New Zealand teacher CV template

Put your registration and certificate near the top

Registration with the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand shows you meet the profession’s standards, but registration alone doesn’t let you teach. You also need a current practising certificate. A principal checks this before anything else, so put it straight after your profile.

• Use the Teaching Council’s names: Tōmua | Provisional Practising Certificate, Tūturu | Full Practising Certificate (Category One), or Pūmau | Full Practising Certificate (Category Two).
• Add your registration number and the month your certificate runs to. Certificates last three years, and school application forms often ask for the number. Your status is also on the Teaching Council’s public register.
• If your certificate is due for renewal, say you’ve applied. If you’re still waiting on your first one, write “applied for” and the month.
• A Limited Authority to Teach is not a practising certificate. If that’s what you hold, use its own name.
• Leave your police vet off. The Teaching Council vets teachers as part of certification, and the Ministry of Education tells schools to rely on that vet and add their own risk assessment under the Children’s Act.

Beginning teachers: give each practicum its own entry

New graduates, and every overseas-trained teacher, start on a Tōmua certificate. To move to Tūturu you complete an induction and mentoring programme, usually over at least two years in New Zealand while teaching at least 0.5 of full time, and your mentor and professional leader endorse you. Principals hiring a beginning teacher know they’re signing up to support you, so they read your practicums for signs you’ll grow fast.

• List each placement under Practicum placements: the school or centre, the year levels or age group, how many weeks, and the dates.
• Say how long you held full responsibility for the class, and for how many learners.
• Name a unit you planned and how you checked what learners took from it.
• Put relief teaching, teacher aide work or holiday programmes in too. They show you can run a room.
• Once you have a year or two of your own teaching, cut practicums to one line each, or remove them.

Early childhood, primary and secondary CVs are not the same

Early childhood teachers work in kindergartens, education and care centres, kōhanga reo and other services, and need an early childhood teaching degree or graduate diploma. Licensed services follow Te Whāriki, through either the Te Ara Whānui or Te Ara Māori pathway. Write about the ages you’ve worked with, how you plan from children’s interests, and how you share learning with whānau.

Primary teachers teach children aged about 5 to 13. Give your year levels, class size and any curriculum area you lead. From 2026 schools use the updated English and maths and statistics content for Years 0–10, and science and social sciences follow for Years 0–8 in 2027. If you’ve taught the new content, say so in plain words.

Secondary teachers teach one or more specialist subjects to Years 9–13. Put the subjects and levels in your job title line. If you quote NCEA results, make clear they’re your class’s results, and give the number of students.

Show what learners gained, not your duties

Every teacher plans, teaches and assesses, so a list of duties tells a principal nothing new. Each bullet should say what you did and what changed for learners.

The Teaching Council’s 2026 Standards for the Teaching Profession make a good checklist. Schools use them in the professional growth cycle from 2026, and they become the basis for re-certification from 2027. There are eight, including knowing the content and how to teach it, assessing and reporting on learning, professional learning, and professional relationships. You don’t need to quote standard numbers; just make sure your bullets give evidence for several of them.

• Progress: “19 of 26 reading at or above expected level in June, up from 11 in February.”
• Assessment: how you found out what learners knew, and what you changed next.
• Whānau: learning conferences, home learning, how many families you reached.
• The wider school: sport, kapa haka, cultural groups, camps, a team you lead.
• Professional learning: the programme, and what you now do differently because of it.

Te reo Māori, tikanga and Te Tiriti

The first of the 2026 Standards is Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership. One of its focus areas asks teachers to practise and develop their use of te reo and tikanga Māori, including to engage well with Māori learners and their whānau. The Teaching Council’s guide to the Standards says this is about ongoing growth, and it doesn’t set a fixed level of fluency.

So be specific and honest. Name what you use in class every day, the courses you’ve done, and how you work with whānau, hapū or iwi. “Everyday classroom te reo, karakia and waiata; Level 2 evening course in 2025” is more useful than “fluent” when you’re not. Some teachers add a short pepeha; that’s a personal choice, not a requirement.

Overseas-trained teachers

You need registration and a practising certificate before you can teach here. NZQA assesses your qualification through an International Qualification Assessment. The Teaching Council also asks for evidence of English language competency, overseas police clearance, proof of identity and letters from past employers. It usually takes 6 to 12 weeks, longer if a panel reviews it, and you’ll start on a Tōmua certificate.

• Say where you’re up to: “Registered, Tōmua certificate” or “Registration applied for, May 2026”.
• Describe each overseas school in a few words: type, roll, age range and curriculum.
• Give learners’ ages alongside your country’s grade names, because year levels don’t line up between countries.
• The Ministry of Education’s workforce site reports high demand for secondary STEM teachers, te reo Māori teachers, rural schools and relievers. If that’s you, make it obvious.
• Put your visa or work rights in the line under your name.