There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it. -Dale Carnegie, author and educator (1888-1955)

Teachers generally don't deal with CVs, and are often uncertain about what to include or exclude when putting together their own CVs. This document was compiled, bit by bit, in response to areas of weakness we frequently came across in CVs sent to us by teachers. It is a work-in-progress! There are many excellent and definitive books available from libraries and booksellers, and each writer and professional CV writer has his/her own personal approach. This is simply our view at The Teacher Network, and is reinforced by comments made by our client schools and by candidates. We hope you'll find this part of the site useful.

Your CV should be impeccably neat, easy on the eye, logically presented so that it's easy to find information, concise but comprehensive, and it should contain no factual errors (whether deliberate or unintentional). Chek yore work! Make sure, too, that you don't have any "gaps" in your CV. The CV is the story of your life, and if you skip any time periods, it raises questions. The CV should enable us to accurately assess your suitability for any post we are helping to fill. It goes without saying that there should be no grammatical or typographical errors!

2.1 Your phone numbers (preferably cell, home number and work number) should be in a prominent place, eg immediately after your name. Your e-mail address should be in the same place as your other contact information. If this isn't your own personal e-mail address, indicate this. If it's not obvious to the readers what name you are known by, underline the name they should use.

Full name:	Valerie Mary Stuart
Contact numbers:	Cell	082 872 4174
	Home	(031) 456 7890
	Work	(011) 234 5678
E-mail:	TheTeacherNetwork@iafrica.com

It is really important that these numbers are correct. It gives a very bad impression if we phone and hear that the number doesn't exist. It immediately raises the question: "What else is not correct on the CV?"

2.2 If everyone knows you as Tienie Smith, but your name is Albertina Elmarie Thorrington-Smith, put the name you are known by on the cover of your CV. If your name is Zwelo Frederick Mthabela, and your past employers have always called you Freddy, put Freddy Mthabela on the cover. But do make sure that your full name, as it appears in your ID document or passport, appears in your CV. And please, in your interactions with The Teacher Network, use the same name each time you phone or email us. Remember too that if your surname has changed (eg through marriage), it's a good idea to give your previous surname somewhere as it is possible that you will have obtained your qualifications and/or some work experience in a different surname.

2.3 On the phone to a recruitment consultant/potential employer ... While on the subject of names, we would suggest that you never introduce yourself to a recruitment consultant or a potential employer as, for example, Mr Pillay or even worse Mr P Pillay, or Mrs van der Westhuizen. Using your own title sounds pompous and self-important, and it's particularly patronising if you address the person you are phoning by his/her first name. If it's really important to you that people call you Mr or Mrs Whatever, say your first name softly and your surname with more emphasis. "Good morning, this is Prem PILLAY / Anita FOURIE". Also, never phone and say, "Hello - this is Tracey." You can't assume that we'll know WHICH Tracey it is. And finally, although you may wish to come across as warm and friendly, if you call the recruitment consultant "dear", "lovey" or "sweetheart" you are committing a serious faux pas. Be warm and friendly - but keep it professional.

2.4 Email: if your email comes from someone else's email address, it raises questions, and suggests (depending on your age) that you are either not up to speed with technology or that you not serious about looking for a post. You really should have your own email address, since these are freely available from a large number of free email service providers. Your email address should sound professional: "GrannyK@hotmail.com" and "Foxy69@webmail.com" may be fine for family and friends, but just may not inspire confidence in a potential Headmaster/Headmistress reading your CV.

If we don't know where you live, we can't know which schools are within a reasonable travelling distance for you. If applicants don't provide a residential address, it can suggest a lack of transparency. If you are prepared to work anywhere, mention this in your covering e-mail.

Remember that although your family and friends know exactly where your suburb is, it's quite possible that many other people have never heard of it. So if you live in River Club, you need to add its location ie Sandton, Johannesburg.

