Making the most of your CV

A concise curriculum vitae will help you secure your next job interview. A professional CV should only have a maximum of 2 or 3 pages and should follow a simple format put onto plain A4 paper only. Follow the rules below for Classroom’s preferred format.

Personal Information

Name, Contact address (preferably where you live or will be staying in London), Nationality, Email address and Date of Birth (optional due to age discrimination laws).

Qualifications

Always put your teaching qualifications 1st including the awarding institute and country. Followed this with your other relevant qualifications. Indicate the age range that you are qualified to teach.

Teaching Experience

Always put your most recent experience first including dates of employment. Put a summary statement of the nature of your employment and the responsibilities held during the role. Outline the subjects including age ranges or year levels taught. NQT’s should include details of their teaching practicals.

Professional Development

Detail any courses and seminars you have attended during the last couple of years.

Extra Curricular

If you have any relevant sporting, tutoring, volunteer work, hobbies or travel please list them.

References

If your referees are listed on your CV, we will contact them so please indicate if the referee is overseas otherwise we will ask for your referees details at interview at which time they will be contacted.

Supporting statement

A supporting statement can be an excellent addition to your CV and will fill in the gaps in your teaching philosophy. Keep your supporting statement to less than one page and is best in bullet point format. Describe your personal strengths and achievements, your teaching strategies including your lesson presentation and preparation, how you adapt to individual students needs. Outline your behaviour management strategies including your expectations and the boundaries you set.

Interview Advice

Most job interviews for teaching positions are with either the head teacher or the Head of Department, they will normally begin with giving you a breakdown of the school including the current staff and students, they will also provide you with background information on the position you are applying for. Schools will have been given a copy of your CV in advance and will know all of the available information about you from your recruitment consultant who would have also provided either a verbal introduction to you or a brief written synopsis to support your CV. Your Classroom Consultant will also have briefed you on the school and have given you access to their school OFSTED reports. Most schools will have their own website to look at.

What should you ask at interview?

When you have the chance to ask questions please do so, depending on the particular interviewer you may have lots of questions left to ask however sometimes in an in-depth interview they will cover the majority of the areas in which you may have questions however please consider the following:-

How has this particular position become available?

How many staff work in the department or year group, do you have classroom assistants and if so how many?

Do you plan work as a team or individually, do you have programmes of study pre planned?

What support do you give newly qualified teachers?

Do you employ many overseas trained teachers and in particular what additional support do you give them?

Do you have a high staff turnover and if so do you use much in the way of supply staff for cover?

How would you describe the morale of your staff?

Will there be any special needs students within my mainstream classes?

What teaching resources are available within my class, is it well resourced?

Can you describe the academic levels of students within the school?

What subjects would make up my teaching timetable, if applicable and could the timetable change during term time and if so under what circumstances?

What after hour’s events and extra curricular duties will I be expected to attend?

Will there be any non contact hours within my week?

How do you perceive the general behaviour of the classes I will be expected to teach? If so, how severe will the difficulties be?

What behavioural management strategies work best within your particular school?

Has your school ever been on “special measures” and when was your last OFSTED inspection?