Teacher / Lecturer CV example

What recruiters expect

Before writing anything, it helps to know what the person reading is checking for. In this field that is usually a short, specific list:

• Subject, key stages or levels taught, and the examination specifications used.
• Qualified teacher status or the local equivalent, with the award date.
• Outcomes: attainment, progress measures or pass rates, with the cohort size.
• Curriculum work: schemes of work written, resources developed, assessment design.
• Wider contribution: form tutoring, intervention programmes, clubs, trips, mentoring.
• Safeguarding training, which is a baseline expectation rather than a bonus.

Recommended CV structure

This is the running order the example uses. It is a starting point rather than a rule, but the order reflects what tends to be read first in this profession.

1. Profile — Three or four lines positioning you for the role.
2. Qualified Teacher Status & Training — Completed certifications with the issuing body.
3. Teaching Experience — Paid roles, in reverse chronological order.
4. Teaching & Curriculum Skills — Grouped skills, for example "Languages" and "Tooling".
5. Education — Degrees, diplomas and school-leaving qualifications.
6. Curriculum & Improvement Projects — Research projects, studies and audits.
7. Wider School Contribution — Unpaid roles that show relevant skills.
8. Professional Memberships — Bodies you belong to, with membership numbers where relevant.
9. Languages — Spoken languages with CEFR levels.
10. References — Referees, or a line saying they are available on request.

Sections worth adding

• Publications & Resources — Use if you have published teaching resources or contributed to a textbook.
• Professional Development — Useful where you have presented at subject association events.

Skills worth including

Grouped rather than listed in one block. Grouping makes a long list readable and shows that you can tell the difference between the things you use daily and the things you have touched.

Beyond the technical list: Building rapport with reluctant learners, Working with parents in difficult conversations, Managing workload across a full timetable, Coaching colleagues. These belong inside your experience bullets, demonstrated, rather than in a list of adjectives.

Example professional summary

Three or four lines, positioned for the role rather than describing your personality. Two versions you can adapt:

Mathematics teacher with six years of experience across Key Stage 3 to Key Stage 5, currently second in department at an 11 to 18 comprehensive. Rewrote two years of the Key Stage 3 scheme of work, run a Year 11 intervention programme that moved 11 of 14 targeted students to grade 4 or above, and mentor two trainee teachers a year.

Newly qualified teacher of English with a strong placement record across Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4, including a GCSE Literature group taken from January to the summer series. Keen to develop a whole-school reading intervention.

Writing your experience

The difference between a CV that gets a call and one that does not is almost always in the bullet points. Each pair below shows a real rewrite of the kind of line that appears on most CVs in this field.

Taken from the example

The sample CV for this profession is fully written. A few sections from it, so you can see the level of specificity that works:

Experience

Second in Department, Mathematics, Sherwood Vale Academy

• Teach Mathematics across Key Stage 3 to Key Stage 5, including GCSE Higher and A-level Pure and Statistics, with a timetable of 22 periods a week across five year groups.
• GCSE Higher class of 28 achieved 79% at grade 5 or above against a predicted 64%, with all 28 entered.
• Designed and run a weekly intervention group for 14 Year 11 students on the grade 3 to 4 boundary using diagnostic question analysis; 11 of the 14 achieved grade 4 or above.
• Rewrote the Key Stage 3 scheme of work for two years of the curriculum, sequencing algebra earlier to support the GCSE foundation route, and produced the accompanying assessments and mark schemes.

Audit and research

• Key Stage 3 curriculum resequencing — Rewrote two years of the Key Stage 3 scheme of work with earlier algebra sequencing to strengthen the GCSE foundation route.
• Year 11 boundary intervention programme — Weekly small-group intervention for students on the grade 3 to 4 boundary, targeted using diagnostic question analysis rather than overall score.

Education

• BSc (Hons) Mathematics, University of Nottingham — Upper Second Class (2:1)

Certifications and registration

• Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) — Department for Education
• PGCE Secondary Mathematics — University of Nottingham
• Safeguarding and Child Protection – Level 3 — Local Safeguarding Partnership
• National Professional Qualification for Leading Teaching (NPQLT) — Teaching School Hub

Common mistakes

ATS considerations

Applicant tracking systems behave differently by sector, and generic advice is often wrong for a given field. These points are specific to teacher / lecturer applications:

• Write "Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)" in full with the award date.
• Name the key stages and the qualifications: "Key Stage 4 (GCSE)", "Key Stage 5 (A-level)".
• Include the examination board where you have taught its specification; it is a genuine differentiator.
• State safeguarding training with the level and the date, since it is checked as a matter of course.

The Minimal ATS layout is built for this, and the ATS guide covers what parsers do to a file in more detail.

Guides that go deeper

This page applies general CV advice to one field. The full treatment of each part is here:

• How to Describe Work Experience — The difference between listing duties and demonstrating impact, and a repeatable way to rewrite any weak bullet point.
• How Long Should a CV Be? — Two pages for most people, and a clear method for getting there when you have more experience than space.
• How to List Skills on a CV — Group them, be specific, and cut anything you would not want to be interviewed on for ten minutes.

Questions about teacher / lecturer CVs