Preparing for your DfE interview - New Schools …...4 Pre-opening You should go to your interview with plans for managing this process and an idea of who will lead it. The DfE will

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Preparing for your

DfE interview Mainstream and 16-19, Special and

Alternative Provision. Winter/spring 2019

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Contents

Introduction Page 2

What is the purpose of the interview? Page 2

What will the DfE interview be like? Page 2

How should you prepare? Page 3

Appendix A: Sample mainstream questions Page 7

Appendix B: Sample AP questions Page 12

Appendix C: Sample special questions Page 18

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Introduction After submitting a written proposal, free school applicants may be invited to interview as part of the

assessment process. This guidance is predominantly aimed at groups that have submitted

applications to the Department for Education through the central process rather than in response

to a local authority presumption competition. Groups that have applied to set up schools through a

different process may also find this guidance useful, but should be aware that the format of the

interview and composition of the panel may be different.

The Department for Education (DfE) will expect you to come to interview prepared to answer

questions on every aspect of your application and with a clear action plan for post-approval. You

should therefore use the time between submitting a free school application and the DfE’s interview

window wisely. This is particularly important as there could be as little as one week between

receiving an invitation to interview and the interview itself. This resource is intended to help your

team make the most of the time between submission and interview, and highlight some of the

areas all groups will need to prepare. This is not an exhaustive list; all free school applications are

different and the questions asked at interview will be tailored to your specific project.

What is the purpose of the interview? The interview is designed to explore your application in more depth, particularly any areas that

were unclear or caused concern to the DfE. During the interview, the DfE will be assessing both the

quality of your plans and your group’s capacity and capability to set up and run a free school

successfully. If you are an existing academy trust, the DfE may question you on your wider trust

performance and capacity to deliver this project, in addition to the details in your written

application.

The interview forms an important part of the assessment process. If your proposal is approved to

progress to the pre-opening stage, you will be expected to honour any commitments you make

during the interview. In some cases, the DfE might approve a project with conditions. Failing to

meet these conditions may affect whether the free school is able to open.

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What will the DfE interview be like? Each interview will be conducted by a panel with expertise in areas that are relevant to your

project. It will include the Regional Schools Commissioner or a member of the Head Teacher Board,

a senior DfE official with knowledge of the free schools policy and an Education Adviser with

expertise in education. It could also include advisers with expertise in other areas, such as finance or

governance.

In every interview the DfE will also invite at least one independent expert onto the panel, such as a

former or serving headteacher, or someone from the business or finance sectors. In the case of

groups proposing free schools with a faith ethos, faith designation or a distinctive world-view, a

member of the DfE’s due diligence team may also attend.

Each interview lasts for about 90 minutes – some groups have had longer interviews and some

shorter. The length of interview is not indicative of success. If you submit multiple applications, you

are likely to have a longer interview that covers all of your applications at once, as opposed to an

interview for each application individually.

How should you prepare?

Skills Gaps If you have identified skills gaps on your team, and particularly if these are in the areas of education,

finance and/or governance, you should use the time between submitting your application and a

potential DfE interview to recruit people with these additional skills onto your team or at least to

have made positive steps in that direction. If key people in your team, such as your education lead,

are not able to commit as much time as you would like (for example, because they are in full time

work) you should identify how you will supplement this expertise.

The DfE will want to assess the capability of the individuals providing expertise to your project, and

it is important that you bring the individuals leading on education and finance to interview with you.

If you have skills gaps in your team at the time of interview, it is important that you are pro-active in

identifying these gaps and that you are able to explain your strategy for bringing this expertise onto

your team.

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Pre-opening You should go to your interview with plans for managing this process and an idea of who will lead it.

The DfE will expect you to be familiar with their pre-opening guidance. Prior to interview you should

put together a plan of the key tasks to be completed, the people on the team best placed to lead on

each of these tasks (i.e. with the relevant expertise and a strong time commitment), and the time

they can commit to them, as well as someone in place with sufficient capacity to manage the overall

project. Bear in mind that you are applying for a substantial amount of public money and DfE will

be assessing your suitability to make best use of it.

