Teacher resume example
A teacher resume leads with certification status, subject and key stage or grade level, because those are the first filters a school applies. Evidence teaching through attainment and behaviour outcomes rather than duties, and name the curriculum and assessment frameworks you have actually taught to.
Summary section
Qualified secondary mathematics teacher (QTS, 2019) with six years teaching KS3–KS5. Raised GCSE grade 5+ attainment in my classes from 54% to 71% over three cohorts, and lead the department's intervention programme for borderline students.
Achievement bullets that work
Written to show the result first and the method second. Adapt the structure — never copy the numbers.
- Raised GCSE grade 5+ attainment from 54% to 71% across three cohorts by restructuring the scheme of work around the topics error analysis showed were consistently lost.
- Designed and now lead the department intervention programme for borderline students; 28 of 34 students in last year's cohort met or exceeded their target grade.
- Mentored three trainee teachers through their placement year, all of whom passed and two of whom were hired into the department.
- Rebuilt KS3 assessment to give diagnostic rather than summative feedback, which the department adopted across all year groups.
- Reduced behaviour referrals in my classes by two-thirds over one year by changing the lesson opening routine and making expectations explicit and consistent.
ATS keywords for Teacher roles
Terms that postings for this role commonly contain. Use the ones that are true of you, in the posting’s own wording.
- teacher
- QTS
- curriculum planning
- lesson planning
- differentiation
- classroom management
- assessment
- SEN
- safeguarding
- KS3
- KS4
- GCSE
- formative assessment
- student attainment
- behavior management
Certification and phase come first
Schools filter on qualified status, subject and phase before anything else, and in many systems that filter is automated. QTS, PGCE, state licence, subject specialism and the key stages or grades you have taught belong directly under your name — not in an education section at the bottom.
Safeguarding and DBS or background-check status are worth stating explicitly. They are prerequisites, and a recruiter who cannot confirm them quickly will move on rather than chase you.
Attainment is the evidence, not the duties
Almost every teacher resume lists planning, delivering, marking and reporting. Those describe the job specification, not your performance in it, and they are identical across every applicant.
What differentiates is movement: attainment shifts across cohorts, intervention outcomes, behaviour referrals reduced, a practice the department adopted. Where you cannot attribute a number to yourself alone, say what you led and what followed — "the department adopted it across all year groups" is a real, checkable outcome.
Which template suits a teacher
Single-column with room for certification, safeguarding training and subject detail, none of which should be cut to fit an arbitrary page limit.
Questions
- Should I include my own exam results?
- Degree and subject yes; school-level results only for newly qualified teachers, and only briefly. After a couple of years your students' outcomes matter far more than your own.
- How do I write this as a newly qualified teacher?
- Treat placements as experience: school type, phase, subject, class sizes and what you were trusted to run independently. Placements are real teaching and should not be demoted to a training footnote.
- Do I need a personal statement?
- Many school applications require one separately. Keep the resume summary short and factual and put the philosophy in the statement, where it is actually being asked for.