If you are relocating from another town, please indicate if you have a preference as to which part of Johannesburg you think you may end up in. (This is usually where you have family or friends.) If you have no preference, indicate this too.

List the subjects that you have studied at tertiary education level, as well as the title of your qualification. Indicate which institution it was, and when you were there. Use the name the institution was known by when you were there.

Jan 90 - Dec 92:	BACHELOR OF ARTS University of Natal, Durban English I, II, III Psychology I, II, III Zulu I, II Social Anthropology I Speech and Drama I Intro French NDP
Jan 93 - Dec 93:	SECONDARY TEACHERS DIPLOMA University of Cape Town Methodology: English, Guidance, African Langs

Provide the name and location of the school(s) you attended, plus the dates, and if you feel it's relevant, a list of the subjects you did in Grade 12. If you want to list your school results, don't devote too much space to this, as your subsequent education and training is far more important. Perhaps if you did poorly in any subject, you should leave out your results altogether - you want to inspire confidence in your reader, not the converse.

Provide a summary of the experience that proves you have the skills to do the job for which you're applying. Along with your qualifications, the most important thing in your CV, from our perspective and that of a potential employer, is your actual teaching experience. For this reason, indicate very clearly exactly where you have taught, what you have taught, which grades you have taught, and for how long. Remember that Principals never ever phone a recruitment agency like ourselves and say, simply, "I am looking for an educator". They are more likely to say, "I am looking for someone to teach Grade 10 and 11 Maths, and I'd prefer someone with a few years' experience".

Jan 96 - Jul 99:	WESTVILLE GIRLS' COLLEGE Grade 8-9 ENGLISH Grade 10-12 LIFE ORIENTATION Grade 8 ZULU Second Additional Language (two years) Gr 10 PHYS ED (one lesson a week, two years)
Aug 99 - Dec 02:	MEADOW PARK PREP SCHOOL Grades 000 - 7 ZULU First Additional Language Grades 8-10 LIFE ORIENTATION (two years)

Because of the variety of teaching experience that some people have, the above can be difficult, but just do your best to provide the information clearly and accurately. The names of certain subjects have changed (eg Biology to Life Sciences). You can use the name it was known by at the time, or the new name. The reader will be old enough to understand both.

Be specific. Give both the month and the year. If you only give the years 2002 - 2003, this could mean four months (November to February) or twenty-four months. Use the same format for dates throughout your CV. If you worked somewhere part-time, indicate this (eg three evenings a week during holidays; every Wednesday).

For example: Joel Smith High School, Kensington, Johannesburg; Weenen Primary School, Weenen, KZN. Don't assume that people know where every suburb or small town in South Africa is - particularly if you live in Johannesburg where there are over fifteen hundred suburbs.

This is also important information, and is often the first question a Principal asks us about a candidate we introduce. Make sure that you provide your RFL for each position you have held. For example: husband transferred to Gauteng; career advancement; overseas travel; maternity; desire to return to home town. Don't give, as your RFL, "Offered new job." Why did you want to leave your old job? Remember that when we do "Reference Checks", this is one of the things that is discussed. If your ex-employer says that you left for one reason, and your CV says that you left for another, it immediately raises questions. (See "Honesty and Transparency" below.)

Jan 96 - Jul 99:	WESTVILLE GIRLS' COLLEGE (Westville, near Durban, KZN) Grade 8-9 ENGLISH Grade 10-12 LIFE ORIENTATION Grade 8 ZULU Second Additional Language (two years) Gr 10 PHYS ED (one lesson a week, two years)
RFL:	Husband transferred to Johannesburg
Aug 99 - Dec 02:	MEADOW PARK PREP SCHOOL (Edenvale, Gauteng) Grades 000 - 7 ZULU First Additional Language Grades 8-10 LIFE ORIENTATION (two years)
RFL:	To enter the commercial world

Your CV is the story of your life. There shouldn't be gaps. If you left one post in April, and started your next post in September, indicate somewhere what you did in the meanwhile. You might put this in your reason for leaving the post eg "I resigned in order to nurse my brother full-time" or "I left teaching in order to work full-time on completing my novel The One Minute Teacher" or "When I accepted this position, the school was aware that I had already committed to preparing and accompanying a group of handicapped athletes to the Paralympics". Alternatively, put the information in in the same format that you've used for positions held. If you really did nothing for six months, find a way of describing it that is truthful but focusses on something positive.

