With fewer graduates choosing teaching as a career option and fewer senior teachers applying for headships and deputy headships, the task of recruiting the right person is becoming even more difficult. Having fewer applicants to choose from means that it is now even more important that your school is effective in recruiting and selecting staff.

The School Recruitment Manual is your complete guide to ensuring you select the right staff for your school. This practical manual provides guidance and resources to ensure that you can successfully maximise the recruitment and selection of staff for your school. It shows you how to:

• manage recruitment and selection and identify different roles and responsibilities
• write an effective job advertisement and respond to successful candidates
• assess written applications including CV's, application forms and personal references
• conduct a successful interview including the questions you should ask
• make job offers to successful candidates and refuse unsuccessful candidates
• review, evaluate and plan for the future.

The author, Christine Thomas is an education consultant who specialises in recruitment and career development. She has written widely in the field of school recruitment and selection and her past posts include an education manager, school governor and Head of Consultancy at NFER-Nelson.

Contents include:

SECTION 1 BEFORE YOU START

• How to use the Manual
• Summary of the main factors influencing recruitment of school staff
• An outline of the legal issues surrounding recruitment and selection
• The importance of approaches that emphasis equal opportunities

SECTION 2 MANAGING RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

• An outline of the whole process from vacancy to appointment
• How to draw up a recruitment and selection policy
• Linking the recruitment and selection policy to the school development plan
• Recruiting non-teaching staff

SECTION 3 INDIVIDUAL JOB DETAILS

• Advice on the structure and content of job descriptions
• Advice on the structure and content of person specifications
• Suggested formats for application forms

SECTION 4 ADVERTISING THE VACANCY

• Where and how to advertise a job vacancy
• The job advertisement and ways to sell the school
• Responding to applicants
• Strategies for attracting responses

SECTION 5 - SHORTLISTING FROM WRITTEN APPLICATIONS

• Forming a panel to access written applications
• Criteria for assessment

SECTION 6 - INTERVIEWS

• Inviting applicants to interviews and activities
• Roles and responsibilities on the interview day
• Conducting an interview
• Questions you should ask and how to interpret body language
• Head teacher and deputy head teachers interviews

SECTION 7 - OTHER SELECTION METHODS

• Beyond the interview
• The use of group discussions, observations and psychometric testing

SECTION 8 - NEXT STEPS

• Procedure for making job offers
• The use of references
• Procedure for unsuccessful candidates
• How and when to approach unsuccessful candidates
• How to deal with debriefing requests
• Evaluation, review and forward planning