An In-Tray Exercise: What Would You Do?

27 thoughts on “An In-Tray Exercise: What Would You Do?”

1. My suggestions:

   9
   6
   8
   7 or 1
   5
   10
   4
   2
   3

   1. Would it be appropriate to say there are some tasks you would delegate or use other members of staff to help with? So for example, we have a system within our school where Heads of Year would place a ‘holding call’ to the parent in example 1 and say “we have received your voicemail and blah will return your call shortly or would be willing to meet later etc.” so that the parents knows that their concern has been acknowledged.
      Or 2. could be reassigned to the head for approval of absence and then sent on to the attendance officer?
      I am not sure if this would be seen as shirking responsibility or as successful management of workload?

      1. Nothing wrong with delegation, or getting back to people, as long as the job is completed and you follow up as a school leader. Safeguarding wins, each time.

   2. Hi,
      I’ve got interview in private school on Wednesday and would like to ask if there is possibility to get the right answers for this scenario please?

2. Can I check that I’m looking at this correctly? If it’s 7:15am on Thursday morning how can you tackle events that have yet to happen at 7:45am and 8:55am?

   1. Hi Sinead, the point is that you have to systematically work through the information and action each item in order as you *would receive the information in real time*. So, although it’s 7:15AM, technically speaking, you won’t have the 7:45AM information until that point in your morning, so as you rationalise your start of the day decisions, you have to factor in *when the 7:45AM event will occur* and *what, when and how you will deal with it*. Hope that makes sense…

3. Hi there, is there a solution posted somewhere?

   Thank you!

   1. See comments – no cheating now!

   2. Please can you send me the correct ( or suggested correct answers) to this scenario?

      I have a second interview this week for a Head of Department and they have asked for 3of is to come back and do this text amongst lots of other things. I’m concerned it might be electronic such as an e tray? I’m 50 so not as good at IT!
      Any other tips gratefully received! I’m at a Private school and applying to other private schools. Worried about my age!!

4. This is a good tool. the first I have seen for teachers. thank you

5. Does anyone have any ideas of what might be in an in-tray exercise for a Head of Faculty?
   I’ve googled unendingly and found nothing of use.
   TIA

6. I did this exact in tray activity the other week. The school literally copied this word for word and put their logo on it! As long as you put the safeguarding ones first, there is then a certain amount of common sense when deciding on the other ones (at least in the feedback session they only asked one question about the kid going to Poland and why I had put it where I did).

   1. Well, there you go. Name the school (if you didn’t get the job)…

7. Hello, Ross!

   I thought since safeguarding comes priority most of the time, the email about the fight would come quite high up the list. I actually put it second on my list since it was the oldest message out of three which I thought were safeguarding related issues (email about fighting came on Wednesday 8am, angry parent voicemail Wednesday 11pm, safeguarding on piece of paper on Thursday morning before 7.15am)

   Is there a reason why number 4 comes 8th down on your suggestion?

   1. Hello Sujie, I’m going to have to re-read through my own task and fathom out my decision-making process 🙂

8. Is it OK to say some of these would not realistically be achieved/dealt with by 11am. If you claim to be a super teacher then you have to live up to it and that then becomes a recipe for disaster. Yes order them (safeguarding first!) , delegate some, but don’t expect miracles.. There are only so many hours in a day.
   Plus could I argue that things timed before Thurs 7.15 I would have already dealt with, as I like to clear my list each night?

   1. Exactly this – the process is used to allow an interview panel to explore your decision-making rationale.

9. If I knew at 7:15 that I needed to complete all of these items by the return of the headmaster, after the child protection issue, I would delegate items first, so evidence could be gathered before dealing with the issues (if the head of department/year didn’t deal with them). I do think the student heading to Poland is a child protection issue, for I find the lack of contact details on the letter an issue. I also could see the boys fighting as a safeguarding issue, for it is the second incident that they been involved in (it sounds like it would be escalated).

   I also think that these types of things should sign-post delegation or not.

10. Am I missing something regarding messages that came in after 7:15 am Thursday? It’s like a trick question, especially seeing as it ends with “remember – it is 7:15 am Thursday”. I want to answer “well, I can ignore anything that says it has arrived beyond this time on Thursday because it hasn’t arrived yet”

11. After addressing the Safe guarding concern, I have then addressed all the scenarios that should have been actioned prior to arriving in the school on the Thursday.
    So 5 – 2 -10 -4 I have put already actioned and where appropriate delegated out and waiting for these to be actioned and set deadlines.
    For example the letter to the HT (10) already written and sent to the HT on Wednesday.
    Then responded to the voicemail on the phones (1) and then read the emails and responded to these (7).
    Last up I call the Husband straight back following picking up the message at 7:45.
    I then call home following the call at 8:55 prior to teaching. I inform a colleague/cover incase it is urgent.
    Last up attend to (3) and inform the HT we need to send someone.

    Is this a correct way to respond or record for a task like this?

    1. I would never reveal all the answers here 🙂 = Good effort though!!!

       1. My order is very different to yours,
          So is it good practice to record on the sheet that all the tasks prior to you receiving on the day, over night that you have already actioned and perhaps email / ask for an update if delegated?
          On Interview Tomorrow, Wednesday!!

       2. Good luck! Very much part of an intro exercise, when done well by the school, is to offer the candidate an opportunity to discuss through their decisions. It’s a redundant task if it’s just handed in with no conversation/feedback.

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