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Contents
Assistant Principal Resume: The Essentials
Why This Assistant Principal Resume Works
How to Write an Assistant Principal Resume
Key Sections for an Assistant Principal Resume
Professional Summary Examples for an Assistant Principal
Assistant Principal Work Experience Examples
Top Assistant Principal Skills
Key Certifications & Licences for an Assistant Principal
Common Assistant Principal Resume Mistakes
Assistant Principal Resume FAQs
Summary
Assistant principal with fifteen years in education, the last five in senior leadership at a secondary school in Manchester. Supports the principal in leading the school — driving teaching and learning, behaviour and standards, and the outcomes and culture that shape students' futures. Led a teaching-and-learning improvement that lifted results and Ofsted outcomes in her areas. Holds a senior leadership portfolio, line-manages staff and departments, leads behaviour and safeguarding, analyses data, and supports whole-school improvement. Strong on both the educational leadership and the people skills running a school demands. Calm, principled and relentlessly focused on students. Qualified teacher and leader. Looking for an assistant-principal, deputy-head or senior-leadership role with a school committed to every student.
Work Experience
Assistant Principal
Manchester Secondary School, Manchester, UK
Sep 2018 – Present
- Support the principal in leading teaching, behaviour, standards and culture.
- Led a teaching-and-learning improvement that lifted results and Ofsted outcomes in her areas.
- Hold a senior leadership portfolio and line-manage staff and departments.
- Lead behaviour, safeguarding and student support across the school.
- Analyse data and drive whole-school improvement priorities.
- Shape a positive culture relentlessly focused on student outcomes.
Head of Department / Teacher
Greater Manchester School, Manchester, UK
Sep 2007 – Aug 2018
- Taught and led a department, raising results and standards.
- Developed staff and improved teaching across the team.
- Led initiatives in curriculum, behaviour and intervention.
- Gained the NPQ and promotion into senior leadership.
Education
BA (Hons) Education, Education
Manchester Metropolitan University
Sep 2004 – Jun 2007
- Education degree with qualified teacher status covering pedagogy, curriculum, assessment and child development. The training built strong, evidence-based classroom practice. Established the foundation behind effective school leadership.
NPQ in Senior Leadership, Educational Leadership
National College for Education
Jan 2016 – Jun 2017
- National Professional Qualification in senior leadership covering school improvement, staff and strategy. It professionalised the leadership side of the role. Applied directly to leading teaching and standards.
Highlights
Lifted results
- Led a teaching-and-learning improvement that lifted results and Ofsted outcomes in her areas. Better outcomes for students are the whole point of school leadership.
Students first
- Keeps every decision relentlessly focused on student outcomes, progress and wellbeing across the school. Putting students first is what makes school leadership genuinely worth doing.
Certifications
NPQ Senior Leadership
National College for Education
Jun 2017 – Present
- National Professional Qualification in senior leadership covering school improvement, staff and strategy. It professionalised the leadership side of the role. Applied directly to leading teaching and standards.
Teaching & Learning Improvement
Teaching & Learning Improvement
Sep 2019 – Jul 2021
- Led a whole-school teaching-and-learning improvement programme, coaching staff and embedding consistent practice, which lifted results and contributed to a stronger Ofsted outcome for the school.
Languages
- English (UK) — Native or Bilingual Proficiency
- French — Limited Working Proficiency
Technical Skills
- School Leadership
- Teaching & Learning
- Behaviour Management
- Safeguarding
- Staff Line Management
- Data Analysis
- School Improvement
- Curriculum Leadership
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Intervention Strategy
Personal Skills
- Leadership
- Composure
- Integrity
- Communication
- Resilience
Activities & Interests
- Partying
- Traveling
- Online Shop
- Climbing
- Archery
Assistant Principal Resume: The Essentials
Selection panels for school leadership posts work through a person specification line by line. These are the points that decide the shortlist:
- Name your leadership portfolio in the first two lines. Behaviour and culture, teaching and learning, inclusion, data and assessment, or key stage leadership are read as different jobs by a hiring principal.
