If you’re somebody who has any say in the hiring process of teachers, or if you want to have such a role at some point in your career, then it’s imperative that you know how to spot a good teacher when you see one. It’s imperative because teacher selections matters, it really does matter. Well, the selection you make or help to make could set a student up for life, or it could break them.

Feeling the pressure? Good, because it’s a pressure job! But, you can be helped in this job by taking heed of all the advice on the matter on how to hire a good teacher below.

Scour the teaching market

If you’re going to hire that one perfect teacher for your school, then you’re going to have to see a lot of candidates. And, first and foremost, this means scouring the market of teachers that are looking for their next, or even their first, role in teaching in order to give yourself a wide scope on all the potential candidates out there.

And, don’t be afraid to be fussy with who you choose to allow onto the next stage of your recruitment process. Simply, there is no time or room for you to be allowing anybody that won’t do a perfect job anywhere near the role. And, don’t be afraid to be a bit mean, either, as this will really wade out the good from the bad.

Provide tests

Speaking of being mean, you should provide tests for all the teaching candidates that you come into contact with, and you can start by doing so as soon as you come into contact with them. You can do so by throwing in elicit questions into the conversations you have with them in order to garner a better, natural understanding of their desires and passions for teaching. What you should also do is provide screening papers and tests along the way during the intervening process.

Surround yourself with a support network

Finally, the last but certainly not least thing that you should do in your hunt for the perfect teacher is to make sure you are surrounded by a strong supporting network that are helping you with your task. These can be current professionals in the field of teacher hiring or not, just make sure that they are involved in the education sector, passionate for good teaching, good at scrutinising potential teachers and want to help you in your task. These people could be head teachers, teachers, support staff, school governors or professionals in education law. Or, if you really want to cover all angles, you could even ask parents, or maybe even students themselves, to help you at some point in the teacher testing process — when it comes to asking students for help, you could ask a potential teacher to take one of their classes to see how they react to both them and the work they set.

Basically, just surround yourself with a strong supporting network if you want to give yourself the best chance possible of finding that elusive perfect teacher.

You have a job and a duty to provide the best teacher possible for the children of the school that you are working for. As previously stated, your decision could be the difference between a student’s potential being fulfilled, and this potential going to waste. So, choose and hire wisely!