What should you include in a teacher resume?

Teaching in an Australian school centres on lesson planning and delivery, differentiated instruction for the spread of ability in a class, ongoing assessment and reporting against curriculum outcomes, and pastoral care for the students on your roll or in your year group. A graduate teacher is typically mentored by a more experienced colleague and builds up to a full teaching load across a term or two, while an experienced teacher often carries additional responsibilities on top of a full timetable: a head of department or faculty role, a year coordinator position, or leading a specific program. None of this reads well as a general duties list; naming the actual subjects, year levels, and any leadership or coordination role you held is what lets a reader place you.

The Educational Services (Teachers) Award sets a minimum of ~$1,455 a week (~$75,680 a year) for a graduate (Level 1) classroom teacher; that is the award floor, not typical pay, and most teachers, especially those employed directly by a state education department rather than under the award itself, are paid under a separate enterprise agreement that sits above it. Nationally, secondary school teachers earn ~$120,700 a year (full-time median) before tax, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Primary school teaching is tracked as a separate occupation with its own classification and is not the figure above, though the two are paid on broadly similar scales in most states. Where you actually sit depends heavily on your state or territory, your years of service on the relevant pay scale, and whether you hold any additional leadership allowance.

• State your registration status plainly. Teaching legally requires registration with your state/territory's own teacher regulatory authority, so say which authority you are registered with and your status (for example, provisionally registered or fully registered), the same way a nursing resume states AHPRA registration, rather than letting a hiring panel hunt for it.
• Confirm your Working With Children Check is current. Every state and territory requires one. It is a state/territory-run check, under a different name in each jurisdiction, so name the one you hold and confirm it is current rather than listing a certificate number.
• Keep registration and certificate numbers off the resume. State the authority, status, and that both are current; the registration number and the WWCC number are personal information the resume does not need to carry.

• Name the subjects and teaching areas you actually teach. A hiring panel is scanning for a specific subject match, so list the subjects and teaching areas by name rather than a general "secondary teacher" label.
• Say which year levels or stages you have taught. Primary, specific stages, or secondary year groups tell a reader something a vague "school-aged students" does not, and most job ads name the stage they are hiring for.
• If you are early career, name your professional placements. The schools you completed supervised placements at, and any specific feedback from a mentor or supervising teacher, are real evidence of classroom performance where paid experience is still thin. Treat them the way a graduate resume in any field treats a strong internship, not as a lesser substitute for a job.
• Quantify where you genuinely can. Class or cohort sizes, a measurable improvement in results you contributed to, or a program you ran are concrete and checkable. Do not estimate a number you cannot stand behind if asked about it.

None of the above changes the shape of the document. An Australian teacher resume still runs two to three pages, in reverse chronological order, with referees listed or marked as available on request, no photo, and Australian spelling throughout. See the Australian resume format for the full detail.