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To get an interview.
You won’t get the job unless 
you’re interviewed, so that’s what you must keep in 
mind. It means you sell yourself hard on the 
application, and don’t leave anything to be taken for 
granted. Beware, particularly, of thinking, ‘I needn’t 
put that in. I’ll leave it for the interview.’ Many 
applicants do exactly that, clearly having failed to 
engage their brains properly.
2 
To get the panel feeling good about you before 
they meet you.
A good application actually biases 
the panel – they brighten up at the thought of seeing 
you. You want someone – preferably an influential 
member of the recruitment panel – to read your 
application and say, ‘I like the look of this one!’ In 
the most fortunate of circumstances, the job 
becomes yours to lose. And, believe me, you certainly 
can lose it.
3 
To keep the job if you land it.
That means being 
honest and not covering up any gaps in your record, 
or massaging your qualifications (more of this later; 
see page 84). 
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Good teachers make good job applications
So handle the whole application process with the greatest 
of care. It’s a tightrope: one foot wrong and you will 
tumble to your doom. An article in 
The Guardian
in 2013 
by senior teacher Alan Newland described how a head 
teacher did a first ‘sift’ of applications by looking for 
spelling mistakes: ‘If people can’t even be bothered to use 
a spell checker, let alone proofread their own application 
form,’ she said, ‘then they don’t really want to work here. 
I’m not denying them the opportunity of a job. They’re 
ruling themselves out’.
1
That, however, is only part of the story. The process really 
begins when you make your first contact with the school to 
which you intend to apply. Suppose there’s something in 
the information for applicants that you need to check. Can 
you call the school to ask about it? Of course. But, first, 
avoid looking foolish by making doubly sure that the 
answer is not already there in the sheaf of information 
you’ve been sent. Then, when you do call, be sure you’re 
polite and pleasant. You want the person on the other end, 
whoever it is, to put the phone down and say, ‘He/she 
sounds like a sensible person.’
1 Alan Newland. ‘To bin or not to bin: how headteachers sift job 
applications’, 
The Guardian 
(January 2013). Available at: http://www.
theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/jan/10/
teaching-job-applications-rejected-headteachers. 
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Good ideas for good teachers who want good jobs
YOU CAN’T PUT IT OFF ANY LONGER 
Now it’s time to sit down to compose the application. 
There are two related tasks. One is to fill in the official 
form. The other is to write the supporting statement or 
letter of application (various terms are used).
Sometimes there’s space on the form for the letter, but 
even so I’d say always do it on a separate document. 
If the form and letter are hard copy:
■
Make two or three photocopies of the form 
before you start. 
■
Do your first draft of everything in pencil. That 
one’s just for you. 
■
Use black ink if it says so – it’s because they’ll be 
making photocopies.
■
Keep tidy, write neatly within the boxes. Don’t 
cross out; start again. 
■
Number pages, and put your name on every 
page.
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Good teachers make good job applications
THE FORM 
Two cast-iron principles apply here – accuracy and 
honesty. 
ACCURACY
A typical form is generic, which means you may have to 
fill in the name of the school, and almost certainly the title 
of the post for which you’re applying.