A small professional looking font size is preferable to a very large font. Remember your purpose: you're producing a CV for a busy professional adult to read, not a class worksheet for children to read. Also, don't use too many different fonts and font sizes. Again, it doesn't look professional.

If you want something to stand out, instead of underlining it consider using CAPITAL LETTERS or bold font. This can make words stand out more effectively than underlining. See the example in 5.4 above.

Brevity is best. A CV that meanders on for six or seven pages doesn't give a good impression of the writer, nor of his/her ability to organise written information, nor of his/her sensitivity to the reader. The person reading your CV is busy, and probably has a pile of CVs that he/she needs to work through, so needs to be able to find information quickly. If your CV irritates him/her because it goes on and on and on and on, it's unlikely that you'll be short-listed. Number your pages (using Header/Footer). Don't have a separate page for each category of information. It can be difficult to summarise your own life, so if you are finding it impossible to get everything important onto two or three pages, get someone objective to help you. (See also Covering Letter below.) If the reader wants more information, he/she will ask for it.

The reader will assume that your CV is the very best you can do, so it's worth getting another pair of eyes to check your final draft. English Home Language teachers are, surprisingly, a group who tend to have a surprising number of silly errors in their CVs, for example "colledge".

If English is not your mother tongue, it is important that you ask an English Home Language speaker to check your CV. If Afrikaans is your mother tongue, be careful of the "is/are" type of error, and of direct translations from Afrikaans which are not correct in English (eg in English we say that one teaches a subject, one doesn't give it). The Teacher Network often receives CVs from African language speakers containing the word "temporally" instead of the correct word "temporary". It would be correct to say: "The post was a temporary one" or "I was in the post in a temporary capacity" or "I was a temp". (The abbreviation temp is slang, but would be acceptable in a teacher's CV.)

Check that the end of your CV is in fact the end of the document, particularly if you have decorated (see "Decoration" above) your CV with borders. Print your CV out before e-mailing it anywhere, to check that you've got this right.

CVs should not be in essay form. There are too many unnecessary words. Provide the information in columns so that the reader can skim it to find what he/she needs. Remember that the reader is busy and has a pile of CVs to work through. Let your CV be one that makes this a more pleasant task. Columns are easy on the eye. As a general rule, TABLES are not the best way to give your work history.

Your covering letter/e-mail is the first impression you make on the reader. Make sure that it's the impression you want to make. Surprisingly, some applicants don't use correct punctuation in their covering e-mails, and completely ignore the use of capital letters. Some even write in SMS-style text! We generally reject these applications: our clients are only interested in employing professional people who speak, read, write and comprehend English at the level of an educated home language speaker.

Indicate what position(s) you are applying for along with any other information that you think the reader needs to know, which you want to emphasise, or which isn't in your CV. Keep the tone friendly but professional. Make the reader feel that you are the answer to a problem, rather than that you want him/her to be the answer to your problem.

Ideally put your name and the position for which you are applying in the subject line, for example "Lucy Jones BUS EC Part-time Jhb northern suburbs" rather than "CV". Most e-mails that a recruitment agency receives from strangers are CVs or applications for positions.

Keep the tone friendly but professional. Most people get this right, but occasionally we receive covering emails that are downright bossy and peremptory, or pathetic and pleading, or ingratiating and slimy. You want the reader to feel good at the time he/she opens your CV.

