Teacher CV Example & Writing Guide

Armed with knowledge and with the ability to inspire students at every level, good teachers are treasures of our society. Where would we be without them? To land a teacher's role in the area of your choice, you'll need a great teacher CV.

You can choose to teach in a school environment, such as primary school, secondary school, sixth form, or college. However, your options don’t stop there. Special education, English as a Second Language (ESL), or many other private teaching routes are also a possibility. 

Regardless of which you have decided to pursue, the ability to impress the hiring manager with your expertise in teaching is paramount in securing your dream role as a teacher. To be successful, you must be an individual who is dedicated to motivating and supporting students. It is a career, not a job. As such, you need to have a real drive to help others to achieve their full potential.

CV guide for a teacher CV

When applying for a teaching role, the first step is to create a dazzling CV that headmasters won’t be able to resist taking forward. At Resume.io, we have created a resource for all your job-seeking needs, with CV guides, as well as CV examples for many professions. Our website is bursting with help and support, including a CV builder, that makes it extra easy and quick to create your CV.

This CV guide and corresponding teacher CV example will cover the following:

• How to write a teacher's CV
• Choosing the right CV format for a teacher
• How to add your contact information
• Using summaries
• Adding your teacher experience
• Listing education and relevant experience
• Picking the right CV design/layout
• What the teaching market looks like and what salary you can expect

How to write a teacher CV

There should always be a structure to your teacher CV, and it is a good idea to jot this down before you get started. If you are prepared and know the direction you want your CV to go, it will be much easier to write your CV well. 

These are the main sections you should consider for your CV:

• The CV header
• The CV summary (aka profile or personal statement)
• The employment history section
• The CV skills section
• The education section

Your CV should detail your main achievements, and how you have made a difference to students. A teacher is not just there to read from a curriculum. They are involved in lesson planning, leadership, and motivating students that might need a little extra help.

Every role will be different, just as every school will be. That's why you should tailor your CV and direct it to the specific institution you are applying to. Take a look at their website and find out about their core values. This will help with the direction of the CV. 

You may even be able to find some information on who you will be reporting to. Don’t just write your CV as a list of where you have worked, but rather, what you have achieved.

• Tailor your CV sample to the role and institution, always keeping the core values in mind as you write it.
• Focus on your main achievements and how you have improved the lives of students - do not just write a list of jobs you have held.
• Look out for the main keywords in the job description and use these throughout your CV, as there may be an Application Tracking System in place. These are common in educational institutions with high-volume recruitment.

Choosing the right CV format for a teacher

Teachers work in a field where experience counts, so the reverse chronological format is the best format for a teacher's CV. Your most recent work is usually what the hiring manager will be most interested in reading about. 

Make it as easy as possible for the reader to quickly scan down your CV sample and for the most relevant aspects of your career to pop out at them. Although you should take care with your CV and write it well, there is every chance that the reader will simply scan it. So you need to have an easy-to-read format.

Remember that part of your CV’s format is the layout. Each section should be clearly separated. You could explore a simple layout or a more professional layout when you’re preparing your teaching CV example. You can choose a layout that best suits your situation when you use our CV builder. 

Include your contact information 

It’s important that your CV sticks to the dress code. That means that your contact information should be one of the first things the hiring manager sees. Make sure it’s clear and legible near the top of your CV.

The contact information you will be expected to include is listed below. Look at each point carefully. After all, it’s the little details that will help you to stand apart from any teacher colleagues who are also applying for the same job. Not to mention, you want it to be easy for the hiring manager to contact you at a moment’s notice if they like your application! 

You should remember to include the following on your CV:

• Full name & title. List your first and last name. Your title is the name of the job role you’re applying to, assuming you have some experience to back it up.
• Professional email address. Make sure you have a professionally-appropriate email address such as [email protected].
• Phone number. List a number where you can be readily contacted. Don’t forget to make sure your voicemail greeting is appropriate for the hiring manager, too.
• Location. Listing the city where you’re located is enough detail for this stage of your job hunt. Or, if appropriate, add “Willing to relocate”.
• LinkedIn. Other social media channels are not considered relevant for a role in teaching. However, if you are far along in your education career, then it may be wise to include a link to your profile if it is up to date.

Don’t include:

• Date of birth. Adding your date of birth can make age discrimination easier. This could put you at a disadvantage when negotiating pay.
• Personal details. Marital status, national insurance number, and passport number are all things that can be kept private for the time being.

Make use of a summary

Think of your summary as the start of your creative writing task. It's a headline of sorts for your CV. This is the part that leads you into the rest of the story your teacher's CV will tell. So, it really needs to grab the reader’s attention from the offset. Remember, it should be just a couple of sentences in length. 

Consider what skills or experience you have that really sets you apart from other candidates. Use strong action verbs, such as ‘initiated’ and ‘persuaded’ to reflect confidence in your abilities. You may want to mention any major achievements you have had or your qualifications. If you’re not sure how to get started with your summary, don’t worry. We have plenty of material to help you.

Highlighting the main aspects of your experience and education is key for your summary and being as concise and descriptive as possible. If you have some special achievements, it is worth mentioning them here as they will stand out to the reader. Remember that some hiring managers don’t go into a lot of detail when reading CV samples, so you need to prepare for those that are detail-oriented and those that aren’t.

Finally, context is everything. Consider the school you’re applying to and the title of the teaching position when choosing which attributes to highlight in your summary. An international prep school will value some different traits and experiences in comparison to a state primary school. Equally, you would choose to highlight different aspects of your profile if you were a substitute teacher compared to, say, a head of department.  This is just one of the reasons that you should tweak your teacher's CV for every job application you prepare. 

If you come across as confident and clear in your abilities, you will grab the attention of the reader instantly. Take a look at the teacher CV example summary below.

