Secondary School Teacher CV Example (Ireland)

A Secondary School Teacher CV in Ireland goes to a principal and a board of management selection committee who read it in a particular order: the Teaching Council registration number and the subjects you are registered to teach, the school types you have taught in, then your results at Junior Cycle and Leaving Certificate, and finally what you do for the school outside the timetable. Posts are advertised on the Education Posts site and through the ETBs, most start as fixed-term or part-time hours, and a contract of indefinite duration is the prize, so the CV has to show a teacher worth keeping.

The Sample CV below is for a Biology and Chemistry teacher in Co. Wexford with five years post-PME, Droichead completed, now a year head in a community school who also coordinates the science department's Junior Cycle classroom-based assessments. Its bullets name the levels taught, the classes and their outcomes, the school self-evaluation work and the extracurricular commitments that boards of management ask about.

Tailor it to each school. A voluntary secondary school with a religious ethos reads for pastoral care and participation in school life; an ETB community college for inclusion, DEIS experience and Junior Cycle wellbeing; a fee-charging school for results and co-curricular breadth. The US counterpart of this page is the teacher resume example, written for American school districts with state certification; Irish teachers register with the Teaching Council and are appointed by a school's board. The Civic template keeps the CV plain for the standard application form most schools attach.

Updated . The person and employers in this Sample CV are fictional. Written for applicants in Ireland; the page for applicants in the US is the teacher resume example.

Secondary School Teacher sample CV

Drawn at A4 proportions, the paper an Irish CV is printed on.

Éabha Considine

Secondary School Teacher of Biology and Chemistry, Teaching Council registered (Route 1), Droichead completed, Year Head

Wexfordeabha.considine@example.com089 555 0145

Summary

Post-primary teacher of Biology and Chemistry with five years since the PME, registered with the Teaching Council under Route 1 for both subjects and Science at Junior Cycle, currently on a contract of indefinite duration at a 720-pupil community school where I am a year head and coordinate the science department's classroom-based assessments. Leaving Certificate Biology results above the national distribution at higher level for three years running, a Junior Cycle science programme rebuilt around practical investigations, and a reputation with parents and the principal for knowing every student in the year group.

Experience

Teacher of Biology and Chemistry, Year Head (Fifth Year), Forth Mountain Community School

– Present

Wexford

  • Teach Biology and Chemistry to Leaving Certificate at higher and ordinary level and Science to Junior Cycle, twenty-two hours a week across six class groups, with higher-level Biology grades above the national distribution each year.
  • Year head for a group of 120 fifth-year students, running the weekly year assembly, the attendance and behaviour follow-up with tutors and parents, and the referrals to the guidance counsellor and the student support team.
  • Coordinate the science department's Junior Cycle classroom-based assessments and the subject learning and assessment review meetings, and wrote the department's common assessment calendar now used across the school.
  • Led the school self-evaluation cycle on literacy in science, introducing a key words routine in every science class that the inspectorate's follow-through report noted as embedded.
  • Run the school's science club and Young Scientist entries, with a project reaching the exhibition's final round in two of the last three years, and supervise the Transition Year work experience placements in local labs.
Teacher of Science and Biology, Barrow Rise Secondary School

–

New Ross, Co. Wexford

  • Taught Junior Cycle Science and Leaving Certificate Biology on a fixed-term contract of eighteen hours, including a sixth-year higher-level class that sat its exam in the first year the new specification was fully examined.
  • Completed Droichead induction in the first year with a professional support team, including the Teaching Council's induction workshops and a school-based observation cycle.
  • Took the under-16 camogie team two afternoons a week and supervised the lunchtime homework club for first years under the DEIS plan.
PME School Placement and Substitute Teacher, Hook Head Community College

–

Wexford

  • Completed both PME school placements in the college, teaching Science, Biology and Chemistry to Junior and Senior Cycle under a cooperating teacher and a university tutor.
  • Covered substitute hours across the science department during the second year of the PME, including Leaving Certificate practical revision classes.

Education

Professional Master of Education (Post-Primary), Biology and Chemistry

Blackstairs University, Carlow

Two-year programme with 24 weeks of school placement; research project on practical assessment in Junior Cycle science.

BSc (Hons) Biological and Chemical Sciences

Slaney Coast University, Wexford

First class honours; subjects meet the Teaching Council's curricular subject requirements for Biology and Chemistry.