The first contact most candidates have with an agency is through email. Remember that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. If the email accompanying a CV starts with, "I am sending this on behalf of my mother ... " it's hard for the reader not to jump to the conclusion that the mother is either unable to send her own emails (ie out of touch with technology) or is too lazy or disorganised to send them. If it starts with, "My son asked me to send you his CV ..." again it's hard for the reader not to wonder why the son didn't just send it himself. As potential employees, people who are out of touch with technology, lazy, disorganised, unmotivated aren't highly prized. There may be a really good reason why you can't send the CV from your own email address. In that case, consider getting a second email address (like Gmail) so that you can send it from any computer with internet access.

Indicate your availability i.e. when you are available to start. How much notice do you have to give? One term? Three months? Two weeks? None? Or are you available from a particular date (e.g. 1 August 2010)? If your notice period is negotiable, say so. If you can give one month but would prefer to give a term's notice, say so. Be absolutely correct. Don't say that you are "available immediately" unless your current employer would agree with that statement. Remember too that if you need to give a month's notice, but are prepared to "dump" your present employer and give 24 hours' notice, employers just may assume that you'll be prepared to do it to them too.

GUIDING PRINCIPLE When we phone your referees, we need to be able to get hold of them first shot! It is your responsibility to provide all of their current contact details. It is not up to us, nor a potential employer, to spend hours trying to get these numbers. Where this does happen, it puts you - the candidate - in a very bad light. It makes you look disorganised and unreliable. So please, make it easier for us to help you get a job.

(a) Try to give at least three referees, and for each referee, give these categories of information: name, position, your relationship (if not apparent from other information), contact details.

(c) Remember that educational institutions are closed for about four months of each year, and many school switchboards close a few hours before the end of a normal business working day, so don't give only a school number. If you can't give a cell number as well, give the person's home number (obviously with his/her permission).

(e) Make sure that the referees know they may be contacted. Ideally, you should contact your referees, ask if you can list them on your CV, and tell them that they may get a call from The Teacher Network.

(f) It's better not to use your immediate family members as referees. (See Transparency below.) Nor your mother-in-law, even if she really likes you! If the only people you can think of who would say nice things about you are related to you, it sort of raises questions ...

(h) Your referees should mainly be professional ones (ie people you have worked for or reported to). If you are also very involved in any other group (for example, a church, a welfare organisation, or sporting one) give a referee from this area of your life.

Name:	Miss Marguerite Greenhof
Position:	Previously Head of Department: English Westville Girls' College
Relationship:	My immediate superior for five years
Contact details:	(031) 123 4567 - Work (031) 123 4567 - Home (089) 123 4567 theapostrophe@hotmail.com

Name:	Dr Jamie Clark
Position:	Chairman of the Namib Desert Canoe Club
Relationship:	I was Membership Secretary in 2006 and 2007
Contact details:	(021) 123 4567 - Work (021) 123 4567 - Home (089) 123 4567 chairman@ndcc.co.za

Give details about your school extra-mural activities. Be specific. (For example: coached second hockey team in 1999; coached junior squash in 1998, 2003, 2008; organised Debutantes for three years; introduced and ran inter-class general knowledge quiz over a period of four years; accompanied five groups of Grade Twelve learners on Wilderness Trails in Umfolozi). If you have lots of these, divide them into logical categories eg Sporting, Academic, Cultural.

Give information about your personal extra-mural activities, for example: Current Chairman of Kalahari Canoe Club 2002. If you have achieved highly, say so. For example: South African Underwater Basket Weaving Champion 2006.

People's views differ. From my perspective, as the recruitment agent, it's helpful to have a small photograph of the applicant because of the number of applications we receive. Perhaps a rule of thumb would be that if, in "real life", your appearance is an advantage rather than a disadvantage, provide a photograph - and do make sure it's a photograph in which you look like a professional, like a teacher. In any event, it's useful (and not expensive) to have a number of recent passport-sized photographs, taken by a professional with a digital camera. They'll usually happily save them onto a disc that you provide. If you have a photograph of yourself that makes you look absolutely stunning, don't send that unless that's what you usually look like.