- Attach student outcomes to the areas you led. Progress 8, attainment in your faculty, attendance, persistent absence and exclusion figures are the evidence a panel can verify.
- State the school context: phase, roll size, disadvantage and SEND percentages, and the current inspection grade. A leader who improved a challenging school is judged against that backdrop.
- Show that you led adults, not just students. Number of staff line managed, departments held, appraisal cycles run and coaching or CPD programmes designed.
- Make safeguarding explicit. Designated safeguarding lead or deputy status, and the systems you ran, are checked before anything else on a school leadership application.
- Keep your qualified teacher status, NPQ and phase or subject specialism visible near the top, because they are eligibility criteria rather than achievements.
Why This Assistant Principal Resume Works
This sample belongs to an assistant principal at a Manchester secondary school, five years in senior leadership after eight as a teacher and head of department. Look at the structural decisions rather than the wording.
- The summary defines the role by its relationship to the principal, supporting the head across teaching, behaviour, standards and culture, which is exactly how a governing body describes the post in the advert.
- A teaching and learning improvement that lifted results and inspection outcomes leads the achievements, and it is scoped to her areas rather than claimed for the whole school. Panels notice that honesty.
- The classroom to department to senior leadership progression is left intact, because a head appointing an assistant principal wants proof of credibility in front of a class before credibility in front of staff.
- Behaviour, safeguarding and student support sit together as a single portfolio line, matching how these responsibilities are actually bundled in a secondary school leadership team.
- The NPQ in senior leadership appears in both education and certifications, which is worth doing for eligibility criteria that a panel scores against a checklist.
- The target line names assistant principal, deputy head and senior leadership together, keeping the resume usable across three real job titles that share one person specification.
How to Write an Assistant Principal Resume
School leadership applications are scored against a person specification, so the resume works best when a panel member can tick criteria as they read rather than hunting for evidence.
How should an assistant principal resume open?
Open with your phase, years in leadership, portfolio and one outcome. "Assistant principal at an 1,150 place secondary school, four years leading behaviour and attendance, persistent absence reduced from 21 to 12 percent" gives a panel the whole shape of you in a sentence. Leave the philosophy of education to the supporting statement, which is where it belongs.
If writing about your own leadership feels harder than doing it, build the document from a structured template instead of a blank page. Our free resume builder for educators keeps the sections in the order a panel expects.
What outcomes should an assistant principal put on a resume?
Use the measures your school already reports. Progress and attainment in the faculties you line managed, attendance and persistent absence, suspension and exclusion numbers, destinations data, and inspection or review judgements in your areas. Two or three verifiable figures beat a page of improvement narrative, and a panel will ask about every one of them.
How do you show leadership of staff rather than students?
Be specific about the adults. "Line managed four heads of department and eleven teachers, ran the appraisal cycle for the faculty and designed a coaching programme that took the proportion of good or better lessons from 68 to 89 percent over two years" demonstrates the shift from classroom teacher to school leader in one bullet.
How much detail does the safeguarding responsibility need?
Enough to prove competence, never enough to identify anyone. Name your role, the training level and the systems: designated safeguarding lead, level 3 trained, CPOMS, weekly multi-agency referrals, early help coordination and attendance at child protection conferences. Case detail has no place on a resume.
Should a teaching career history stay on the resume?
Keep it, but compress it. Full detail for senior leadership and head of department posts, then two lines for earlier teaching roles naming subject, phase and key stages taught. A principal appointing an assistant head is checking that you can still command a classroom and cover lessons when the timetable falls apart.
Key Sections for an Assistant Principal Resume
School leadership resumes carry a few sections that no other profession uses, and panels look for them by name:
Qualified teacher status with your teacher reference number, subject and phase specialism, placed near the top where an HR check will find it.
A leadership portfolio block listing the areas you hold and the number of staff and students in each.
School context for every post: roll size, phase, disadvantaged and SEND percentages, and the inspection or accreditation grade during your tenure.