Many groups will use the project development grant to procure external project management

support. You should have made a decision as to whether or not you plan to do this, and what

process you will follow in order to acquire the right support. You must adhere to the regulations for

the correct use of public money; these are outlined briefly in the pre-opening guidance, and you

must be familiar with these. Do be aware that you will receive £30,000 initially and the remaining

amount of your project development grant once a site is secured.

Continuing to gather evidence of demand

Mainstream

The DfE will expect you to have continued to engage with your community and stakeholders after

submitting your application, and to be able to discuss this at interview. You will need to keep pupils,

parents, the community and key stakeholders up to date on the progress of your project, including

reaching out to new parents and keeping in touch with those who have already been made aware

of your proposal. Your educational and financial viability will depend on robust pupil numbers so

you should have a strong marketing plan in place and ideally somebody with marketing expertise on

the team. For groups on our Development Programme, your adviser can arrange a conversation

with a member of our communications team if you would like to talk through your marketing and

community engagement strategies.

Admissions

In addition, while you are not required to submit your admissions policy with your application, the

DfE will expect you to have thought about your admissions arrangements and you should be

prepared to answer questions about these at interview, particularly if you have applied to be a faith

designated school. For example, you should be prepared to explain which criteria will be used to

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-pre-opening-guide

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prioritise places if your school is oversubscribed. NSN has published some guidance on admissions

and there is a useful section on pupil recruitment and admissions in the DfE’s pre-opening guidance.

Building your governing body While many groups will have individuals with strong track records in place to serve on the free

school’s governing body by the time they apply, this is not a requirement of the application form

and most groups will be looking to recruit additional governors in pre-opening and when the school

is open. For instance, if you are a single academy trust you will need to hold elections for parent

(and possibly staff) governors when the school is open. The DfE is interested in seeing skills-based,

focused governing bodies so your aim should be to recruit the right people with the right skills onto

the governing body; these may or may not be the same people who formed the free school

applicant group, as the skills needed to open a school and to run it once it is open are different. It is

better to have skills gaps with robust plans for filling them than to have rushed to appoint governors

who are not appropriately skilled for the role.

The DfE will usually expect you to bring a governor to the interview, someone who is able to answer

probing questions on the free school’s governance structure and who will demonstrate that senior

leaders will be held to account effectively. Ideally, this would be the person who is the proposed

Chair of Governors of the free school or the Chair of Trustees of the MAT. Bear in mind that your

governors will have a leading role in both pre-opening and in the management of the free school, so

you must ensure that the team appoints governors who are committed and have the experience

and skills to drive the project forward, ensure the proper running of the trust and to hold the

school’s leadership to account.

Networking and other organisations If you have not engaged with schools and businesses in your local area then the period between

submitting your application and a potential DfE interview is a good time to do this. This is

particularly important if you have said in your application that you will work closely with these

organisations once the school is open; for example, if local businesses will be responsible for

delivering an element of the free school’s curriculum or will provide work experience placements

for pupils, then it is important that they can provide firm commitments at this stage.

Building relationships with other free schools could be useful to learn from others who have been

through pre-opening or because they have a similar approach to your own. For groups on the

Development Programme, your adviser can help to put you in touch with other free school groups

https://www.newschoolsnetwork.org/sites/default/files/Admissions%20guidance%20M.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-pre-opening-guide

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to discuss their experiences if you require assistance in certain areas; for example, in growing a trust

or delivering a particular curriculum.

In addition, while free schools are independent from the local authority(LA), you should begin to

build a positive relationship with your LA if possible. As your school continues to develop, it will be

useful if the LA cooperates with the acquisition of an appropriate site for the free school as well as

with your inclusion in the coordinated admission process and they may be able to provide support

and services once the school is open. Equally, building positive relationships with other schools in

your local area will be important for school-to-school support and potential school improvement

partners once your free school is open. Building relationships takes time, so it is good to start this

process as soon as possible.