Skills

  • Leaving Certificate Biology and Chemistry, higher and ordinary level
  • Junior Cycle Science and classroom-based assessments
  • Subject learning and assessment review
  • Year head and pastoral care
  • School self-evaluation and the Looking at Our School framework
  • Differentiation and inclusion, including SEN and EAL
  • Practical and laboratory safety
  • Transition Year programme design
  • Parent-teacher communication
  • Child protection procedures for schools
  • Student support team referrals
  • Extracurricular coaching and clubs

Certifications

  • Teaching Council registration, Route 1 (Post-Primary), Biology, Chemistry and Science, number on request, Teaching Council of Ireland,
  • Droichead induction completed, Teaching Council of Ireland,
  • Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools training, Professional Development Service for Teachers,
  • Garda vetting through the Teaching Council, National Vetting Bureau,

Start yours from this example

Opens this sample in the editor, in one of the templates below. Swap in your details, then tailor it to each vacancy in about two minutes.

Use this example

How an Irish CV differs

An Irish Secondary School Teacher CV is written for a board of management's selection committee and the application form most schools attach, under rules that differ from a primary school's. Registration is with the Teaching Council under Route 1 for post-primary, with each curricular subject assessed against the Council's degree requirements; the PME is the two-year qualification; Droichead is the induction a newly qualified teacher completes in a school; and employment runs from substitution to fixed-term hours to a contract of indefinite duration under the Department of Education's circulars. School types matter: voluntary secondary, ETB community colleges, community and comprehensive schools, and fee-charging schools each have their own ethos and their own reading of the CV.

For a secondary school teacher in Ireland

  1. Registration, route and subjects

    State Route 1 registration, the subjects you are registered to teach and whether any condition remains, such as Droichead or a subject shortfall. Write the registration number as available on request; the application form will ask for it.

  2. Levels and class groups, not just subjects

    Leaving Certificate higher and ordinary level, Junior Cycle, Transition Year, Leaving Certificate Applied and Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme are different timetable needs. Give each school the levels and the number of class groups you taught.

  3. Contract type and hours

    Say whether each post was substitution, fixed-term, part-time hours or a contract of indefinite duration, and the hours. Principals plan allocations around it, and a CID earned tells them a school chose to keep you.

  4. Posts of responsibility and school life

    Year head, tutor, assistant principal II, programme coordinator, teams and clubs belong near the top, not in a hobbies line. Boards of management appoint teachers who will carry part of the school.

  5. Droichead and child protection

    A newly qualified teacher should say Droichead is required, in progress or completed, because a school has to be able to host it. Every teacher should list the child protection procedures training and Garda vetting through the Teaching Council with the year.

Every CV in Ireland

A4 paper
The page is A4. Irish employers print and file on A4, and a Letter-sized PDF is the first sign a CV was written for the US.
Two pages is normal
Two pages is the norm for an Irish CV. Graduates fit one; nobody needs three unless the role is senior.
No photo
No photo, date of birth or marital status. Irish employers do not ask for them, and leaving them off keeps the page about the work.
Dates as DD/MM/YYYY
Day, month, year where a full date appears; month and year for each role. The US month-first order confuses the reader.
Irish English
Irish English follows British spelling: organise, programme, centre, licence, specialise.
Town or Dublin postal district, not a street address
"Dublin 8" or "Cork" is enough on the contact line. A full address is not expected, and the US-style "City, ST 12345" line never is.

More on applying in Ireland, with every CV example for it, on the Ireland page.

Templates for the secondary school teacher CV

All templates

Every template exports on A4. The previews are drawn on Letter; the editor sets the page size when you export.

How the CV changes with experience

The same secondary school teacher CV, written at three levels: a profile and three bullets for each.

Entry level

Zero to two years, or a first post in the title

Newly qualified post-primary teacher of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics with the PME completed in June, Teaching Council registration conditional on Droichead, and two school placements in an ETB community college and a voluntary secondary school.

  • Taught Junior Cycle Mathematics and Leaving Certificate ordinary-level Mathematics across two placements, including a sixth-year class to the examination.
  • Ran a maths support club for first years during the second placement and helped set up the school's Maths Week events.
  • Hold Garda vetting through the Teaching Council and completed the child protection procedures training before applying.

Mid level

Three to seven years, owns a process or a workload

Teacher of English and History with six years post-PME on a contract of indefinite duration, Droichead completed, the school's Leaving Certificate Applied coordinator and a debating coach.

  • Teach English and History to Leaving Certificate at higher level and coordinate the Leaving Certificate Applied programme for forty students.
  • Lead the school's junior and senior debating teams, with a team reaching the national semi-final.
  • Sit on the school's wellbeing committee and wrote the Junior Cycle wellbeing short course in History.

Senior

Eight years or more, leads people, budgets or programmes

Deputy Principal of an 800-pupil ETB community college with twelve years of teaching and eight in posts of responsibility, responsible for the timetable, student support, Droichead for new teachers and the school's self-evaluation.

