Your letter of application, or the supporting statement on an application form, says more about you than you might think. It also looks deceptively easy. You’ve got all that experience; just put it in the right order and the interviews will roll in. Except it’s never quite that simple, even when schools are short of good candidates.
A quick note on format first. Most schools now ask for an application form with a supporting statement rather than a letter and a CV. That’s partly safer recruitment: statutory guidance tells schools not to accept a CV on its own. Whatever a school asks for, give them exactly that. The advice below works for either.
What the panel hopes to find
The core of a good application is simple to describe and tricky to do. For a leadership post, a panel is looking for:
- a short, clear statement of what you believe education is for
- a strong sense that you care about children, and that what you’d do in the role would be for their benefit
- what your experience has taught you about leading people, and how it would shape the way you’d do this job
- your take on what the role actually is, and how you’ve been prepared for it
Alongside that, give a short summary of your professional and interpersonal skills, and a little about the kind of person you are.
Finish by saying that you believe your experience and skills equip you to take on the role, and name it properly: Deputy Headteacher at the school’s actual name, not “this post”. It helps the panel picture you in the job, and it shows you haven’t sent the same letter to twelve schools.
For a classroom post the same shape works on a smaller scale: what you believe about teaching, what you’ve done that shows it, and why this school.
What they don’t want
Apart from the obvious (typos, the wrong school’s name, a coffee ring), panels don’t want:
- a travelogue of your career (“and then I… and then I…”), which your form or CV already covers
- a list of your achievements with no evidence; your referees will tell them how good you are
- a lecture on leadership, thick with jargon
- anything too folksy or too clever
Write the headings first so the structure holds, then fill them in. Keep it to a side and a half of A4 if you can, and never more than two, unless the school says otherwise.
Applying to more than one school
You’ll probably apply for more than one job. Don’t send the same statement to each. The point is to show one particular school that you meet its criteria, and the job description and person specification tell you exactly what those are. Panels often shortlist by working down the person specification, so make it easy for them to tick things off.
Go beyond the advert too. Read the school’s website and latest Ofsted report. If the school has obvious challenges, show how you’d help with them without spelling them out. The panel knows what their problems are. They don’t need a stranger reminding them.
If you use an AI tool to help you draft, rewrite it properly in your own words. Panels are reading a lot of statements that sound exactly alike, and yours needs to sound like you.
Yes, all this takes longer. It could also be the best-spent hour of your career.
Before you send it
Read it aloud. If a sentence would sound odd said to the head across a desk, rewrite it. Then ask someone whose judgement you trust to read it too, ideally someone who has sat on a panel. It’s meant to be hard: the whole process is designed to sort the strong applications from the rest, just as a well-run interview will do for the shortlist.
If you’re aiming for senior leadership, Secure Your First Leadership Role: Preparing for Senior Leadership covers the application and a great deal more. And once you’ve got the interview, our top tips for teaching interviews will help with the next bit.