Deciding who will attend your interview It is crucial that you select the five best people to represent your team at the DfE interview. These

people should between them cover the following areas: education leadership (in the relevant type

and phase of school), finance, governance and evidence of need + demand. Your project lead and

anyone you have nominated who will have a central role in pre-opening and beyond, for example,

your proposed Chair of Governors/Trustees or your Principal Designate, should also attend. Be

aware that if you are applying with a Principal Designate then they should treat the DfE interview as

they would a job interview. The DfE will use the interview to assess whether the team have chosen

the most effective person to lead the free school, and this individual should therefore be prepared

to answer the majority of questions on the education plan.

Anyone you bring to interview must be very familiar with what is written in the application and be

prepared to answer questions about the areas relevant to their particular area of expertise. The DfE

will direct questions towards particular individuals they want to hear from in order to make an

assessment of their capacity and capability. For example, governance questions are likely to be

directed at the governor present as the DfE will want to see that the free school’s governing body

will make effective decisions and hold the senior leadership to account. It is helpful to agree with

your team who will be responsible for answering questions on each different aspect of the proposal.

Many applicant groups find it helpful to nominate a ‘chair’ in their team, to facilitate this in the

interview itself.

If you are on the Development Programme, you may have the opportunity to attend a mock

interview at New Schools Network, and you should use the feedback from this to inform your

preparation for a DfE interview. It would be a good idea to rehearse answering questions about any

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areas that NSN identified as being weaker than others and to seek further advice on these points

from your adviser.

Example interview questions Below are some examples of questions the DfE could ask free school proposer groups at interview.

Please note these examples are for guidance only and are intended to help your team to prepare for

an interview. This is not an exhaustive list and the questions the panel asks will be specific to your

proposal. You should prepare to answer questions about all aspects of your proposal.

Interview questions for mainstream schools

Vision How has your educational vision been influenced by the needs of your

area, and why is your school the right response to these needs,

particularly those of the most deprived?

Will your free school increase parental choice, and which innovative

approaches have you proposed to achieve outstanding outcomes?

What is the vision for your trust?

Curriculum plan How would you describe your anticipated pupil intake?

How has this analysis informed the design of your curriculum?

Why do you believe that your curriculum is right for pupils with different

interests, abilities and needs?

How will different staff work together to ensure that pupils with specific

needs succeed in your school?

How will your curriculum equip pupils for their progression into further

education, training or employment?

If you are replicating an existing model:

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How are the demographics of pupils similar or different than your

existing pupil cohort?

What changes have you made to your curriculum offer to account

for your changing pupil cohort?

Measuring pupil

performance

and setting

targets

How did you choose the targets given in your application? How do they

compare to local/national averages?

What are your strategies to ensure good behaviour, wellbeing and

attendance?

How will you use prior attainment data (where applicable), and

appropriately assess pupils’ attainment when they arrive at your school

in order to set targets for them?

How will you know students are progressing towards these targets?

What happens if they are falling behind or exceeding them?


How will you implement systems of monitoring across the trust?

Staffing

structure Why do you feel that your staffing structure is sufficient to deliver your

educational vision?

What are the risks in your staffing model?

How do you know that you will be able to recruit the staff you need for

your school to be successful?

How will you make adaptations to your staffing structure if you are at

less than full capacity?

If you run an existing school:

How will your central services team operate?

Will you share staff across the trust and if so how will this look in

practice?

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Inclusivity How will your school promote British values?

How is the content of your curriculum influenced by the school’s

proposed faith designation or educational philosophy?

How will you make your school inclusive for all pupils, and how will your

school cater for the needs of pupils from other faith or non-faith

backgrounds?

Evidence of

need and

engagement

What is your evidence that a new school is needed in your area due to a

shortage of available school places?

What is your evidence that a new school is needed in your area due to

the performance of existing schools?

How did you gather evidence of demand for your school from the whole

community, and how have you ensured that those who support your

school understand your vision?

What plans do you have for working with other schools and the wider

community?

If your free school will have a faith ethos or a distinctive world view,

what proportion of demand comes from parents/young people who do

not share your faith/world view? What have you done to make them

aware that the school will be accessible and inclusive to them?

Capacity and

capability What do you feel are the biggest challenges facing your group in the pre-

opening phase, given your capacity and capability?

