First off, congratulations on securing a teaching assistant interview. As you would have guessed, this is just the first step towards getting your TA career on track. We know that interviews are demanding and stressful, so we’ve created this teaching assistant interview checklist to help you go over everything you’ll need to do and take to your interview. Teaching assistant interview checklist In our last article, we walked you through how to prepare for a teaching assistant interview and provided you with some sample questions and a few other questions to ask at the end of your TA interview – you should revisit these the day before your interview or if possible, on your interview day itself.

When attending a teaching assistant interview you will be questioned on a variety of topics, you’ll be questioned on your classroom management skills, your time management skills, your ability to interact with children, and your ability to ensure children are kept safe and out of harm’s way. Safeguarding children is a key part of being a teaching assistant and for this reason you can pretty much guarantee the interview panel will have a few safeguarding interview questions ready and waiting for you.

When you have to prepare for a teaching assistant interview, it makes sense to take the time to seek out some sample interview questions that are popular with school interviewing panels. While it’s pretty much impossible to know which questions you will be asked, there are a few general topics that come up time and again, usually around the qualities and skills required to perform the teacher assistant role effectively.

“What is your greatest weakness?” is one of those questions that can make or break a teaching assistant job interview. When faced with this question, you should know that your prospective employer is asking for more than just an honest answer. Interviewers are trying to find out several things: whether you are self-aware, how committed you are to personal/professional growth, and how you deal with challenges or less-than-ideal situations. Moreover, they are trying to decide whether your personal traits are suited to the role offered, the school, and its values.

If you’ve applied to a teaching assistant job and have an interview coming up soon, you should be prepared to answer one of the trickiest interview questions out there: “where do you see yourself in 5 years?” By asking this question, interviewers are trying to find out whether you are committed enough to your teaching career and whether they can consider you a “good investment”. In other words, they want to see proof that you will not leave after they’ve invested in your training and development.

“Why should we hire you?” is one of the toughest interview questions to answer, but it is useful to know that this question allows employers to gauge how committed you are to the job (and to the profession as well). Below you will find some tried-and-tested answers to this question - feel free to adapt them to your personal circumstances and you’ll be on your way to getting the teaching assistant job you’ve always wanted.