Student Leaders Employing Staff

This year, as part of the SIRC (Student Interact Representative Council), some students have been able to participate in interview panels. This has been a great opportunity to learn more about how our school works and have student voice on the staff that are being employed to teach and support the students.   

The process of this was SIRC members were selected to work with our Principal, Assistant Principals and staff who formed a panel to find the right person for the job. On the panel, we discussed what sort of teacher or support staff we would like to employ. As a student rep., we were able to provide ideas that hadn’t been mentioned about the type of people we would like to see working in our school.  The panel then would read and assess the resumes and responses to selection criteria that each candidate had submitted.  The assessments lead to ‘shortlisting’ of candidates for an interview. The student rep. would again be able to suggest applicants for an interview that other members of the panel had overlooked.  At this point the panel developed questions, based on what sort of person we were looking for. We asked these questions to the potential employees during the interview and at the end of the interview, some candidates asked their own questions which students were able to answer, giving responses of how we feel about our school. The panel then discussed all aspects of the process (application, interview and referee checks) and made a decision about who the best candidate was.  In some case the panel decided on a ‘No Appointment’ as we did not think any of the candidates were appropriate for our school.

It was a great experience and just one aspect of how you can contribute if you apply for student leadership positions.