Safeguarding status and training level, including designated or deputy designated lead responsibilities.
NPQs, national leadership qualifications and any subject or SENCO specialist qualifications, with award dates.
Whole-school projects with defined start and end points, such as a curriculum redesign, a behaviour policy relaunch or a new assessment cycle.
Governance or trust-level work: governor roles at another school, trust-wide working groups, moderation or examiner duties.
Leave out: your teaching philosophy, long lesson observation descriptions, and CPD lists with no outcome attached.
Professional Summary Examples for an Assistant Principal
The sample on this page comes from a secondary teaching and learning portfolio. These three cover other common routes into the post:
Mid-level resume summary example
Assistant principal in a 940 place primary school, three years in senior leadership after nine years teaching across key stage 1 and key stage 2. Holds the teaching and learning portfolio alongside assessment and early reading, line managing six phase leaders and the reading intervention team. Raised the proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading at key stage 2 from 71 to 84 percent over two years by rebuilding the phonics programme and introducing weekly coaching for early career teachers. Deputy designated safeguarding lead, level 3 trained, and the school's lead for pupil premium spending and reporting. NPQ in senior leadership, qualified teacher status since 2014. Seeking an assistant or deputy headship in a primary school committed to closing the disadvantage gap.
Senior-level resume summary example
Assistant principal for behaviour and culture at an 1,480 place secondary academy with 41 percent disadvantage, six years in senior leadership within a multi-academy trust. Owns behaviour, attendance, exclusions and pastoral leadership across five year teams, line managing nine heads of year and the inclusion manager. Reduced persistent absence from 24 to 13 percent in three years through a home visit programme and a redesigned attendance escalation process, and cut suspensions by 38 percent while raising the proportion of students on report who returned to mainstream provision. Designated safeguarding lead handling 200 plus concerns a term. Trust lead for behaviour policy consistency across four schools. Looking for a deputy headship in a challenging urban secondary.
Senior-level resume summary example
Assistant principal for inclusion and SEND in an all-through school of 1,200 students, seven years in senior leadership and eleven as a SENCO. Accountable for the SEND register, education, health and care plan applications, alternative provision and the tutoring programme, with a team of two assistant SENCOs and 24 teaching assistants. Cut the average time from initial concern to an agreed support plan from 14 weeks to 5, and raised the proportion of SEND students achieving a grade 4 or above in English and maths from 22 to 39 percent across four cohorts. National award for SEN coordination, NPQ in senior leadership, level 3 safeguarding. Targeting an assistant or deputy head post with a whole-school inclusion remit.
Assistant Principal Work Experience Examples
Panels score evidence, so each bullet should name the group you were accountable for, what you changed and the figure that moved. These sets match the three portfolios most often advertised:
Behaviour, attendance and culture portfolio
- Reduced persistent absence from 24 to 13 percent across three academic years by introducing a tiered attendance escalation process, a home visit programme and weekly year team reviews of the 60 lowest attenders.
- Cut fixed term suspensions by 38 percent while raising reintegration success, replacing the isolation room with a supervised reflection process and a restorative conversation before any student returned to lessons.
- Rewrote the behaviour policy with 62 staff and a student council group, then ran the training that took recorded low level disruption in lesson observations from 31 to 9 percent of visits within two terms.
- Line managed nine heads of year and the inclusion manager, running fortnightly case reviews on the 40 students of highest concern and coordinating early help referrals with the local authority team.
- Led the school's designated safeguarding function through a full local authority audit, closing all six recommendations within the term and moving record keeping onto a single monitored digital system.
Teaching and learning portfolio
- Raised the proportion of lessons judged good or better from 68 to 89 percent over two years, replacing graded observations with an instructional coaching model and fortnightly departmental practice sessions.
- Redesigned the assessment calendar across key stages 3 and 4, cutting formal assessment points from nine to five a year and freeing roughly 40 hours of teaching time per class group for reteaching.
