews and we were happy to get involved. This is the second year we have invited the student teachers into the school.
“They come in as they would if they were interviewing for a teaching job and our senior leaders put the questions to them before giving them feedback on how they performed.
“The interviews went really well and we know that these aspiring teachers will go far in their career – I hope many of them will begin their careers in local schools.”
The reputation and success of DTSA saw student Adam Booth relocate to Derby to train to teach maths, a subject in short supply of teachers. The 23-year-old is from Scarborough and went to the University of York to study maths.
He then chose to move to Derby to train to teach with the University of Derby and DTSA. Adam has been on placement at Noel Baker and Chellaston Academy this year and will start his first teaching post at Noel Baker next September. He was one of the students who took part in the interviews at Murray Park.
Deb Outhwaite, who runs DTSA, said: “Murray Park has been one of the lead secondary schools where we have placed beginner teachers for the last five years and we’re really grateful for the support and mentorship from them.
“We’re really pleased to work with them. Murray Park has gone above and beyond in how they support us to give the beginner teachers a really great experience to help them properly prepare for working in the city. They enjoy the day and the feedback they get and are very grateful.”
Future teachers in Derby who want to start training from September 2024 can find out more about DTSA by visiting www.dtsa.org.uk.