We need to be able to file your CV electronically as well as physically. Put the name you are known by in the subject line (e.g. Thembi Johnston-Smith), and if appropriate, a reference to the post you're applying for (e.g. Geography Teacher, Gr 8-12). The CV should ideally be a single Word document.

Include this somewhere in your CV. If you have mislaid the certificate, phone SACE on (012) 663 9517 and they'll look it up for you. (You just have to give them your ID number.) Contract them at info@sace.org.za or pr@sace.org.za - by all accounts they are very helpful. Note that SACE registration is not an option. It is required.

Ensure that your CV gives the impression of an honest, trustworthy person. If you are vague about the names of people you worked for, or when exactly you worked somewhere, it looks suspicious. There should be no chronological gaps in your CV - it is the story of your life. And if you can't remember what you were doing during a six-month period of your life, it doesn't give a very good impression of your intellect. (After all, you were there!)

If you use a family member as a referee, spell this out somewhere in the CV. Perhaps you helped your uncle every Saturday for three years at his animal shelter. He would be a good referee. But do be upfront about the fact that he is a relative.

Do not send your CV to The Teacher Network if there are any lies in it. If we find that you have lied once, we'll probably assume that there are other lies and/or that you lack integrity. If, after sending your CV to us, you notice that you have made a genuine mistake somewhere in it, please send us the corrected version and we'll update our records.

Religious views and affiliations: it's entirely up to you as to whether you mention these or not. Some schools prefer their teachers to be of a particular religious persuasion, others have no preference. It is not appropriate, however, no matter how sincere and well-intentioned you are, to assume that everyone who reads your CV shares your particular view of the world, so you should not include religious text in your CV.

List hobbies and interests where they add to the picture you want to project. Don't, as some applicants do, list "Watching TV and talking to friends" as your hobbies and interests. This may well be factually correct (and probably is for many people) but it doesn't paint a particularly inspiring picture of the applicant. If those are your only hobbies and interests, rather leave them off the CV altogether.

If, however, your hobbies and interests include something which will benefit a school (e.g. tennis, soccer, ABET at your local community centre, calligraphy, woodwork, sewing, flower arranging, being a Lifeline counsellor, doing Midmar every year) or if they tell the reader more about you as a person (volunteer at local Community Policing Forum, member of church Hospital Visiting Panel, Reader at Tape Aids for the Blind, microlight pilot, scratch golf handicap), add them to the CV. It'll make you stand out as an interesting person, and/or someone who contributes to the community.

It's better not to provide a paragraph listing what you consider your strengths. Obviously you are going to be subjective. It is far better to let your CV show, through facts, that you are, for example, a multi-talented, dedicated, extremely capable team person who interacts well at all levels and is always prepared to go the extra mile, than to state this yourself, without substantiation. If there is factual evidence of these qualities in your CV, in terms of your experience and achievements, the reader should be able to pick it up.

We understand that life changes but if the CV you send us is out of date, it doesn't give a good impression of your efficiency and accuracy and attention to detail. If you have relocated to Johannesburg, don't give a Durban home phone number. If you don't have a landline at your new residence, by all means give an "Alternate Contact Number", and indicate in brackets whose phone number it is, eg parents, John and Erina Smythe. If you left your last school in November, ensure that your CV indicates this and doesn't state that you are still working there. If you don't yet have a residential address, indicate that you are staying somewhere temporarily. If you are in transit and don't have a computer at your disposal, and there are no Internet Cafes near you, make sure that you have sent your most recent CV to a trustworthy friend who has email, and who can update it accurately, and who will email it to people as and when you ask him/her to do so.

These are worth their weight in gold. Try to collect them throughout your career. Don't, however, attach them to your CV unless specifically asked to do so. Get certified copies of them, and bring them to interviews with you. (Put them in a flip file, with the original on top, so that you can access them easily.) Do keep special letters of thanks and appreciation received from superiors/colleagues/parents/learners.

