Primary School Teacher CV Examples & Writing Guide

A compact CV for a primary teacher with QTS and six years in the classroom, now a phase leader. Name and schools are made up. QTS sits in the title line, each post gives year group, class size and progress numbers, and the skills list names schemes, assessments and platforms a headteacher would recognise.

Your application goes first to school or trust HR, who check QTS, references and safer recruitment paperwork, then to a headteacher or shortlisting panel that may read 60 applications for one spring vacancy. They look for four things.

• QTS and phase fit. Qualified Teacher Status, the age range you trained for (3–7, 5–11, 7–11) and your ECT induction status, plus any specialism the advert asks for, often SEND, EAL or leading a subject such as maths or English. Teachers trained outside England should say where they are with recognition of their qualification; teachers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland register with the GTCS, EWC and GTCNI respectively.
• Year groups and results. Which year groups and key stages, mixed-age classes, class sizes, the share of pupils with EAL or SEND, and what the data did: KS2 SATs or KS1 outcomes, the Phonics Screening Check, the Multiplication Tables Check, standardised test progress, intervention exits. Headteachers live on this data and want teachers who can talk about it.
• Curriculum and assessment fluency. Naming the programmes the school uses (White Rose Maths, Little Wandle, Read Write Inc., the Power of Reading, Insight, Star Reading) signals a shorter learning curve. If you know the programmes in the advert, say so.
• Families, behaviour and team. Parents' evening attendance, communication tools, your behaviour approach (the school policy, restorative practice, Zones of Regulation), phase and staff meetings, and any leadership: phase leader, subject lead, ECT mentor, club or sports team.

“I check QTS and then I go straight to the numbers. A teacher who tells me 71% of her class met their reading growth targets, and that she regroups every three weeks, has already shown me how she runs a pupil progress meeting.”

Every teacher in a maintained school in England needs Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), awarded by the Department for Education after an accredited training route: a PGCE with QTS, a school-centred (SCITT) or school-led route, an undergraduate degree with QTS, a teacher degree apprenticeship or the assessment-only route. QTS does not expire, but new teachers then complete a two-year ECT induction (one year for those who started before September 2021). Write the route, the age phase, the year and your induction status. There are no licensing exams to list.

• Required: QTS (or being on track for it), an Enhanced DBS check with a children's barred list check, references and the other safer recruitment checks under Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE). Schools also check the DfE teacher record for any prohibition order.
• Specialisms that get interviews: SEND, EAL, phonics and early reading, maths mastery, PE, music or a language. Many schools struggle to fill these, and leading a subject can come with a TLR payment.
• Worth listing as training with a year: phonics programme training (Little Wandle, Read Write Inc.), NCETM maths mastery work groups, Mental Health First Aid, Zones of Regulation, Paediatric or Emergency First Aid, and any safeguarding or behaviour training the advert mentions.
• Professional qualifications: National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) such as NPQLL, NPQLT or NPQSL, and Chartered Teacher status (CTeach). If you hold one, put it in the title line or personal statement.
• Never describe yourself as qualified before QTS is awarded. Schools check the DfE teacher record (your TRN) before an offer, and a mismatch ends the process.

Three or four lines: QTS and age phase, years and year groups taught, class make-up, one or two progress numbers, and something about families or leadership. New graduates and career changers can use a short career objective that gives their QTS status and what they bring.

The standard job description reads: plan and teach lessons to the National Curriculum, assess pupils' progress, manage behaviour, communicate with parents, work with colleagues. Every teacher does that. A strong bullet point adds the year group, the class make-up, the programme or method, and what the data did.

Choose 10 to 14 skills that match the advert and the school's programmes. Name specific schemes, assessments and platforms rather than general phrases; "adaptive teaching" means less to a headteacher than "Little Wandle keep-up groups, assessed every half term".

• English and reading: a validated systematic synthetic phonics programme (Little Wandle, Read Write Inc., Essential Letters and Sounds), whole-class and guided reading, Talk for Writing, the Power of Reading, running records and fluency checks.
• Maths: White Rose Maths, NCETM Mastering Number and teaching for mastery, manipulatives and bar models, times tables fluency (Times Tables Rock Stars), arithmetic practice.
• Assessment and data: KS1 and KS2 assessment, SATs preparation, the Phonics Screening Check, the Multiplication Tables Check, NFER or Rising Stars tests, Star Reading, pupil progress meetings and tracking (Insight, Arbor).
• SEND and EAL: SEN support plans and EHCP outcomes, the graduated approach, working with teaching assistants and the SENCo, EAL strategies (sentence stems, visuals, talk partners), challenge for more able pupils, trauma-informed practice.
• Behaviour: the school behaviour policy, restorative conversations, routines and transitions for 30 pupils, PSHE and RSHE teaching (Jigsaw, for example).
• Parent communication: ClassDojo, Seesaw, ParentMail, parents' evenings, translated updates where needed, family workshops.
• Technology: Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams, Seesaw, Purple Mash, interactive whiteboards, class sets of tablets or Chromebooks, online assessment tools.
• Soft skills headteachers actually screen for: staying calm with 30 eight-year-olds, following through with parents, taking coaching feedback, and turning up every day.

No new teacher has zero experience. You have school placements (a one-year postgraduate route usually includes around 120 days in at least two schools), and often supply, teaching assistant, tutoring or childcare work. Headteachers hiring early career teachers want to see that you taught a class for weeks, know a curriculum, have QTS on track, and handled parents and behaviour under supervision.

1. 1Header: name, contact, town, then your QTS status, age phase and expected award date.
2. 2Personal statement or career objective: two lines naming the age phase you want and your strongest evidence (placement details, teaching assistant years, a language, a subject strength).
3. 3Education first: degree and classification, training provider and route, completion date, and A-level or GCSE grades only if the advert asks; relevant modules only if they name methods (early reading, behaviour, SEND).
4. 4Placements as jobs: school type, year group, class size, weeks, how long you taught the class alone, programmes used, one result (a unit you designed, a group that made progress, your final placement assessment). Add shorter placements in one line each.
5. 5Related work with numbers: supply days and schools, teaching assistant duties and pupils supported, tutoring hours and gains, holiday club or childcare group sizes. Then skills, training and qualifications. One page, two at most.

• Length: two pages is normal for UK teachers; one full page works for new teachers. Experienced teachers with phase or subject leadership, NPQs and curriculum work use both pages. Never more than two for a class teacher post.
• Order: header with QTS line, personal statement, qualifications, experience, education, skills. New graduates move education above experience and list placements as the first experience entries.
• Plain single-column layout, standard font, no photo, no date of birth, text-based PDF. Most state schools and academies recruit through Teaching Vacancies, TES, Eteach or a local authority or trust portal and also require their own application form and supporting statement as part of safer recruitment; keep dates and titles identical everywhere and explain any gaps in employment.
• Keywords to mirror from the advert: QTS, ECT, the key stage or year group, "EAL" or "SEND" if asked, "pupil premium", "adaptive teaching", "phonics", "keep-up", "assessment for learning", "pupil progress", "safeguarding", the school's schemes and assessment tools by name, "behaviour management", "parental engagement".
• Outside England: Wales uses the Curriculum for Wales and EWC registration, Scotland GTCS registration and classes from P1 to P7, and Northern Ireland GTCNI registration. In the US the same job is an elementary school teacher, the document is a resume, and a state certificate replaces QTS.

Run the finished page through the cvplex ATS checker with the advert pasted in. It flags a missing QTS line, a programme or specialism named in the advert that you left out, and any bullet point without a class size or result.