SEN Teacher CV Examples & Writing Guide

A fictional CV for a primary SEN teacher working in a resourced provision and in mainstream classes. If you teach in a special school, at secondary, in post-16 or in a provision for one type of need, keep the structure and change the setting words and the data you report.

Two people usually read this CV: a headteacher who needs a teacher who can hold a classroom, and the SENCO or trust SEND lead, who answers for the school's statutory duties. They look for different things and your CV has to satisfy both.

• QTS and specialist training. Schools expect QTS, and teaching a class of pupils with visual, hearing or multi-sensory impairment also needs a mandatory specialist qualification. Name other specialist training exactly: autism, dyslexia (SpLD), speech and language, with the year.
• Number of pupils and setting. Resourced provision, in-class support, specialist class, special school, alternative provision, post-16. Nine pupils in a special school class and thirty on a secondary SEN support list are different jobs.
• Statutory record. EHCP annual reviews on time, review paperwork, the quality of SEN support plans. SENCOs and headteachers answer for missed timescales and this is what keeps them up at night.
• Pupil outcome data. Percentage of EHCP or SEN support outcomes met, reading age or maths progress, behaviour incidents reduced, pupils moved into more mainstream lessons.
• Behaviour capacity. Whether you can assess behaviour and write a behaviour support plan, and whether you are trained in a de-escalation approach such as Team Teach. This is the skill most schools are short of.

“The CVs that get interviews tell me the caseload, the setting and one number about compliance. If someone writes that they held 100% annual review timeline compliance for five years, that person has never made my week worse, and I will make time to meet them.”

Three or four lines: years, QTS and specialist training, number of pupils and setting, then one statutory-timescale number and one progress number. Use a career objective only if you are new, moving from another UK nation, or moving from teaching assistant work into teaching.

Job descriptions for SEN teaching roles are almost identical from school to school. Keep the duty, then add the number of pupils, the setting and the data.

Never put a pupil's name, initials, a need linked to an individual, or anything else identifying on a CV. Aggregate the data and you stay on the right side of UK GDPR and your school's data protection policy.

Group these so a SENCO can scan for what their vacancy needs. Statutory skills first, because that is the part schools cannot compromise on.

• EHCP outcomes and SEN support plans: measurable targets, provision, adjustments and access arrangements
• SEND Code of Practice, Children and Families Act 2014, Equality Act 2010 duties, annual review timescales
• Review meeting facilitation with families, therapists, the SENCO and the local authority
• Assess, plan, do, review cycles, data collection systems and data-based target revision
• Reasonable adjustments in behaviour and suspension decisions for pupils with SEND

• Adaptive teaching, scaffolding and universal design for learning
• Structured phonics and multisensory dyslexia approaches (Orton-Gillingham based), maths intervention
• Co-teaching models and consultation with class teachers
• Functional assessment of behaviour, behaviour support plans, positive behaviour support
• De-escalation and positive handling training such as Team Teach
• Assistive technology, AAC devices, PECS, Makaton, visual timetables and sensory supports
• Semi-formal curriculum, life skills and preparing-for-adulthood planning
• Directing teaching assistants and working with speech and language and occupational therapists
• SEND software and the MIS and data tools your school uses

One quality is worth showing rather than claiming: staying steady with a family who arrives at an annual review angry. Prove it with a bullet about meetings you led with independent advisers or interpreters present, not with the word "patient".

SEND is one of the hardest areas to staff in UK schools, so a new teacher with QTS and real classroom hours gets interviews. The trick is to make school placements and teaching assistant work read like the job.

1. 1Lead with QTS: route, year awarded and induction status. If it is pending, give the expected date and the course you are on.
2. 2Put school placements in the experience section with the key stage, setting, number of pupils and what you actually did, not under education as a line.
3. 3Count what you did: support plans drafted or co-written, review reports contributed to, records kept, small groups run, meetings attended.
4. 4List every training that costs a school money to provide: Team Teach, autism (AET), dyslexia, Makaton, paediatric first aid. New teachers who already have these are cheaper to train.
5. 5If you worked as a teaching assistant, that is real SEND experience. Write it with pupil numbers, settings and data collection, not as "assisted the teacher".
6. 6Name your key stage and setting preferences honestly. Schools hire faster when they know you want the specialist class nobody else applied for.

SEN teachers need the same QTS as any other teacher, and specialist qualifications sit on top of it. The rules also differ between the four UK nations. Write exactly what you hold and check the official guidance rather than assuming.

• QTS with the year and training route, and your induction status. If you trained in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or abroad, say where your registration or QTS application stands.
• Mandatory qualifications for teaching classes of pupils with visual, hearing or multi-sensory impairment. If you teach one of those classes, give the qualification and year, or your expected completion date.
• Specialist awards: autism, dyslexia (SpLD) at Level 5 or Level 7, speech and language, early years SEND. Name them precisely rather than describing them.
• Moving between UK nations: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own teacher registration, and their frameworks differ too (Scotland uses additional support needs, Wales additional learning needs). Check the receiving nation's guidance before you apply.
• Salaried routes into teaching, such as school-led training or a postgraduate teaching apprenticeship, which many teaching assistants use to qualify. If you are on one, name the route and your expected QTS date.
• Training schools value: Team Teach or a comparable de-escalation and positive handling course, autism training (AET), dyslexia or precision teaching, Makaton, paediatric first aid.
• The NASENCO award or the NPQ for SENCOs, if you are aiming for a SENCO post.

• Two pages is normal for teachers past the first few years. One page for a new teacher.
• Order: name with QTS line, personal statement, experience, skills grouped, qualifications and training, education. Schools ask for referees on the application form; keep them off the CV.
• Give each school its phase and type, and put the number of pupils and the setting in the first bullet of each role.
• PDF unless the school's application system asks for something else. No photo, no date of birth on a UK CV.
• Many schools and trusts use an application platform that copies your CV into fields. Keep it single column with plain headings so nothing gets lost.

Mirror the job advert's own vocabulary inside your bullet points. The terms that carry weight:

• Setting words: resourced provision, SEN unit, in-class support, specialist class, special school, alternative provision, life skills, preparing for adulthood.
• Statutory words: EHCP, SEN support, SEND Code of Practice, annual review, outcomes, provision, graduated approach, reasonable adjustments.
• Teaching words: adaptive teaching, adjustments, access arrangements, progress tracking, assess-plan-do-review, structured phonics.
• Behaviour words: functional assessment, behaviour support plan, de-escalation, positive handling, reinforcement, data collection.
• Programme names the job advert lists: Team Teach, PECS, Makaton, TEACCH, Attention Autism, precision teaching.