While some believe a cover letter is irrelevant, it is yet another chance to set you apart from all of the other candidates. Furthermore, it is the introduction and encouragement that recruiters need to sit up and take notice of your CV. With this in mind, how can you make sure you have an excellent cover letter? Start by removing these five cover letter mistakes that teachers make.

Impersonal intros

Where possible, you need to actively avoid starting your cover letter with; ‘Dear Sir/Madam’. Firstly, this is impersonal which will make recruiters less likely to look at it with interest. Secondly, it shows that you haven’t taken the time to research the recruiters that you need to impress.

Get rid of impersonal introductions and instead, try to find the name of the recruiter or headteacher you are targeting. With their name on the letter, they are more likely to read something personally addressed to them.

Making it too long

Just like your CV needs to be under two pages long, your cover letter should also have a limit. Ideally, your cover letter should be no longer than a page. Remember, your cover letter should not be a repetition of your CV, nor should it be full of comprehensive details. Instead, your cover letter should briefly highly your skills and achievements and why you’re a perfect fit for the role.

Keep it short and sweet and focus on making sure it entices the reader to open your CV.

Attaching the cover letter separately

Busy recruiters do not have time to open several attachments and wait for them to load. It is accepted that your CV will be an attachment to an email. However, if you add your cover letter as an attachment too, then it is highly unlikely that recruiters will even bother opening it.

Instead, your cover letter should be in the main body of the message in your email or recruitment portal. With this, the cover letter will be right there in front of the recruiter, encouraging them to look at your CV.

Going into too much detail

Your cover letter should be no longer than a page long, so you should not have the space to add too much detail. As a teacher, you may have a vast work history and a variety of roles that you want to share. However, try to condense these into just the high-level details.

You can also cut a lot of detail by simply focusing on the skills that the job description is looking for. The best way to do this is to determine the top five skills that the job advert specifies and work them into your cover letter, using your experience and achievements.

Writing too formally

As a teacher, you’ll want your application to show your compassion, personality and warm approach. Your cover letter is your chance to demonstrate your friendly, personable tone. However, it can be challenging to master. Write your cover letter too formally, and you’ll appear standoffish, and uncaring. Being too informal can also make you sound inexperienced, casual and over-familiar.

To get the tone right, consider how you would talk to recruiters in an interview. Remember to be polite. For example, an easy opening for a friendly, yet professional cover letter would be ‘I hope you’re well’. Similarly, you can end the covering note with a ‘kind regards’.

Don’t make these cover letter mistakes

By avoiding these five common cover letter mistakes, you are well on the way to creating an excellent application that will grab the attention of recruiters and encourage the right people to spend time looking at your CV.

Andrew Fennell is a former recruiter and founder of CV writing advice centre StandOut CV -Check out his detailed guides to writing a teaching assistant CV and teacher CV.

The post 5 cover letter mistakes that teachers make appeared first on Career Advice.

But with all these sought-after teaching qualities and plenty more to boot, how do you present yourself to employers and convince them you’re the best teacher for the job?

You’ll need a well put together, grammatically-perfect teaching CV. Not only should this prove your teaching skills, knowledge and specialisms. But, it should also display your dedication to student’s long-term development and sheer passion for education.

To do so, make sure your teaching CV answers these four questions:

What is your teaching expertise?

Don’t make the mistake of merely stating the educational establishment, dates and a few general responsibilities in your work experience section. In order to show off your teaching expertise, you need to provide detail about each teaching role you’ve held. Use this template as a guide:

Role outline: 1-2 sentences outlining the place of work. For example, was it a school, college or university? As well as the specific age groups and subjects you taught.

Responsibilites: In the form of a bullet-pointed list, note down important day-to-day duties. Where possible, add impact by incorporating results, facts and figures.

Achievements: If you have any notable achievements, add them onto the end to catch recruiter’s attention. This could be something along the lines of “Improved class exam results by 20% and achieved a pass rate of 85%” or “Set-up a new subject after-school club which 40% of the class attended”.

Make sure to add your subject and curriculum knowledge, ages and levels taught and impressive achievements into your personal profile, too.

Are you qualified?

The teaching industry is (understandably) heavily regulated as professions go, and teachers are expected to meet several educational requirements. Whether you hold a degree in education, a PGCE or an alternative teaching qualification, it’s essential to make it clear on your CV.

