What a teaching CV needs to prove
A teacher CV is not a list of subjects and year groups. Schools and recruiters read it to answer one question: what changed because you were in the room. Did results improve? Did behaviour settle? Did a struggling cohort catch up? Your CV should make that answer easy to find, with qualifications and pedagogy backing it up.
Lead with a focused profile
Open with three or four lines that say who you teach, your phase or subject, and the difference you make. Keep it concrete and skip the generic "passionate educator" opener that everyone uses.
Example summary line: "Secondary maths teacher with seven years across KS3 and KS4, raising GCSE grade 4-plus pass rates from 58 percent to 74 percent over two years through targeted intervention and data tracking."
That one sentence tells a head of department your phase, your subject, and your result. It earns you the rest of the read.
Show classroom impact, not duties
Most teaching CVs list responsibilities everyone already shares: planning lessons, marking work, attending meetings. Recruiters assume those. What sets you apart is what happened because of how you taught.
Wherever you can, attach a number. Pass rates, progress measures, attendance, class sizes, the percentage of pupils hitting target grades. Even when you cannot measure exactly, you can describe scale and change.
Example experience bullet: "Redesigned the Year 9 reading scheme for four mixed-ability classes of 30, lifting the proportion of pupils reading at age-expected level from 61 percent to 79 percent within one academic year."
Notice the shape: what you did, who it affected, and the measurable result. Aim for that pattern in most of your bullets.
Make qualifications and status obvious
Schools have to confirm you are qualified to teach, so do not bury it. Put your teaching status near the top: QTS, PGCE, state licensure, or the equivalent in your country, plus the phase and subjects you are certified for.
Include the specifics a recruiter checks:
- Qualified teacher status, licensure number, or registration
- Degree and teacher training, with subject specialism
- Safeguarding and first aid certificates, with renewal dates
- Phase, key stages, or age ranges you can teach
- Exam board experience if it is relevant to the post
If you teach a shortage subject or have SEND, EAL, or exam-board examiner experience, give it a clear line. Those details often decide a shortlist.
Pedagogy and the skills schools look for
Beyond results, schools want to see how you think about teaching. Reference the approaches you actually use: assessment for learning, differentiation, retrieval practice, behaviour management. Tie each to a result rather than listing it as a buzzword. The wider skills that move a CV forward include curriculum design, pastoral care, parental engagement, working with teaching assistants, and using data to plan intervention.
Keep the structure clean
Most teaching CVs run to two pages. A workable order:
- Profile and teaching status
- Key skills or pedagogical strengths
- Teaching experience, most recent first
- Education and qualifications
- Professional development and additional duties
Use plain headings, consistent dates, and active verbs. Tailor the profile and top bullets to each school, echoing the language in the job description and person specification.
A strong teaching CV reads like evidence, not a job description. Show what improved, prove you are qualified, and make your classroom impact impossible to miss. Do that, and you give a busy hiring panel every reason to invite you in.