School Staff Recruitment Video: How to Attract Teachers on Film

A teacher reading your job advert already knows what every advert says. Supportive leadership, a collaborative team, a commitment to professional development. What they cannot tell from the words is whether any of it is true, and that is the question they are really asking before they apply. A good school staff recruitment video answers it by letting them see the place for themselves.

This guide is for head teachers, HR and business managers and multi-academy trust teams in London and across the UK who want a film to help recruit teachers and support staff. It is a companion to our guide on how to make a school promotional video, which covers films for prospective parents and open days. Here the audience is different, and so is the film: the viewer is a professional deciding where to spend the next few years of their working life.

Why a Recruitment Film Is Not a Promotional Film

It is tempting to reuse the open day film for recruitment. It rarely works, because parents and teachers look for different things.

A parent wants to know whether their child will be happy, safe and well taught. A teacher wants to know what their day will actually be like. Will they be trusted to teach? Is behaviour managed consistently, so they are not on their own in the classroom? Do colleagues talk to each other? Does the leadership listen? What happens to an early career teacher who has a hard week in November?

A film for parents can lead with pupils. A film for candidates should lead with staff, with pupils appearing as part of the job rather than the subject of the film.

What Candidates Want to See

List what a candidate would look for if they could walk round the school unannounced. A camera can show most of it.

Real Lessons

Teachers judge a school by its classrooms. A few minutes of ordinary teaching tells a candidate how pupils respond and how the room is run. It does not need to be a showcase lesson; an ordinary lesson that goes well is far more convincing.

The Staffroom and the Spaces Between

The staffroom, the department office, the corridor at the end of the day: this is where candidates look for clues about culture. A short scene of colleagues planning a unit together says something no line in a job advert can.

The Head’s Vision, Briefly

Candidates want to hear from the person they will work for. A head who explains in plain words what the school is trying to do, and why, gives the film its spine. One clear idea is worth more than a list of priorities.

Support and Development, as the School Describes It

Most schools talk about CPD, mentoring and induction. In the film, let staff describe what that looks like for them: the mentor who observed their lessons, the training day they found useful, the time someone covered for them. Describe only what the school genuinely offers. A film that overpromises loses trust the moment a new teacher arrives.

Support Staff, Not Just Teachers

Teaching assistants, office, site and pastoral staff are recruited too, and are often left out of recruitment films. Including them shows candidates for every role that they would be part of the school.

Staff Voices: Choosing Who Speaks

The people on screen are the film. Choose them carefully, and choose for honesty rather than polish.

• The head teacher or CEO, for the vision, kept brief.
• An early career teacher, who can talk about what the first years were like and who helped.
• An experienced teacher who has chosen to stay, and can say why.
• A middle leader, such as a head of department or phase leader, who can talk about progression.
• One or two support staff, in their own words about their own work.

Do not script them. Teachers spend their working lives spotting when someone is reading a line, and candidates will spot it too. The interviews should be conversations, with questions that invite specific answers: “Tell me about a lesson this term that went well,” or “What happened in your first week?” Our guide to documentary interview techniques for authentic stories explains how to get people talking naturally on camera.

Let people say what is hard. A teacher who admits the job is demanding, then explains how the school helps, is far more believable than one who says everything is perfect.

Filming in School When Pupils May Appear

A staff recruitment video has one advantage over a promotional film: much of it can be filmed without pupils. That makes consent simpler, but it does not remove it.

Follow the School’s Own Policy

The school’s safeguarding and media consent procedures set the rules, and they take priority over the filming schedule. Before filming, agree with a named member of staff which lessons will be filmed, which pupils can appear, how consent from parents or guardians is checked against the school’s records and how pupils without consent are kept out of shot. The school sees the cut before anything is published.

Use Staff-Only Spaces and Out-of-Hours Filming

Interviews, the staffroom, department meetings, training sessions and establishing shots of empty classrooms and corridors can all be filmed before school, after school or on a training day. Planning the shoot this way means pupils only appear in the scenes where they are genuinely needed, usually a small number of lessons.

Staff Consent Matters Too

Staff who appear should know what the film is for and where it will be shown, and agree to take part. Ask for volunteers rather than assigning people: a reluctant interviewee rarely gives an interview worth using.

A Light Presence in the Classroom

When lessons are filmed, one person with compact kit is far less disruptive than a crew. The teacher can teach, pupils soon stop noticing the camera and the lesson on screen looks like an ordinary lesson, which is what candidates want to see. Our guide on when a small documentary crew is the right choice explains why this matters in classrooms.

Plan It Like a Documentary

The most convincing recruitment films borrow from documentary rather than advertising: the story is told by the people who work there, and the camera observes the school as it is.