Make sure your personal profile highlights your qualifications. This ensures potential employers can easily spot them whilst making the initial shortlist.

Add a more in-depth educational section at the bottom of your CV. This can detail your PGCE and/or degree, A-Levels and GCSEs and vocational training along with the institution name, dates and grades. You might want to also go into more detail about placements, modules or assignments. Especially if you feel they’re highly relevant to the position you’re applying for.

Do you help outside of the classroom?

Competition for teaching roles is tough, so showing your experience beyond the classroom can help you stand out in a pile of applications.

Have you lead extracurricular activities, helped organise school events or trips, organized revision classes or done anything else which went above and beyond your job description? These things are all great for your CV and prove your passion for student development.

And if you’ve acted as a head of year, head of subject or have aided in school administration, budgeting, safeguarding, special needs, training or other duties, add them into your CV and personal profile too – they’ll give you huge brownie points!

What do your students achieve?

Employers want to know that as well as simply fulfilling your duties, you had a positive impact on your students and the school as a whole. A great way of doing this is to make your CV achievement-focused with facts and figures, for example:

• Raised the average GCSE grade from C to B
• Introduced an anti-bullying campaign which lessened bullying reports by 40%
• Achieved a high pass rate of 90%+ in A-Level class 3 years running
• Introduced a revision class and helped 50% of low-ability GCSE students achieve above their predicted grade

Quantifying your achievements in this way is sure to help you catch recruiter’s attention and add huge value to your CV.

Master your teaching CV

Hopefully, with a little time and effort, you can put together a winning teaching CV. Once it’s ready, register it on sites like Education Jobs and find the right job opportunity, for you!

About the author: Andrew Fennell is the founder of CV writing advice website StandOut CV – he is a former recruitment consultant and contributes careers advice to websites like Business Insider, The Guardian and FastCompany.

The post 4 questions your teaching CV should answer appeared first on Career Advice.

So, ensuring that you incorporate the following teaching skills into your CV will give you the best chance of wowing recruiters and landing interviews at leading educational establishments.

Classroom management

Effective learning relies on a classroom of well-behaved children who are being properly managed. So, your teaching CV should highlight specific examples of how you achieve this. You will need to demonstrate the strategies and behaviour management tactics that you use to help you deliver a lesson that captivate students and delivers the content in a structured manner, aiding engaged learning.

You should also show that you are equipped to deal with a wide variety of students and environments and as such, can adapt your management style accordingly.

Planning

Long and short-term planning is vital to success in a teaching role. It ensures that students have a defined means of reaching their educational goals. To demonstrate your planning abilities in your teaching CV, you must provide solid examples of both your lesson planning and long-term planning for your students.

Show recruiters and potential employers how much time and effort you dedicate to your planning. Exhibit the methods you utilise, and detail other staff members you might interact with during the process to aid your success.

Performance monitoring

Meticulous planning and perfect lesson delivery are great, but without proper performance monitoring, you won’t know if your teaching has been effective. As a good teacher, your teaching CV should contain plenty of examples of performance monitoring through exams, assessments and marking.

This is also great for including some of the results you have been helping your students to achieve. You could also highlight areas of bad performance and show what measures you have put in place to improve them.

Parent relationships

Outside of the classroom, teachers have an obligation to build strong relationships with parents and guardians. You’ll need to encourage a supportive home-learning environment and help parents to become more involved in their children’s education.

As such, your CV role descriptions should include some mentions of your approach to parent meetings. For example, parents evenings and disciplinary occasions. It should also showcase your overall attitude towards parent-teacher relations.

Safeguarding and welfare

In any role that involves working with children, the safety and welfare of those children should be paramount. Although your teaching CV will focus on your ability to educate your pupils, it should also show readers that you have the knowledge and skills to look after the children in your care.

Proving yourself as a vigilant carer who can identify concerns about child welfare and handle them effectively to ensure children are protected from any potentially unsafe situations, should be an important factor in your CV.

Ready to start your career in teaching? Search through thousands of roles on Education Jobs. For more top tips, check out the CV-Library Career Advice page, now.

About the author: Andrew Fennell is the Director of StandOut CV: a leading CV writing service and advice website with a mission to help job hunters land the jobs they want. With plenty of free resources such as their CV writing guide and templates, they have everything you need to craft an interview winning CV.

The post 6 important skills for your teaching CV appeared first on Career Advice.

