Music Teacher CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is a qualified state school music teacher covering primary classroom music and KS3 music and choir. Names and schools are invented. Instrumental leads, orchestra teachers and private studio teachers should keep the shape and swap the specifics; there are personal statements for each further down.

The person hiring you is usually a headteacher who is not a musician, sometimes with a head of music or the trust's music lead on the panel. The two audiences read for different things and your CV must serve both.

• QTS and induction. Whether you hold QTS, the year, your training route and whether induction is complete, plus an enhanced DBS check. If you qualified outside England, say where your QTS application stands. This is the first filter and it is not negotiable.
• What you can cover. Schools hire music teachers to fill a timetable. Being able to take classroom music plus choir, or a wind band plus a jazz band plus a KS3 guitar group, makes you far more hireable than a specialist in one thing.
• Department growth and results. Ensemble numbers, GCSE and A-level Music uptake, retention from year to year, festival results, county and national youth ensemble places, concert audiences. A headteacher cannot judge your musicianship but can absolutely judge whether a department grew.
• Behaviour management. Music teachers see the whole school, often in large groups, sometimes from a trolley. Evidence that you keep 30 Year 7s productive with a box of instruments is worth as much as your conducting.
• The extras. The school musical, accompanying, after-school clubs, community concerts, trips and tours. Music jobs come with evenings and weekends and the panel wants to see you know that.

“I hire for the schedule and the community. Tell me which classes you can teach, what happened to enrolment where you were, and how many concerts you put on. Then tell me your licence is current, because without that I cannot even interview you.”

People search for a music teacher career objective, but a personal statement works better even for a trainee, because it says what you can do rather than what you want. Here are five, covering the posts schools actually advertise.

Two things to avoid in a personal statement: the phrase "passionate about music", which appears on almost every application, and a list of instruments with no teaching context. Say what you teach and what changed.

Give this its own section and put it above education. A headteacher has to confirm you can be employed as a teacher before anything else matters.

• QTS with the year, your training route (PGCE, School Direct or another school-led route) and your induction status. In England QTS is awarded by the Teaching Regulation Agency on behalf of the Department for Education; Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland register teachers separately, so check the rules for the nation where you are applying.
• Subject depth if it helps you: your music degree, a performance or teaching diploma such as DipABRSM or ATCL, and high grades on your principal instrument. For a first post, say which key stages your training placements covered.
• Qualified outside England: write one line such as "Full GTCS registration (Scotland), application for QTS submitted to the Teaching Regulation Agency, September 2026". Schools hire teachers from elsewhere regularly but need to know where the paperwork stands.
• Methodology training: Orff-Schulwerk, Kodály courses, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, Suzuki teacher training, Music Learning Theory. Give the level or course length, since levels matter in this field.
• A national professional qualification (NPQLT or NPQSL) if you hold one. It is a strong line for head of department and trust-wide music roles.
• Private teachers: a teaching or performance diploma, membership of a professional body such as the ISM or the Musicians' Union, and the exam boards you prepare pupils for, such as ABRSM, Trinity College London or RSL (Rockschool).
• Practical extras schools ask for: first aid, an enhanced DBS check (say if it is on the Update Service), a full driving licence if the job is peripatetic, and any clubs, trips or tours you can lead.

A private teacher's CV goes to a music school, a studio, a community arts centre, a music service or directly to parents. It reads differently from a school CV: no QTS needed, more emphasis on your own playing, your pupils' results and how you run a studio as a business.

1. 1Lead with your instrument, your studio size and your pupils' age range. "Piano teacher with a studio of 32 weekly pupils aged 5 to 70" is immediately concrete.
2. 2Give pupil outcomes: graded exam passes by grade, festival placings, auditions won, pupils who went on to music degrees or conservatoires, retention in years.
3. 3Show your own performing and training: degrees and diplomas, teachers you studied with by title rather than name-dropping, recital and ensemble work, recordings.
4. 4Describe how you teach. Method books you use (Faber, Alfred, Suzuki, Hal Leonard), whether you teach by ear or by reading, how you handle theory and technique, and whether you teach online.
5. 5Add the business side if you run your own studio: scheduling and invoicing software, terms and policies, recital organisation, and the fact you fill your timetable.
6. 6For a job at a music school, a music service or a music shop's lesson programme, add your availability and flexibility. Those roles are filled largely on which afternoons and weekends you can cover.

• Two pages is normal for teachers with several years of experience. One page for a trainee applying for a first post. Two pages is the UK norm in most fields anyway.
• Order: header, personal statement, QTS and qualifications, experience, skills, education, then performances or CPD if you have room. Trainees put their training and placements first.
• Add a short section for the ensembles you have directed or the instruments you teach if that is not obvious from your job titles.
• No photo, no date of birth, no marital status. Most schools and trusts recruit through their own application form or the DfE's Teaching Vacancies service, so keep a plain-text version of your CV ready to paste in.
• Fill in the school's application form completely. Many schools shortlist from the form, not from the CV, and "see attached CV" costs you; safer recruitment also means a full employment history with any gaps explained.
• Mirror the advert's words when true: classroom music, choral, instrumental, Model Music Curriculum, adaptive teaching, behaviour management, SEND support, family engagement, curriculum mapping.
• Attach a short list of performances or a concert programme link only if the advert invites it. A supporting statement or cover letter is standard in teaching applications and worth having ready.
• Applying to schools in the US? There the same document is called a resume and districts expect state licensure in place of QTS. For UK schools, use CV conventions and leave the photo off.