  • Build the school's timetable each year for 55 teachers and run the day-to-day management of students and staff with the principal.
  • Chair the student support team and the school's Droichead professional support team for newly qualified teachers.
  • Led the school's preparation for a whole-school evaluation that reported good or very good practice in every area.

Skills to put on the secondary school teacher CV

Hard skills

Registered subjects to Leaving Certificate level
A principal needs teachers who are registered for the subjects on the timetable, and a CV that states them with the levels taught answers the first question on the application form.
Junior Cycle assessment
Classroom-based assessments and subject learning and assessment review meetings are now part of every teacher's year, and experience running them is a department asset.
Results and outcomes
Boards of management look at Leaving Certificate results and at where students went next, and a teacher who can show them has a real argument for the post.
School self-evaluation
Every school runs a self-evaluation cycle under the inspectorate's framework, and a teacher who has led one has done the work principals need done.
Inclusion and differentiation
Mixed-ability classes, students with additional needs and students with English as an additional language are in every Irish classroom, and the interview will ask how you teach all of them.
Child protection and the student support team
Teachers are mandated persons under the child protection procedures, and a year head or tutor who knows the referral pathways is trusted with a year group.

Soft skills

Classroom presence
A principal often sits in on a sample lesson, and the panel listens for how you set the tone with a class that does not want to be there.
Reliability for the school
Supervision and substitution, Croke Park hours and the team on Saturday morning are where a board sees commitment, and the CV should show them.
Working with parents
A difficult call home handled well is the mark of a good tutor or year head, and interviewers ask for an example.

Mistakes that cost secondary school teacher interviews

  1. Subjects without registration

    A teacher who writes Biology and Chemistry but not that the Teaching Council has registered them for both leaves the principal to check, and some will not. Put the registration and the subjects together in the headline.

  2. A primary school CV

    Class teacher, Aistear and the primary curriculum belong to a different register and a different route. A post-primary CV talks in subjects, levels, class groups, examination results and the posts of responsibility that run a secondary school.

  3. Results and outcomes left out

    Taught Leaving Certificate Biology says what the timetable said. Say how the classes did against the national distribution, what the Junior Cycle group produced, where the Young Scientist entry went. One number per post is enough.

  4. Only the classroom

    Boards of management hire for the whole school. A CV with no team, club, supervision, Transition Year module or committee reads as a teacher who leaves at four, and that costs interviews in a school short of volunteers.

  5. American or British framing

    State certification, grade levels, PGCE and QTS belong to other systems. Irish schools read for the PME, Route 1, Droichead, the Junior Cycle and the Leaving Certificate, and a CV in those words reads as written here.

  6. Hiding the hours and contract history

    A run of fixed-term and part-time posts is the normal start of an Irish teaching career. Write each one plainly with the hours; a gap or a vague entry raises more questions than a short contract does.

Write bullets with the XYZ formula: what changed, the number that shows it, and how you did it, in one line.

Questions about the secondary school teacher CV

What does Route 1 mean on a teacher's CV?

Route 1 is the Teaching Council's post-primary registration route. The Council assesses your degree against the curricular subject requirements for each subject and registers you to teach those subjects; the PME covers the teacher education part. Write Route 1, the subjects and the year, and any conditions still attached.

How long should a Secondary School Teacher CV be in Ireland?

Two sides of A4. A newly qualified teacher fits one with placements and substitution; a year head or an assistant principal with several schools and programmes may need two full pages. Most schools also attach a standard application form, so the CV and the form should match.

Should a newly qualified teacher mention Droichead?

Yes, clearly. Write that Droichead is required and that you are seeking a post in a school able to host it, or that it is in progress or completed. A principal needs to know whether the school has to form a professional support team for you.

How do I show results without a sixth-year class?

Use what you have: Junior Cycle outcomes, classroom-based assessment work, a Transition Year module you designed, students who chose your subject for senior cycle, a club or team result. Principals know a new teacher may not have had a Leaving Certificate class yet.

Do I list Croke Park hours, supervision and substitution?

Not as a line of their own, but let the CV show you take part in school life: supervision and substitution scheme, teams, clubs, committees and the Transition Year programme. Boards of management read for it, and a teacher who carries some of it is the one offered the next contract.

How do I tailor my CV to a voluntary secondary school versus an ETB college?

Lead with pastoral care, ethos and school life for a voluntary secondary school, and with inclusion, DEIS experience, Junior Cycle wellbeing and programmes such as Leaving Certificate Applied for an ETB college. Paste the advert into Resume Master and it rewrites the CV in that school's language in a couple of minutes.

Related CV examples

All CV examples

Every application goes out fitting the vacancy.

Paste a vacancy, get a CV rewritten for it in about two minutes.

Tailor your CV — free

Free to start. No card. Same price on web, iOS and Android.