Congratulations, you’re a newly qualified teacher and you’re looking for your first teaching position to help you complete your 12-month induction programme.

But how are you going to land your first real role? With a strong application of course! And your cover letter plays an important part in this.

Your NQT cover letter is your chance to introduce yourself to the recruiter or employer, and expand on your CV.

To help you get this right, the guide below will look at how to write a great cover letter as an NQT.

Perfect the format and layout

When writing your NQT cover letter, you need to choose a clear layout that’s easy for the recruiter to read.

You should also follow the traditional letter format, placing your address on the top right-hand side of the page and including the date before addressing the recruiter.

Be sure to use the correct sign off at the end of the letter.

It’s also important that your letter is short and sweet, certainly no longer than one A4 page. It’s best to use around five to ten sentences and break these down into three or four paragraphs.

Remember, recruiters see a huge number of applications every day, so you want to make sure yours is clear and concise.

Get your introduction and ending right

The first paragraph is going to be your introduction, and this should be just a sentence or two.

You need to give a brief outline of who you are, for example, ‘I am a newly qualified teacher looking for my first full-time role’.

You must also include the title of the job you’re applying for like so: ‘I am writing to apply to your advertised position of…’

At the end of your letter, sign off with a strong call to action, such as your availability for a phone call or interview. Be sure the letter includes all your correct contact details.

Do your research

In order to write an effective cover letter, you need to do your research on the school and the role.

Take a look at their website and try to get a real understanding of their core values. You should also read through the job description carefully to see what important information is included on there.

Doing your research will enable you to tailor your cover letter to that specific role and school, which is vital when applying for jobs. This will allow you to mention why you have an interest in their school in particular.

Finally, do your best to find the name of the recruiter or employer so you can address them directly in your letter.

Keep it relevant

As previously stated, you want your cover letter to be as short and sweet as possible. That’s why it’s so important to include only the relevant information.

You might have a laundry list of qualifications, extracurricular activities and interesting hobbies, but if they’re not relevant to the specific role you’re applying to then it’s best to leave them out.

And remember, save the detail for your CV. Keep your cover letter at a very high-level, only pointing out your most valuable and relevant attributes, rather than simply repeating your entire CV.

Highlight your key skills and education

It’s important that you use your cover letter to expand on your CV, so you want to outline the key qualifications and skills that are going to help you in this role.

Show them how you can benefit their school by giving examples of your past achievements.

In order to show that you’re the perfect match, use keywords from the job description throughout your letter.

For example, if they’re looking for a ‘newly qualified teacher’ with ‘classroom management’ skills and the ability to spot ‘SEN’ – include these keywords in your application.

It’s time to perfect your NQT cover letter

Perfecting your cover letter can take time, but it’s an essential part of landing your first teaching role.

Use the advice above to write a killer NQT cover letter, being careful to keep it clear and concise and use important keywords throughout.

About the author: Andrew Fennell is the founder of CV writing advice website StandOut CV – he is a former recruitment consultant and contributes careers advice to websites like Business Insider, The Guardian and FastCompany.

The post How to write an NQT cover letter appeared first on Career Advice.

But don’t let CV stress overshadow the amazing learning experiences ahead of you. Read these essential do’s and don’ts of an NQT CV, implement the tips and ensure your application heads straight for the shortlist.

Do research the school

The most common NQT CV mistake? Lack of research. Without knowledge and insight into the school or college you’re applying to, it’s almost impossible to target your CV and cover letter. Plus, how are you meant to show your enthusiasm for the specific school if you don’t actually know anything about it?

Take a look at recent Ofsted reports and achievement tables. Also, check out the school’s website and, if you can, pop in and have a look around. As well as helping you tailor your application appropriately, having this knowledge to hand will show bags of initiative at interview stage.

Don’t underestimate your placement

Your placement may well be your only teaching experience to date; so make it count in your NQT CV. Recruiters will be keen to hear about the type of school (size, setting etc), the subject, ages and curriculum taught, as well as any responsibilities outside of the classroom.

You should also include this information in your personal profile to make sure recruiters pick up on vital information during their initial scan.

Do focus on relevant transferable skills

As an NQT, you may lack in tangible teaching experience. But the key is to show the school your potential by picking out your most valuable transferable skills.

In your previous work experience (this may be a full-time role in another industry or a part-time job alongside your studies), what transferable skills did you develop which could relate to teaching?

