Job Preparation

Writing a CV

When writing a CV for a UK school it is imperative that you provide the school with as much information as possible about your teaching skills and experiences. As an agency we have contacted UK Headteachers to find out what format they would prefer.

The format we recommend includes the following:

• Personal Details
• Objective: a short statement about what your teaching goals are
• Teaching Qualifications and Awarding Institute
• Other Education
• Teaching experience or Practicum experience: Starting with your most recent experience. You will need to provide information about the school environment including the socioeconomics of the school environment, community participation, school results, student’s behaviour etc. We also recommend providing a brief outline of the roles and responsibilities you undertook along with any extra curricular activities you participated in. For Newly Qualified Teachers please change the title of this section to ‘Practicum Experience’.

• Education Related Work Experience
• Volunteer/Leadership Experience
• Computer Skills
• Interests
• Referees: please make sure you provide email addresses for all referees.

Please Note: A CV template is available from your Career Manager and will email to you on application.

Interview Preparation

When the time comes for you to have telephone interviews with UK schools for long term positions you will need to remember that schools in the UK will have already viewed your CV and any letters of recommendation/references you have sent through and in many cases your video interview.  They will know about your skills and experiences in your home country.

Here is an example of some questions you are more than likely to be asked:

• Give me an example of when a lesson went well
• Give me an example of when a lesson did not go well – what did you/ would you do to improve it?
• If you had a couple of students talking at the back of your class, how would you deal with them? If they continued to talk, what would you do?
• How would you describe yourself as a teacher?
• How do you motivate students to do their homework?
• How do you start and finish your lessons?
• For overseas teachers– what is your motivation for coming to work in the UK?
• What do you already know about our school?
• How would you ensure that your manager gets the best out of you?
• When you were last observed teaching, what development points came up?

General questions to ask the interviewer?

• What support do you give to new members of staff?
• What would my timetable look like?
• What is the behaviour of the students like in your school?
• How does your school discipline policy work?
• Do you have many students with statements?
• Do you have classroom assistants?
• Could you describe your staff?
• What are the main targets of your school?