That still needs a plan. Before filming, write a single page that answers:

• Which roles the film is for. Teachers in general, a hard-to-fill subject, support staff, leadership posts, or several schools across a trust.
• Two or three things that make your school a good place to work, and that a camera can actually see.
• Who will speak, and what each person is best placed to talk about.
• Which scenes to film: lessons, the staffroom, a department meeting, a training session, the walk in at the start of the day.
• Which versions you need, and where each will be used.

Then leave room for the unplanned moments that make an observational film. Our practical guide to observational documentary filmmaking explains the approach.

Recruitment Films for Multi-Academy Trusts

Trusts often want one film that recruits for all their schools. That can work, but it needs more planning. Candidates still apply to a particular school, so they want to see the school they would work in, not just the trust.

One option is a main trust film that explains the shared approach, with shorter films for individual schools to attach to their own vacancies. Another is to film a few schools in depth rather than every school briefly.

Where the Film Will Be Used

A recruitment video is only useful if candidates see it at the moment they are deciding. Plan the versions around the places you advertise.

• The careers or vacancies page of the school or trust website, where the main film does most of its work.
• Job adverts and listings, on the education job boards and listing services your school already uses, such as the Department for Education’s Teaching Vacancies service, linked from the advert or the application pack.
• Professional and social networks, where short cuts of under a minute can be shared by staff as well as by the school.
• Recruitment fairs and interview days, where the film can play on a screen while candidates wait.

Agree the list at the start: it is much easier to film for a vertical social cut on the day than to rescue one later.

The Edit

A day of filming produces hours of footage. The edit turns it into a few minutes a candidate will watch to the end.

The structure is usually simple: open with a moment from real school life rather than a title card, let the head set out the vision briefly, then move between staff voices and the scenes that support what they say. When a teacher talks about collaboration, show the department planning together. When an early career teacher talks about their mentor, show them together. Every claim in the film should have a picture that proves it.

Leave out what cannot be shown. The school then reviews a cut, gives feedback and approves the final version before it is published.

What Shapes the Cost

There is no fixed price for a school staff recruitment video. Every project is quoted individually, and the main factors are:

• Filming days. A focused film for one school can often be filmed in a single well-planned day.
• Number of sites. A trust film covering several schools needs more days and more travel.
• Number of interviews. Each interview takes time to set up, film and edit.
• Length and versions. A main film plus several short cuts takes longer to edit than one film.

If you have a budget in mind, say so at the start, so the filmmaker can suggest an approach that fits it.

Questions People Often Ask

How long should a school staff recruitment video be?

Most schools need a main film of a few minutes for the careers page and job adverts, plus much shorter cuts for social media and job listings. A candidate deciding whether to apply will watch a few honest minutes; they will not sit through a long corporate film. Agree the versions before filming so the shoot captures what each one needs.

Can we film a staff recruitment video without pupils appearing?

Largely, yes. Interviews, the staffroom, department meetings, training sessions and empty classrooms can be filmed out of hours or in staff-only spaces. Most schools still want some real teaching on screen, and those scenes follow the school’s own media consent policy, with pupils who do not have consent kept out of shot.

Who should appear in a teacher recruitment video?

The head teacher, briefly, to set out the vision, and then a mix of staff at different stages: a newly qualified or early career teacher, an experienced teacher, a middle leader and members of the support staff. Choose people who will speak honestly about their own work, not the most polished speakers.

How much does a school staff recruitment video cost?

There is no fixed price. The cost depends on the number of filming days, the number of sites, how many staff are interviewed, the length of the edit and the versions you need. A single-day film for one school costs far less than a film covering every school in a trust.

Do you film school recruitment videos outside London?

Yes. Steve is based in London and films schools there, and he also works elsewhere in the UK: his film about XP School was made over three years in Doncaster. Travel is included in the quote.

Recruitment Films for Schools in London and Across the UK

Steve Sklair is a BAFTA-winning documentary filmmaker based in London. Over four decades with the BBC, Channel 4 and other UK broadcasters he has worked as director, camera operator, editor and BBC series producer, and his film The Man Who Loves Gary Lineker (BBC Video Diaries, 1993) won the BAFTA for Best Single Documentary. His film Child Slave Rescue won a UNICEF Rights of the Child award. For the last four years he has been making education films with the National Education Union, filming children and teachers in real classrooms, and he made Above All Compassion: The Story of XP School (2020, 38 min), a three-year observational film about XP School in Doncaster. He directs, films and edits each film himself.

Steve films schools in London and elsewhere in the UK, with travel included in the quote. Read more about school video production or his work as a documentary filmmaker in London. When you are ready, the documentary brief form asks what the film is for, who will watch it and when you need it, and Steve will come back to you with an approach that fits your school.

Last updated: 31 October 2026