For example, as a teacher, you’ll need to work closely with other members of staff to maximise your student’s learning.Therefore, sharing previous teamwork experiences could really boost your chances.

Other examples of relevant transferable skills are communication, time management, creativity and IT; just make sure to include tangible examples when you list them.

Don’t send a generic CV

When you’re eager to secure your first ever teaching role, it can be tempting to send the same CV off for multiple applications. But this technique won’t do you any favours.

You need to analyse the job description and use your research to match your CV to the specific role you’re applying for. Ideally, you’ll provide specific evidence and examples which prove you’re capable of meeting all the desired requirements.

For example, if the school is looking for GCSE experience and you covered a few GCSE classes during your placement year, you’ll want to talk in-depth about this experience in your placement section; and mention it in your personal profile.

Do check your online footprint

It’s 2019 and your teaching application isn’t the only way that schools judge your suitability for the role. You can be sure they’ll be checking out your digital footprint, too!

You could be the perfect candidate for the role, with shining references and a faultless interview technique – but if they find questionable social media posts online, you might find yourself out of the job.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t have a personal life. Just make sure you watch what you post online, untag inappropriate photos and keep social media profiles as private as possible.

Don’t forget to proofread

As a teacher, you’re expected to have a good (if not excellent) level of written communication. For this reason, a typo or significant grammatical error could spell the very end of your chances. Aim to be meticulous in your proofreading process, checking your CV several times and asking a wordsmith friend to double check it for you.

Perfect your NQT CV

If you aim for the do’s and avoid the don’ts stated above, you should be well on your way to a top-class NQT CV – good luck!

About the author: Andrew Fennell is the founder of CV writing advice website StandOut CV – he is a former recruitment consultant and contributes careers advice to websites like Business Insider, The Guardian and FastCompany.

The post The do’s and don’ts of an NQT CV appeared first on Career Advice.

Sound familiar? Whether you’re an NQT or a seasoned professional, it can feel extremely frustrating to apply to multiple roles and not hear anything back. Especially when you know you’re a passionate and capable teacher.

Check out these top tips to boost a failing teaching CV. They’re sure to help you prove that you’re the perfect candidate for the job.

Review target jobs

One of the most common reasons for a failing teaching CV is sending the same CV to each and every role. Before you send off your next application, it pays to do your homework.

Research the school and check back to the job description to figure out exactly what they’re looking for. Ensure you mention any important skills they’re specifically seeking in the top third of your CV, including when and where you’ve put them into practice.

The same goes for experience. For example, if the school is looking for someone with GCSE experience, go into more depth about your experience and knowledge of this area than others. You’ll also want to mention that you’ve got X years of GCSE experience in your personal profile.

Yes, you may have to make a few alterations before each application – but it’s sure to help you land an interview.

Simplify the CV

No matter how much knowledge, experience and passion you portray, bad formatting and lack of structure could land your CV straight in the bin. You should be aiming to create an easy on the eye CV which is concise and to the point.

You might teach your students about essay writing, but that certainly doesn’t mean your CV should be one. Use dynamic, snappy language and keep the document to two pages, no matter how much experience you have.

To help recruiters find the information they need, use plenty of bullet-pointed lists and subheadings. It’s important to leave some white space, too – a jam-packed CV comes across as unorganized and unprofessional.

As for structure, start with your basic contact details, a punchy personal profile and a core skills list followed by your work experience and education history – making sure each and every point you include is relevant to the role in question.

Remove cliches

Imagine how many CVs a school receives which state that candidate is ‘a hard worker’, ‘an excellent team-player’ or ‘highly-motivated’. Cliches like this won’t impress employers – they’ve likely already read those exact words on the previous 10 applications.

Give recruiters a reason to believe you. If you’re a good team player, state a time you worked with other teachers to achieve something impressive. Lots of cliches can be avoided by simply focusing on attributes, experiences and results rather than empty, overly-used statements.

Focus on results

Teachers often fail to include results in their CV, assuming they’re not relevant to the education industry. No, teachers don’t generate leads or sales. But they are expected to produce results for the school in terms of grades and student performance.

Think about your previous or current role. Did you run after-school revision sessions which helped to raise low achieving student’s grades? Did you achieve an impressively high percentage of pass grades at GCSE? Or perhaps, you organised a brand new club which helped students develop a new skill or hobby?