Outline your teacher work experience: top of the class

In your employment history section, you should always state your most recent experience first and work your way back. You likely carried out work experience as part of your teacher training, so even if you’re a newly qualified teacher, you can start there. 

Write a subheading that details the job title you held, your dates of employment, the school or organisation that hired you, and its location. Underneath this subheading you can list bullet points detailing the professional highlights during your time in the role.

Use action verbs, such as: managed, led, assessed, planned, and enriched. The role of a teacher is very autonomous, so you want to let the reader know that you are confident to take control of a class, and that you have the experience required to enrich the lives of your students.

Think about your experience in terms of what you achieved, rather than just the task. For instance, 

• Identified problem areas in an Ofsted inspection and made effective changes to the curriculum that led to an ‘excellent’ Ofsted report the following year.
• Offered extra tuition to underachieving year 11 students, resulting in grades exceeding their predictions by two grades.
• Successfully created timetables for the academic year for all year groups.

The aim of your teacher CV is to keep it brief while ensuring the key aspects of your employment are stated, as well as any special achievements. Your CV should be no more than two pages long, so consider it as a synopsis, rather than the full essay.

See below a teacher employment history section sample.

Include the relevant key skills that make you a great teacher

Your CV skills section should reflect both your hard skills and soft skills. Think of hard skills as the technical skills that are easier to train someone in. Soft skills, on the other hand, are more about the way you carry out what you do.

Here are some examples:

• Communication skills. Although it's a soft skill, this is one of the most important skills you will carry as a teacher.
• Classroom management. The ability to control a classroom of young people is no joke and not to be underrated.
• Lesson planning. Regardless of what type of teacher you are, you will need to be able to prepare and deliver engaging lessons on your subject matter.

Consider your abilities, but also what makes you unique and able to bring out the best in your students. Innovation and motivation are key aspects of being a teacher. 

The role of a teacher is just as much about the experience you have as it is the kind of person you are. We have all probably had the experience of being taught by someone who is unimaginative, uninspiring, and whose classes are generally dull and lifeless. A good teacher is someone with a positive attitude and the drive to help students succeed. 

Take a look at our CV content sample for your skills section below.

Finally, consider the type of subject you are teaching when you’re prioritising which skills to list in your skills section. For instance, the skills that you need to impart knowledge to your students about history might be quite different from the ones that will help to nail maths. 

Detail your education & relevant teacher certifications

Of course, the education section is of utmost importance for a teacher CV. This is something the hiring manager will be paying close attention to. Make sure it is clear what qualifications you hold as a teacher.

We would always suggest listing your most recent education first and stating any continuous development and professional accreditations you have achieved. The role of a teacher never stops developing, and as such, as a teacher you should be just as eager to learn and improve the service you offer to your students. 

If you can show that you are committed to learning. For instance, by attending regular courses and workshops, as this will help your chances of progressing to the interview stage. In fact, in certain educational institutions, a teaching role may require further specialisation and training. Read the job ad carefully and make sure you list any qualifications that satisfy their criteria in this section.

If you are just starting your career in teaching and applying for a teaching assistant role, you can take a look at this teaching assistant CV example as a point of reference. If your experience is lacking, you may want to place the education section at the top, if you feel this is the most impressive section. You can see an education section from a teacher CV example below.

Pick the right CV layout and design suited for a teacher CV 

Candidates tend to concern themselves more with the layout and design of their CV than the content itself. While a CV that looks great but has no substance will get you nowhere, the opposite is also not ideal.

You want your CV to speak with the same visual clarity that you would expect of a student presentation. After all, they say you should dress for the job that you want. Think of preparing the layout of your teacher's CV as doing the same thing!

If your layout and design are clear and concise, including the same size and style of font and the same size of spaces between the different sections, you can’t go far wrong.  Make sure you break your CV down into sections and bullet points. 

The key is to ensure it is easy to read and that the main aspects can be digested from just a quick glance. Hiring managers often get inundated with CVs, so they want to be able to get to the main crux as quickly as possible. You can always use our teacher CV templates to create formatting that stands out. A clean, fresh design is all you need.

If you’re not confident on creating a clear design that’s pleasing to look at and easy to read, then remember that there are tools -  like our modern CV templates - that can help you to get there.

Teacher job market and outlook 

If you are looking to get into teaching or progress your expertise as a teacher, the good news is that there are plenty of opportunities. There was a skills shortage in the UK for teachers positions with sector recruitment targets failing for several years leading up until 2020. As a result class sizes were increasing, which put additional pressure on teachers.

Since the Covid pandemic, the number of teachers has increased. During a time where other employment opportunities were in short supply, people realised that teaching can be a stable career choice. 

A career in teaching can be highly rewarding and the good news is that if you are looking to work in this industry, you can expect there to be lots of opportunities.

What type of salary you can expect in teaching

Teachers can expect to earn an average salary of £31,374. Various factors will influence a teacher’s salary, including the seniority of the role and its location.  If you are starting at primary school teaching level, the average salary in the UK is £27,597. If you are completely new to teaching, you might expect to earn £22,000, although this is likely to be closer £28,000 if you are based in London.

Teacher CV example, text only

Key takeaways for a building a teacher CV

Teachers have a special place in many institutions. So, when writing your teacher's CV, think about your impact. Don’t just focus on the day-to-day duties, but rather, consider your achievements and their outcomes. What you choose to highlight is easier to select when you conduct some research on the school you are applying to work at. Remember to focus on the obstacles they’re facing and the challenges that they’re up against. How can you help them?

Using relevant keywords in your CV - taken from the job description - will help you beat that pesky ATS algorithm. So now the rest is up to you. But you can always recruit the help of some tools to design an A+ CV when formatting isn’t your forte.