Professional Qualification for Headship

in Northern Ireland

The Graduation Board Interview

Information and guidance for Trainee Heads (May/June and September 2017)

  1. The panel will consist of a minimum of 2 and maximum of 3 board members, one board member will be a serving Principal. The Chair will always be a serving Principal.
  2. The board members will be a mixture of phases and sectors.
  3. The board members will scrutinise all the documentation you supplied beforehand and cross-reference this evidence with the 24 Core Capabilities. Your evidence (or lack of) is recorded on a pro-forma. In the interview they will focus mainly on any evidence you have not been able to provide by means of your documentation. The questions may also be for clarification of your documentary evidence.
  4. Remember this is a rigorous interview, not a discussion. The interview questions are designed to reflect the individual scoring journey of the THT.
  5. Questions will relate to each of the Key Areas of headship. The questions will also focus on yourPQH(NI) learning journey and also relate to your credibility for headship, supplementary questions will also be asked. Of course, when it comes to supplementary questions they may be asked by any member of the panel.
  6. The interview will last a minimum of 60 minutes and a maximum of 75.
  7. There will be 12 - 15 main questions plus any number of supplementary questions based on your responses. It is expected therefore that you take 4-5 minutes to answer each of the main questions.
  8. The board members will be recording your responses, please take your time!
  9. As the interview draws to a close you will be asked if there is anything else you would like to add. Please use this time to provide anything you think you have missed during the earlier part of the interview.
  10. The notes recorded by the panel during the interview are then summarised and recorded on the aforementioned pro-forma. Each board member reaches an overall grade for each of the six areas.
  11. Once all individual recording has been completed a moderation session takes place to reach consensus on one single grade for each key area. Based on these grades a provisional judgement of Ready or Not Yet Ready is made. A final judgement of Ready or Not Yet Ready is made at a National Moderation meeting.
  12. National Moderation for GB12A will take place at the end of June/ early July 2017 with results issued mid July 2017. National Moderation for GB12B will take place by end of September with results issued early October 2017.

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