As long as the result shows that you’ve gone the extra mile for your students or colleagues, it’s worth including on your teaching CV.

Avoid a failing teaching CV

If you spend some time making these four adjustments to your teaching CV, we’re certain it will increase your chances of nabbing that all-important interview and landing the perfect role. Good luck!

The post How to improve a failing teaching CV appeared first on Career Advice.

A successful CV should highlight your relevant skills and experience, communicate your interest in education and show your passion for seeing young people succeed. At the same time, it needs to be well written and formatted. Sounds like a lot – right? Don’t fear we’re here to help.

Read this guide to learn how to write a first-class teaching assistant CV, which proves to employers that you’d be a valuable addition to their school.

Structure for success

There’s no point starting to write your teaching assistant CV until you understand exactly how it should be structured. Try to stick to the following format as closely as you can.

Personal details – Note down your name, number, email, and location. There’s no need to share your full address or date of birth. Keep it simple.

Personal profile – Around four to six lines to sell yourself, detailing your most important skills and experience.

Core skills – Include six to eight snappy bullet points, which show your key skills and the value you could bring.

Teaching experience – Talk about your work history, in particular, any roles related to teaching or education, detailing the impact you made in each role.

Education – Finish off your winning CV by noting down your education or any relevant qualifications/certifications.

Hook readers instantly

Including a powerful personal profile section at the top of your teaching assistant CV is essential. If there’s lots of applications, a recruiter is likely to scan your profile to decide whether the entire CV is worth a read.

Imagine your profile as a sales pitch – it’s your one chance to convince the school of your value. Aim for a short, snappy paragraph which showcases your best talents and conveys all you have to offer. This could include:

• Your key teaching skills
• Qualifications related to education/teaching
• Ages of children you’ve worked with
• Subjects you’ve specialised in or curriculums you have in-depth knowledge of
• Types of schools you’ve worked in
• Any relevant teaching experience

Now show off your talents in the core skills section to catch the reader’s attention. As mentioned above, this is a bullet-pointed list, which gives them an immediate idea of what you can bring to the role and how appropriate you are for the position.

Always refer back to the job post to see what specific skills the school is searching for. Then use the keywords they ask for (such as ‘great communication’, ‘organisation’) in your CV.

Some key skills and characteristics of a fantastic teaching assistant include good reading, writing and numerical ability, excellent communication skills, the ability to effectively manage behaviour and handle large groups of children, as well as creativity and IT skills.

Showcase your teaching skills

It’s important to give a detailed overview of your work experience in your teaching assistant CV. Particularly if you’ve had roles within education. If you have relevant experience, that’s fantastic – make it the focus of this section.

If you’re applying to your first teaching assistant role, don’t worry. Try to draw skills from your previous roles that could be relevant to a teaching position, like communication and organisation.

Keep in mind that anything that involves working with children or young adults is relevant to your application – even if it was volunteer work.

Write your most recent role down first, working your way backwards. Use this structure to define your roles properly and prove your value:

• Job title – With start and finish dates
• Outline of the role – The overall goal of the role and what group or subject you worked with
• Responsibilities – Short bullet points explaining your input, for example, ‘Worked with students one-to-one to improve behavioural issues and increase focus’
• Achievements – Examples of times you generated significant results or went the extra mile, for example, ‘Organised after-school revision classes and helped low achievers boost their exam results’

Detail your education

Your teaching assistant CV should end with details of any formal education or qualifications you have. This includes GCSEs, A-Levels and degrees.

If you have any teaching qualifications, make them the star of the show. But generally, a TA position only requires Maths and English at Grade C or above – so make sure to highlight these qualifications in particular.

Prove your impact

Whilst writing your teaching assistant CV, make sure you prove your impact with each comment you make. For example, a generic remark such as ‘great at managing behaviour’ doesn’t actually show a lot about what you can offer the school.

Instead, briefly describe a time where you effectively managed behaviour and detail the positive effect it had on the class, child or teacher.

Creating an effective teaching assistant CV

Now you should be clear on what you need to include in your teaching assistant CV to make it stand out and impress the hiring manager. While this may seem difficult at first, putting in the time to get it right will go a long way towards success.

About the author: Andrew Fennell is a former recruiter and founder of CV writing advice centre StandOut CV -Check out his detailed guides to writing a teaching assistant CV and teacher CV.

The post How to create an effective teaching assistant CV appeared first on Career Advice.