A worked example: Key Stage 2 teacher and science lead
Laura Whitcombe, from our teacher CV example, is applying for an upper Key Stage 2 post with responsibility for science. The job description asks for strong classroom practice, subject leadership, behaviour management, safeguarding and a contribution to wider school life. Laura and both schools are made up.
As science lead I rewrote our Key Stage 2 science plan with each year group team, so that skills such as fair testing build from Year 3 to Year 6, and I run two staff training sessions a year. After a session on modelling scientific vocabulary, I visited lessons in three classes and saw more pupils using words such as “variable” and “evidence” in their writing.
What you led, with whom, and how you checked it worked.
I keep routines calm and consistent: clear expectations at the door, praise that names what a pupil did, and a quiet conversation afterwards when something goes wrong. For one pupil whose outbursts were disrupting lessons, I agreed a signal he could use when he needed a short break and shared it with his parents and the SENCo; over the half term the outbursts became rare.
Your usual strategies, then one pupil's story with the result.
The Education Endowment Foundation's guidance on metacognition changed how I end science lessons: pupils now write one sentence on what they found hard and how they worked it out, which tells me who needs to revisit an idea the next day.
One piece of reading and what it changed in your classroom.
I follow the school's safeguarding procedures, record any concern for the designated safeguarding lead without delay, and read Part one of Keeping Children Safe in Education each September.
Short and specific.
I run a weekly science club for 18 pupils and organise the Year 5 museum trip each spring. I would be glad to run a club at Meadowbank and to help with transition work with your secondary schools.
What you do beyond your class, and what you would offer this school.
I would bring strong classroom practice, experience of leading a subject and a commitment to every pupil making progress. Thank you for considering my application.
Two lines.
General or specific
Teaching Vacancies gives a general opening as an example to avoid: it does not give the school a picture of your skills, experience or results. A specific example says what you did and what changed for pupils.
Fictional wording example
BeforeI have always wanted to be a teacher. I enjoy working with children and I think I would be good at this role.
AfterIn maths this year, short daily quizzes showed which pupils had not secured place value; I regrouped them for ten-minute catch-up sessions, and by the spring assessment 26 of 30 pupils were working at the expected standard, up from 19.
How to write yours
Teaching Vacancies, the Department for Education's job site, gives this advice for a teacher personal statement.
- Write in your own voice. AI tools can help with ideas and structure, but schools want your skills, experience and personality in your own words.
- Show how your experience meets the job description: the essential criteria first, then the desirable ones if you can, each example showing its effect on pupils.
- Tailor it to the school or college, using its website, ethos and values.
- Share teaching theory or research that changed your practice, and what you learned from it.
- Show how you would contribute to wider school or college life.
- There is no set length; many schools expect around 1 to 2 pages. You may want to include examples that show you meet the Teachers' Standards.
- Returning to teaching? Say how your time away added to your skills and experience.