English teacher CV examples to help you build yours

English Teachers shape the minds of tomorrow and conduct critical duties while holding a teaching position. Candidates looking for teaching jobs will need to show hiring managers and recruiters that they know how to work with different learners, grade work, teach English Language and English Literature and much more!

Ultimately, an English teacher CV sample should show that you have the right skills and experience to manage a classroom successfully.

The structure of your CV will largely depend on the type of CV format you choose. There are three main types of CV formats:

• Chronological: Chronological CVs are the most common type of CV. This CV focuses on employment history, showing employers that you have in-depth knowledge of working with different learners, distributing course materials and working with students.
• Functional: Functional CVs are a good option for candidates without experience but many industry skills and qualifications. You can talk about extracurricular activities that you think contribute to your career in this CV type.
• Combination: This CV combines both skills and employment focus and is a great option for candidates with over a decade’s worth of experience and skills.

Regardless of the type of CV you choose, your CV will probably have similar sections such as:

• Professional summary or career objective
• Work experience
• Skills
• Education

Header

The CV header section is an important part of your CV that presents your contact information. In this section, you should include:

• Your name
• Location (Not exact address)
• Phone number
• Email address

If you have lots of industry experience and skills but can’t fit all of your information into a CV, then you can include a link to professional networking sites like LinkedIn. This is a great way of giving the hiring manager or recruiter more information about your key achievements and industry contacts without cluttering your CV.

Professional summary or career objective

Your professional summary is an opportunity for you to briefly summarise the content of your CV. You should provide two to three sentences that provide eye-catching information designed to hook the hiring manager or recruiter.

In this section, you can talk about your main achievements, certifications or skills that you think make you the ideal candidate for the role.

If you don’t have a lot of experience in teaching, then you can use a career objective. This is similar to a professional summary but focuses on your career goals instead of achievements. You can state your intentions for the role and why you think the role is perfect for you and your idea of career progression.

Skills

The perfect CV will have a skills section that clearly outlines the types of skills you’ll take into a classroom. If you’re a newly qualified teacher without a lot of work experience, your skills section might be the most important part of your functional CV.

Regardless of the type of CV you choose, all English teacher CVs should have a good combination of hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are role-specific and soft skills are personality type traits that are transferable across many industries.

If you’re struggling to think of the right terms that sum up your professional and personal qualities, then you can include these bullet points in your CV:

• Time management
• Monitoring student performance
• Organisational skills
• Classroom management
• Behaviour management
• Conflict resolution
• Interpersonal skills
• Patience
• Empathy
• Critical thinking
• ESL (Teaching as Second Language Certification)
• Research skills
• Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• Written and verbal communication skills
• Knowledge of multiple teaching methods
• Reinforcement of a positive learning environment

Work history

If you have previous experience as a teacher without specialisation or you have many years of experience as an English teacher, then your work experience section might be the main focus of your chronological or combination CV.

In this section, you should list your previous employment experience in reverse chronological order. You can do this by starting from the most recent example and working backward. Below each job title, you should include your previous school’s name, location and the date you started and finished.

You can also include brief bullet points below each job title that explain your primary duties and key accomplishments while working, such as preparing coursework, creating lesson plans and other teaching duties. You shouldn’t go into too much detail, but you can use an English teacher cover letter to explain further.

Education

If you’re looking for an English teacher role, then you’ll usually need a bachelor’s degree in education, majoring in your sub-speciality. You can major in English Language or English Literature, learning the curriculum before working with pupils as a student-teacher.

Depending on your location, you might need to go through additional licensure before you’re eligible to teach English. Under this heading, you can state the title of your degree, the institution you studied at and the year you obtained your degree.

You can also include your GCSEs and summarize the grades you received if you have not attained higher education like a Master’s degree or PhD.

Do:

• Study the job description. This can help you identify keywords that you can include in your application to help you navigate applicant tracking systems (ATS).
• Thoroughly proofread your final work for any spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors.
• Use a CV builder to help you create the perfect CV with the best CV format.

Don’t:

• Make your sentences too long.
• Include your high school GPA. This is an example of irrelevant information.
• Forget to use a CV template. This can help you keep to a structure.