Headteacher Interview Questions Boards Should Ask

A practical guide written for the panel rather than the candidate

Most headship interview questions produce prepared answers. That isn’t the candidate’s fault. Ask someone about their leadership style and you’ll get the answer they’ve given four times before.

Many proprietors tell us they came out of an interview day unsure what they’d learned. Everyone had been impressive and nobody had said anything that separated them.

The questions below are designed to be harder to prepare for, and each one comes with what a strong answer actually sounds like.

What are you testing?

Before the questions, be clear about this, because it determines everything.

You’re not testing whether they know what good practice looks like. Every shortlisted candidate does. You’re testing judgement: what they’d do when the options are all imperfect, what they’d prioritise when they can’t do everything, and whether they’d tell you something you didn’t want to hear.

The best questions therefore ask about specific past situations or force a choice, rather than inviting a general statement.

Questions that work

“Tell me about a safeguarding decision you got wrong, and what you did about it.”

The single most useful question in a headship interview. Anyone who has led a school for five years has got something wrong. A candidate who can’t name one either hasn’t led long enough or isn’t being straight with you. Listen for whether they took advice from the right people, whether they escalated, and whether they changed practice afterwards.

“You arrive on your first day. What are the first three things you check?”

In a specialist setting the answer should include safeguarding and something about individual pupils. A candidate whose three things are all about strategy hasn’t understood the setting.

“A parent tells you their child’s provision isn’t matching their plan. Walk me through the next week.”

Tests whether they know how EHCP provision actually works, whether they’d check for themselves rather than delegate, and whether they understand the commissioner dimension.

“What would your last senior team say was the hardest thing about working for you?”

Harder to prepare than the strengths and weaknesses version. Listen for genuine self-awareness rather than a disguised strength.

“Our last inspection said X. What would you want to know before deciding what to do about it?”

Uses your actual position. A strong candidate asks questions rather than proposing solutions to a school they visited yesterday.

“Tell me about a time you disagreed with a proprietor or chair. How did it go?”

Particularly important in owner led settings. You want someone who will disagree with you and can do it well.

“What would make you leave this job in two years?”

Unusual, and it produces honest answers about what they need to work well. Also tells you whether they’ve thought about the relationship realistically.

“How would you know, in six months, whether things had improved?”

Tests whether they think in evidence or in impressions.

Questions that waste a slot

Four appear on almost every panel’s list and tell you very little.

“What is your leadership style?” Produces a rehearsed answer that describes nobody.

“What are your strengths and weaknesses?” The weakness will be a strength in disguise. Everyone knows the game.

“Why do you want to work here?” Fine as an opener and it tests nothing.

“Where do you see yourself in five years?” The honest answer is often “not here”, and you’ve invited a dishonest one.

If your panel has eight slots, spending three of them on these means you’ve tested judgement in five.

Questions specific to specialist settings

Three worth adding in an independent special school or alternative provision.

“A placing authority is questioning whether we’re still the right setting for a pupil. How do you handle that?” Tests whether they understand commissioning as a leadership responsibility.

“How do you assure yourself that provision matches plans, rather than being told that it does?” A strong candidate describes checking individual children themselves, which is close to what case sampling involves.

“What would you do in your first term about staff retention?” In settings where relationships and retention are the provision, this matters more than in mainstream, and candidates who haven’t led in specialist settings often miss it.

Asking about the difficult things

If your school has a difficulty, ask about it directly rather than hinting.

“We’ve had three heads in five years. Why would you be different?” is a fair question, and a candidate who answers it thoughtfully has told you a great deal. So has one who visibly hadn’t considered it.

The same applies to unmet standards, a difficult departure or financial pressure. Candidates who’ve read an honest candidate pack will expect these questions and will have thought about them, which is exactly what you want.

Scoring

Score individually against your criteria before the panel discusses anything. Panels that discuss first converge on whoever was most confident, which correlates poorly with who can do the job.

Record evidence alongside each score rather than just the number. It gives you a defensible record for a senior appointment and it forces panel members to say what they actually heard.

And agree beforehand what happens if nobody reaches the standard, because a panel that hasn’t had that conversation will appoint the strongest of a weak field rather than start again.

From our experience

The question that separates candidates most reliably is the safeguarding one, and panels frequently don’t include it because nobody feels confident judging the answer.

Make sure someone on the panel does. A candidate who says they’d speak to the person concerned before taking advice has told you something serious, and a panel that doesn’t recognise it will score them well for being decisive.

Many proprietors tell us the most revealing answer came from asking about a specific situation in their own school rather than a general one. Candidates can’t prepare for your actual circumstances, and how they respond to something they haven’t rehearsed is what you’re trying to see.

We often see panels where the proprietor asks most of the questions and the other members observe. Divide them properly beforehand. A candidate who only really engages with the person who’ll be their line manager hasn’t been tested.

A common misconception

“We’ll know the right person when we meet them.”

Panels frequently do have a strong instinct, and instinct is a poor predictor on its own.

What panels respond to in an interview room is fluency, confidence and warmth. Those are genuine qualities and they aren’t the same as judgement under pressure, willingness to be honest with a board, or knowing what to check on day one.

Structured questions with scored answers exist precisely because they surface things that instinct misses. Use both by all means, and where they conflict, look harder rather than defaulting to the feeling.

This appointment shapes the education of every child in your school for years. It deserves more than a good impression on a Tuesday.

Questions for panels

• Have we included a safeguarding question, and can someone judge the answer?
• Are we using our own school’s real position, or generic scenarios?
• Have we divided the questions between panel members?
• Are we scoring individually before we discuss?
• Have we agreed what we’d do if nobody meets the standard?

Our perspective

Good interview questions ask about specific things that happened, or force a choice with no comfortable answer. Bad ones invite candidates to describe themselves.

Build your set around judgement rather than philosophy. Use your school’s actual situation. Include safeguarding and make sure someone can assess it. Ask directly about the difficulties rather than hoping candidates raise them. Score before you discuss.

Do that and the interview stops being a performance and becomes what it should be: the best evidence available about whether this person can lead your school well for the children and young people in it.