What steps have you taken to fill the skill gaps you have identified and

how do you intend to ensure they are filled if approved? How would you

respond if these strategies were unsuccessful?

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What are your plans for recruiting governors/trustees? What additional

skills are you looking for and how will you identify suitable individuals?

If you do not have a principal designate:

What will the process of appointing a principal designate be, and

how will you ensure that they have the characteristics in order to

deliver your vision?

If you have identified a principal designate:

How did you reach the decision that they are an appropriate

person for the role, and what characteristics does your proposed

candidate have in order to deliver your vision?

Governance

structure How will your governing body/board of trustees be structured? What

committees might be set up to support it?

How will the governing body manage the strategic direction of the school

and be informed of its performance? What processes will it use to

monitor and challenge this?

Why are you confident that governors will be able to effectively

challenge the principal designate (and business manager/bursar) over

day to day management of the school?

How might your governing body/board of trustees change as the school

grows to capacity?

Have you identified any potential conflicts of interest in your free

school? How will you ensure that these or future conflicts of interest are

appropriately managed?

If you are an existing school applying to open a free school:

What changes have you made to your structure to account for

the new school?

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How will you ensure that you have the capacity to manage your

existing commitments and the work involved in opening a new

school?

What is the role of your central team and what powers will be

delegated to local governing bodies?

Budget planning

and affordability

How do you know that your financial plans will deliver your curriculum,

as well as the staffing model your school needs to be successful?

Where have you sourced/benchmarked the assumptions you have made

around income and expenditure?

What are the biggest financial risks to your school and how do you

intend to manage them? How might these risks change over time?

How would you respond to a reduction in income, and what elements

would you prioritise when reducing expenditure?

What pro-active steps would you take to prevent a reduction in pupil

income from happening again?

Site The DfE may ask questions about your site options in interview, however

there are no marked criteria for this section. They might ask you

questions about how you searched for sites in your area, what your plans

are if you are approved, and how feasible your options are.

Interview questions for AP free schools

Vision What is the rationale for your new school?

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How has your educational vision been influenced by the needs of the

area?

How will you be able to cater to these pupils in a way which mainstream

schools and other AP have not been able? Why will commissioners want

to send pupils to your new school?

Which pupils needing AP would you not provide for, and why?

Curriculum plan Why do you believe your proposed curriculum meets the needs of your

pupils?

What flexibility is there in your curriculum for pupils with different

interests, abilities and needs within your expected intake?

How does your curriculum ensure that pupils on short or long term

placements receive a complete and meaningful learning experience, as

opposed to one that is fragmented?

How will your curriculum equip pupils for their progression back into

mainstream, further education, training or employment?


How are the demographics of pupils different or similar to your

existing pupil cohort, and what adaptations to your curriculum

have you made to account for these changes to your pupil

cohort?

Measuring pupil

performance

and setting

targets

How did you choose the targets given in your application? How do these

compare to local AP?


attendance?

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How will you assess whether a pupil is ready to re-enter mainstream?

Why do you think that your systems will ensure that this is done in a

timely manner?

How will you track pupil progress once they have returned to

mainstream?

How does your monitoring and assessment system ensure that pupils do

not get ‘stuck’ in your provision?

Staffing

structure Why do you feel that your staffing structure is sufficient to deliver your

educational vision?

How will you ensure your staff have the appropriate training, skills and

experience in order to manage the needs and behaviours that you

expect?


How do you know that you will be able to recruit the staff you need for

your school to be successful?

How will you make adaptations to your staffing structure if you are at



How will your central services team operate?

Will you share staff across the trust and if so how will this work in

practice?



proposed faith ethos or educational philosophy?

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backgrounds?

Meeting the

needs of your

pupils

Why have you chosen the assessment methods outlined in your

application to determine the needs of your pupils?

How will you ensure that teachers are able to identify additional needs

which were not identified in a pupil’s initial assessment process?

How would you ensure that pupils accessing your provision on a part

time/short term placement have their needs met?

What specific interventions will you have in place for a child with EAL?

What are the principles underpinning your selection of other agencies to

work with, and how will you monitor the performance of these agencies?