Please pretty please don't send us pages and pages of scanned documents. If we want to see a scanned copy of your academic and teaching qualifications, your Library Monitor of The Year Award, letters of recommendation, or your SACE certificate, we will ask for these. We want you to send us your CV; that is what we want. We should be able to pick up from your CV that you are a star - these documents are not part of your CV. Your achievements are, and they should appear in your CV.

If you have a Work Permit, provide the necessary information about it. Also note that you need to be registered with the South African Council for Educators - full details are available on their website. Contact them on (012) 663 9517 or at info@sace.org.za

If you don't have a home land line, perhaps give the land line number of someone whom you can trust to get a message to you. If you don't have your own computer, get a free email address (through, for example, www.hotmail.com or www.gmail.com etc) and use Internet Cafes or the computers of friends with internet access. If you don't have your own email address, it suggests that you are not up to speed with technology.

If you choose to, you can indicate your religious affiliation in the "personal details" section of your CV. Since many independent schools do have a particular religious affiliation/spiritual tradition, it can be useful information. Also many schools are keen to employ staff who can bring religious diversity to the school eg a well-known Catholic school which has a Muslim scholars' society. It is, however, not at all advisable to put religious quotations anywhere in your covering email. Although this is no doubt done with the very best of intentions, you cannot assume that the reader (ie an agent, or school management) is "coming from the same place" as you. The reader may in fact find these offensive or irritating - which defeats the whole purpose.

If you have a very girly name, you can safely assume that your reader will guess that you are female, so you don't need to state this. Similarly, if your name is Bert or Fred or Eric, most people reading your CV will be bright enough to work out that you're a male. If, however, your name is Sam or Jay or any other name that could be either sex, then it is appropriate to indicate your gender. If your name is Billy, but you are in fact a woman, it might be wise to emphasise your gender, even though you will have given your full name elsewhere in the CV (eg Wilhelmine Ann Lewis.) An elegant way to do this is to write your title, as part of your postal address eg Mrs W.A. Lewis, 21 Blue Gum Lane, Sandton 2146.

Often it's hard to know what to include in your CV, and this section is intended to help you make the most of the experience you do have, thus far. Bear in mind that the whole of the above document was written, bit by bit, in response to common errors in CVs that have been sent to us over the years. And there are certain common failings in the CVs we receive from newly qualified teachers, or those presently in their final year of training.

9.1 First of all, remember that you are marketing yourself, and trying to stand out as someone who - with little teaching experience other than prac teaching - should get a job ahead of others with similar or much more experience. So make the most of the teaching experience you have. List the schools at which you've had school experience, and say what you taught and at what level you taught it, and for how long eg Riverside Primary School, March - April 2009 (6 weeks) Grade 6 . Provide the names and contact numbers (including cell, with their permission) of the teachers whom you had the most professional contact. Try to get written references from these people, even if they're very short. If you have a complimentary report from your experience, refer to it, and put it in the interview pack. Also mention relevant things from your personal life (see below).

9.2 Don't let your CV wander on for pages and pages. The general rule is that a CV should be two to three pages long, and this applies to people with thirty years of working experience too. So if you don't have much experience, don't try to fill the CV with pages and pages of the modules you did at university or college. Your CV should highlight the important courses.

9.3 The following applies particularly to those of you who do a lot in the sporting or arts and cultural arena: divide your activities and achievements into categories. For example, all cricket coaching could be in the same section. All performing should be in one section. If you have taught Sunday School ever since you were 13, say so. These things count, but you shouldn't go overboard. For example, "Played role of third Angel in production of Christmas Play in 2005" can safely be left out.

9.4 Do include part-time and temp jobs that you've had, plus dates/time periods (e.g. School tuckshop cashier every Wednesday during Gr 10 and 11; Babysitting (ages 4-14) on average twice a week during all university holidays; student library assistant from June 2007 to November 2009). Use the people you worked for as referees. Ideally, get written references from them as well.

