Preparing a good CV will feel like a chore for any teacher raring to get into a classroom and do what they do best. But there is no getting around it; to impress schools and snag the best teaching positions, you’ll need a CV that looks the part.
At Protocol Education, placing teachers into jobs they love is our bread and butter. Our specialist educational recruitment consultants help thousands of new teachers move into new roles every year, and they know a thing or two about what makes a winning CV.
We gathered up some of their top CV writing tips to help you move your job hunt up a gear.
1. Keep it snappy
If your CV doesn’t stand out within a few seconds of looking at it, it’s going on the scrapheap. Executive Consultant Yusuf Ahmed advises a limit of two pages at the very most.
Megan Beard agrees, adding “make sure your CV has a good amount of information on the one or two pages”. Highlight all the most relevant and impactful information about your career to date. Remember to always use an easy-to-read typeface.
2. Keep it well-structured
A CV needs to tell a coherent story about you, your skills and your employment history that employers can understand at a glance Put jobs in descending chronological order and use clear subheadings to separate out each section – Experience, Qualifications, Additional Skills and Achievements.
“Keep the format and layout simple and easy to read”, advises Rajia Begum, Senior Executive Consultant at our London East branch.
“When writing out each job, follow this format: Full Role, Employer (name of school), dates in MM/YY format. It sounds obvious but I’ve seen so many CVs where the person has just written ‘teacher’ without any indication of what age range they were working with”, she adds.
3. Showcase your achievements
When reading a teacher’s CV, school leaders want to see more than just the raw details of employment. They want to know that you’ve accomplished things within those roles and brought real value to all the schools you’ve worked at. For instance, instead of just writing that you taught a Year 6 class, you might want to write that you ‘increased Year 6 Sats numeracy attainment levels by 20%’.
Ian Chilmaid from Protocol Education’s Chelmsford office offered a few rules of thumb:
· Include any details about specific progress of your classes and/or individual pupils and explain how you achieved them
· Be sure to include any experience with SEND
· Add in any completed CPD/training which you feel would be beneficial to the role you're applying for
Rajia seconds this. “Highlight any extra-curricular work you’ve done that’s relevant and might add value, such as tutoring, summer camps or even teaching Sunday school”.
4. Keep it current
It may be a while since you last updated your CV, but it needs to reflect who you are now, rather than who you were a year ago. If you have done any CPD training or scored some notable achievements in your current job in the intervening period, be sure to include them.
If you’re short of any new credentials to mention, why not earn some new stripes by taking one of our professional development CPD courses?
5. Keep it relevant
When writing a CV for a teaching job, not all working experience is created equal. “Don’t feel you have to cover all jobs if they go back past 10 years, especially if they aren’t all that relevant to education”, says Yusuf.
Our consultants are also keen to dispel the enduring myth that you should note down all your personal interests and hobbies, however tangential they may be. “Don’t bother putting interests, and especially not made-up ones”, warns Steve Smith.
6. Check your Spelling and Grammar
We can’t stress this enough – check your CV over again and again before you send it off. Any errors in spelling, grammar or punctuation will see your CV swiftly consigned to the bin.
We hope these tips will help you write a CV that lands you that your dream job. If you’re trying to make a move to a new role in 2022, simply register with us and we will be in touch to discuss your best options.
