John Eaves

from Bircham Gallery

This is a gentle reminder to myself to pull my finger out and get some more painting done.

Teachers have periods of time in their life when its hard to know which way to turn, I have 4 days of GCSE exams over the next week, at the same time the very narrow window of job opportunity is now open. Although I am not desperate to leave this job there are many low level irritants that lead me to search for other jobs, the criteria is hamstrung by having to work in close proximity to where I live. If I have to drive to work the job would need to be extra special for example, a girls private school, but then being Art the field is so competitive that it would be a miracle to get one of these posts but I keep trying.

Applying can become a full time occupation in itself, luckily my wonderful Human Resources sister has set me up with a brilliant C.V and the bones of a good letter to adapt, so every now and again I apply and occasionally get an interview which is where I will be on Friday. There is no set pro forma for interviewing teachers, some schools ask you to teach a lesson and then have a formal interview, some schools ask for a power point presentation, some schools ask to see work you have taught and a folio of your own work, some want all of this.

Fridays interview is unusual as they only want you to have one formal interview but I suspect they will be less formal questions fired over lunch and via a tour of the school. Interviews like these are the trickiest because you have nothing but words to offer and yet Art is such a visual subject it is hard to go in without the traditional crutches. I am always pragmatic, I try very hard to rationalise rejection so I am not too disappointed. Fidays down side is that it is a boys school with girls arriving in the sixth form. Luckily in the last 3 years I have only really really wanted one job after the interview and they were so nice and apologetic it eased the pain of disappointment considerably.