How will you ensure that there is effective safeguarding of your pupils

both within and outside of your school?

Plans to manage

referrals

How long will it take for a pupil to be placed in the appropriate pathway

in your school from the point that commissioner identifies them as

needing an AP placement?

How will you fit in with current commissioning arrangements in your

area? How will you allocate places to commissioners?

What information do you expect to receive from commissioners, and

what information will you give to commissioners?

What would a decision to give a pupil a longer placement than initially

planned be based on, and how would this be communicated to a

commissioner?

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Experience and

credentials What do you feel are your biggest challenges facing your group in the

pre-opening phase, given your capacity and capability?






If you do not have a principal designate: What will the process of

appointing a principal designate be, and how will you ensure that they

have the characteristics in order to deliver your vision?

If you have identified a principal designate: How did you reach the

decision that they are an appropriate person for the role, and what

characteristics does your proposed candidate have in order to deliver

your vision?

Governance

structure How will your governing body/board of trustees be structured? What






challenge the Principal Designate (and business manager/bursar) over


How will you ensure that your trust has sufficient Alternative Provision

expertise across your governance structure?




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the new school?



school?

What will be the powers and role of your central board and what

will be the powers and role of your local governing bodies? What

will your scheme of delegation be?

Budget Planning

and Affordability











Site If applicable, the DfE may ask questions about your site options in

interview, however there are no marked criteria for this section. They

might ask you questions about how you searched for sites in your area,

what your plans are if you are approved, and how feasible your options

are.

Interview questions for special schools

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Vision What are the most pressing educational issues regarding the provision

for Special Educational Needs in your area?

How has your educational vision been influenced by the needs in your

area?

How will your relationship with commissioners make them want to name

your school on children’s statements?

What is the vision for your trust?

Curriculum plan How would you describe your anticipated pupil intake? How has this

analysis informed the design of your curriculum?

Why do you believe that your curriculum is right for pupils with different

interests, abilities and needs?

How will different staff work together to ensure that pupils with specific

needs succeed in your school?

How will your curriculum equip pupils for their progression into life after

school?


How are the needs of pupils similar or different to your existing

pupil cohort?

What changes have you made to your curriculum offer to account

for your changing pupil cohort?

Measuring pupil

performance

How did you choose targets given in your application? How do they

compare to local/national averages for pupils with this type of need?


attendance?

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and setting

targets

How will you use prior attainment data (where applicable), and

appropriately assess pupils’ attainment when they arrive at your school

in order to set targets for them?

How will you know students are progressing towards these targets?

What happens if they are falling behind or exceeding them?


How will you implement systems of monitoring across the trust?

Staffing

Structure Why do you feel that your staffing structure is sufficient to deliver

your educational vision?


How do you know that you will be able to recruit the staff you

need for your school to be successful?

How will you make adaptations in your new school if you are at



How will your central services team operate, and will you share

staff across the trust - if so how will this look in practice?



proposed faith ethos or educational philosophy?



backgrounds?

How will you prepare students for further education/life after

education?

Experience and

Credentials What do you feel are your biggest challenges facing your group in the

pre-opening phase, given your capacity and capability?

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If you do not have a principal designate:

What will the process of appointing a principal designate be, and

how will you ensure that they have the characteristics in order to

deliver your vision?

If you have identified a principal designate:

How did you reach the decision that they are an appropriate

person for the role, and what characteristics does your proposed

candidate have in order to deliver your vision?

Governance

Structure How will your governing body/board of trustees be structured? What






challenge the Principal Designate (and business manager/bursar) over


How will you ensure that your trust has sufficient special school

expertise across it’s governance structure?





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the new school?



school?

What will be the powers and role of your central board and what

will be the powers and role of your local governing bodies? What

will your scheme of delegation be?

Budget planning

and affordability











Site The DfE may ask questions about your site options in interview, however

there are no marked criteria for this section. They might ask you

questions about how you searched for sites in your area, what your plans

are if you are approved, and how feasible your options are.

Documents

Preparing for your DfE interview - New Schools …...4 Pre-opening You should go to your interview with plans for managing this process and an idea of who will lead it. The DfE will