9.5 Get someone to check it for you, preferably someone who is objective but knows you. If your home language is not English, we strongly recommend that a mother-tongue English speaker checks it. The language of all of our client schools is English, and they expect their staff to write in English at an appropriate level for a professional, mother-tongue speaker. It is not considered acceptable for a candidate to state that she "gives" Maths. In English, we teach a subject, we don't "give" it. Similarly, a post that is held for a short period of time is not a "temporal" post. It is a temporary post. The word "I" is always spelt with a capital letter.

9.6 This is very very very important: do not use SMS style spelling anywhere in your CV or covering email. If you've been through twelve years of schooling, and four years of tertiary education, you are expected to know how to spell words like "I" and "you" and "because". First year teachers are not expected to know everything. But they are expected to know how to spell.

9.7 In the covering letter of your CV, say what you're looking for: eg, "I would like to find a position teaching Gr 4-6, ideally in Johannesburg or else in coastal KwaZulu-Natal. I am available as soon as I finish my B.Ed. at the end of the 2010."

9.8 Take a long hard look at your e-mail address: sexychick@whatever.co.za or hangoverharry@whatever.co.za may be fun for a student e-mail address but just may not inspire confidence in a potential Headmaster/Headmistress reading your CV. Register at one of the many free email service providers, and choose a professional-looking address that is straightforward and descriptive. You can't really go wrong with yourfirstname.yoursurname@whatever.co.za (It goes without saying that you should send CV from your own address, with a covering email that you have written. If your mum or dad sends the CV for you, it makes you look like a child, not like a competant and professional young teacher.)

9.9 Some people's cell phones go on to really amusing voicemail messages. While you are looking for a post, perhaps change this message to something more boring for a while. Again, if an agent or a school is trying to get hold of you with a view to placing you in your first ever teaching post, it really is in your interests to have a concise, business-like message that projects a positive image.

9.10 Finally, have a look at the rest of this page of the website. There may be other things that are useful. And then, please send us your CV. Lots of our clients are looking for brand new teachers.

Often it's hard to know what to include and what to leave out of your CV when you have over thirty years of teaching experience. This section is intended to help you make the most of the experience you do have. Bear in mind that the whole of the above document was written, bit by bit, in response to common errors in CVs that have been sent to us by older teachers over the years. And there are certain common failings in the CVs we receive from newly retired teachers.

10.1 First of all, remember that you are marketing yourself, and trying to stand out as someone who should get a post ahead of some bright young thing with training in all the latest educational theory, and skill with the latest technology. Present yourself as someone who has lots of experience but is still open to learning new things.

10.3 It will of course not be easy to summarise thirty or forty years of work and extra-murals. Divide the latter into categories and perhaps mention general trends, and highlights. "Eg At each school I worked at from 1960 to 1995, as teacher-in-charge of the Wildlife Society, I accompanied learners on annual Wilderness Trails in Umfolozi and Lake St Lucia, and organised monthly lunch-time speakers".

10.4 In the covering letter of your CV, say what you're looking for: eg, "I would like to find a position teaching Gr 8-9 English, ideally in Johannesburg or else in coastal KwaZulu-Natal. I am available as soon as I retire at the end of the 2010."

10.5 Few things make you look more "over the hill" than your attitude to technology. Do not send your CV from your son or daughter's address. Have your own professional sounding email address: "GrannyK@hotmail.com" is fine for the family but just may not inspire confidence in a potential Headmaster/Headmistress reading your CV. Register at one of the many free email service providers.

11.1 Give your SA residential address and landline and cellphone number. If you don't yet have a South African address or phone number(s), give telephone numbers where a message can be left, eg with your parents or a friend.

11.6 If you left SA before SACE registration became compulsory, please note that you need to register with the South African Council for Educators. Contact them on (012) 663 9517 or at info@sace.org.za - by all reports, they are very helpful - or see their website www.sace.org.za.