Teach First competency interview practice
Make your Teach First examples stand up to the follow-up.
An AI assessor probes your leadership, resilience and motivation. Rehearse the interview and show what you did when things got difficult.
For graduates and career-changers invited to a teacher-training assessment day in England.
- Voice only, no camera
- Reads your application
- Every day, up to two hours
$12.99 a week or $29.99 a month. Cancel at any time in Settings.
“Explain a topic from your subject in 60 seconds, as you would to Year 8.”
- Subject knowledge and pedagogy
- Classroom communication
- Reflection and professional judgement
- Working with others and professional values
“I had a leadership example, but I kept describing the team. The follow-ups made me explain my own decision and how I responded when it didn’t work.”
Questions you’ll practise
Common phrasings of what this interview asks, and what each one tests. An AI assessor works from your own application, so expect follow-ups on what you say.
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“Explain a topic from your subject in 60 seconds, as you would to Year 8.”
Tests: clear explanation pitched to pupils
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“Why do you want to teach in a school serving a low-income community?”
Tests: motivation tied to educational disadvantage
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“Tell me about a time you took responsibility for a problem that wasn’t yours.”
Tests: leadership and ownership, in the first person
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“Tell me about a time you worked with someone very different from you.”
Tests: respect and working with others
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“Tell me about a time you had to learn something quickly.”
Tests: humility and learning from feedback
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“A pupil tells you they are being hurt at home. What do you do?”
Tests: safeguarding procedure, followed correctly
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“How would you respond to a pupil who refuses to do the work?”
Tests: practical behaviour management
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“Tell me about a time you changed someone’s mind.”
Tests: communication and influence
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“How will you handle training while teaching?”
Tests: resilience and planning
Setup takes about two minutes.
Know what to change before the real interview
See where your answer lost its point, what was missing and what to try next. Your own words, with feedback on each question and scores across four skills.
A real example, but you said “we” where the assessor needed “I”.
“So we basically decided as a team to, um, restructure the whole rota, and it sort of worked out.”
Say what you did, in the first person, then what changed because of it and what you would do differently.
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“Explain a topic from your subject in 60 seconds, as you would to Year 8.”
Clear and inside the minute. Add a question at the end that checks they got it.
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“Tell me about a time you took responsibility for a problem that wasn’t yours.”
A strong situation, then the team took over the story. Your own actions were missing.
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“A pupil tells you they are being hurt at home. What do you do?”
Calm and correct: no promise of secrecy, the designated safeguarding lead, the same day.
Illustrative example. Your scores will differ.
“I thought my subject explanation was simple until I said it out loud. Practising helped me cut the jargon and get to one clear idea.”
One question, and what a strong answer does
An example of the kind of question you’ll be asked, and what the feedback looks for.
“Tell me about a time you kept going with something when it would have been easier to give up.”
Follow-up: “What did you do differently after it got hard, specifically?”
What a strong answer does
- Picks one real situation and sets it up in a sentence or two, without a long backstory.
- Spends most of the answer on the actions the candidate took, in the first person.
- Names the result honestly, including what did not work.
- Ends with what was learned and how it would help in a classroom in the first term.
What it costs
Spoken interview sessions on either plan, up to two hours of interviews a day.
Spoken interview sessions, up to two hours of interviews a day
A week of focused preparation when your interview is just days away.
Need more than a week? Two weekly payments total $25.98. From three weeks on, the monthly plan costs less.
Cancel at any time in Settings, with no cancellation fee. You keep access until the end of the period you paid for.
Before you ask
Is an AI good enough?
For the reps, yes. It asks, listens and follows up on what you actually said, up to two hours a day, at 2 a.m. or the night before. Then it scores four skills and quotes your own words back, so you know exactly which answer to fix.
Does it rehearse the whole assessment day?
No. It rehearses the interview: competency and motivation questions with follow-ups, and a 60-second spoken explanation in your subject. Group and written tasks are not part of it.
Will it know my application?
Paste your application or personal statement in setup. The assessor picks up what it says and asks you to go deeper: a gap, a change of direction, a claim you made about yourself.
How fast can I start?
Setup takes about two minutes and needs no account. You choose a plan before your first interview.
How it works
Set up in about two minutes, then interview out loud and see your scores.
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Add your application
Paste your application or personal statement (a CV is optional). Setup takes about two minutes.
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Interview out loud
Pick 10, 15 or 20 minutes. One AI assessor asks, listens and follows up on what you actually said, including your 60-second teach.
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Get scored on four skills
Subject knowledge and pedagogy, classroom communication, judgement and professional values, each scored, with your own words quoted back and feedback question by question.
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Go again with new examples
Run it again with a different topic and different questions until your examples come out clearly. Go again any day, up to two hours of interviews a day.
The night before
The same evening, two ways.
Without rehearsing
- Your examples live in your application form, not in your mouth.
- Every story you tell starts with “we” and stops before the result.
- Your explanation in your subject has never been said to anyone.
After practising out loud
- Each competency has a real example you’ve said out loud, with a follow-up behind it.
- You say what you did, in the first person, and what changed because of it.
- Your explanation lands inside a minute, and you know how you’d check they got it.
Good to know
15 minutes by default
Choose 10, 15 or 20 minutes; 15 is preselected. Choose 20 for a full mock, 10 for a short run the night before.
Voice only
Voice only: no camera and no video. The teaching task is spoken only, a 60-second explanation. Your answers are transcribed so they can be scored.
Your interviewer’s accent
Your interviewer speaks with a British accent. You can change it in Settings.
Practise as soon as you are invited to an assessment day.
Questions
What to know before you start practising.
Is the interviewer a real person?
Does it rehearse the whole assessment day?
My assessment day is in a few days. Is it worth starting now?
Does it use my camera or record video?
How long is a session?
What does it cost?
What doesn’t it cover?
Related interview practice
Updated on
Your examples only count if they come out clearly. Rehearse them tonight.
Competency questions with real follow-ups and your 60-second teach, out loud, any day you need it.