- Built and ran the early career teacher programme for 14 staff across two cohorts, with all 14 completing induction successfully and eleven remaining at the school beyond their second year of teaching.
- Led curriculum review across six faculties against the national framework, producing sequenced schemes of work that inspectors identified as a strength in the school's most recent inspection report.
Primary and all-through leadership
- Lifted key stage 2 reading attainment from 71 to 84 percent meeting the expected standard, rebuilding the phonics programme and introducing daily 20 minute fluency sessions across years 3 and 4.
- Restructured pupil premium spending against the education endowment foundation tiers, redirecting 46,000 pounds from equipment into small group tuition and family liaison across three academic years.
- Coached six phase leaders through their first year of middle leadership using a weekly cycle of joint planning, paired lesson visits and data review, with four subsequently promoted within the trust.
- Coordinated transition for 120 year 6 pupils into the secondary phase, introducing shared curriculum planning between phases that cut the number of students below expected reading age at Christmas by half.
Top Assistant Principal Skills
School leadership panels match your skills against the person specification almost word for word, so use the language that appears in education job adverts rather than corporate management vocabulary:
Hard skills
- Teaching and learning leadership
- Curriculum design and sequencing
- Behaviour management systems
- Safeguarding and child protection (level 3)
- Attendance and persistent absence strategy
- Student progress data analysis
- Assessment and moderation
- Staff appraisal and performance management
- Instructional coaching
- CPD design and delivery
- SEND and inclusion practice
- Pupil premium and disadvantage strategy
- School self-evaluation and improvement planning
- Inspection framework readiness
- Timetabling and curriculum staffing
- Exams administration and access arrangements
- Parent and community engagement
- Multi-agency and early help coordination
Soft skills:
- Calm authority with students
- Difficult conversations with staff
- Discretion and confidentiality
- Resilience across a long term
- Coaching and developing teachers
- Building trust with parents
Extra tips
Open the person specification and copy its exact wording for your skills headings, since many schools score shortlisting on a literal criteria grid.
Where a criterion says evidence required, make sure one bullet in your experience section answers it directly.
Key Certifications & Licences for an Assistant Principal
Some of these are eligibility requirements a panel checks before reading anything else, and others separate two otherwise equal candidates:
-
Qualified Teacher Status
— Department for Education (England) Required for school leadership posts in maintained schools. List it with your subject and phase specialism, not buried in the education section.
-
NPQSL
— Department for Education (England) The standard credential for an assistant principal post and the one most person specifications name directly.
-
NPQH
— Department for Education (England) Optional at assistant principal level but a strong signal if you are aiming at deputy headship next.
-
Designated Safeguarding Lead training
— Local safeguarding children partnership or accredited provider Required if you hold the DSL or deputy DSL role. Renewal is every two years, so include the date.
-
Principal or school administrator licence
— State department of education (US) For US applicants this is a legal requirement rather than a bonus. Name the state and the certification tier, and note reciprocity if you are applying across state lines.
-
NASENCO
— Accredited university providers (England) Relevant where the assistant principal portfolio includes inclusion or SEND. Historically required for SENCOs within three years of appointment.
Common Assistant Principal Resume Mistakes
These come up repeatedly in school leadership shortlisting, and each one costs a good candidate an interview they should have had:
- Writing whole-school results as personal achievements. A panel knows a school's Progress 8 belongs to the whole leadership team. Scope your claims to your portfolio and they become far more believable.
- Missing school context. Improving attainment in a selective school and improving it in a school with 45 percent disadvantage are different accomplishments, and without the roll size and disadvantage figures a reader cannot tell which you did.
- Treating the resume as the supporting statement. Keep the educational philosophy and the narrative for the application letter, and use the resume for evidence, scope and figures.
- Leaving safeguarding implied. If you held the designated lead role and never say so, an HR shortlister scoring against the person specification cannot award you the point.
- Listing CPD courses attended with no outcome. Twelve training titles say less than one line about the coaching programme you designed and what happened to teaching quality afterwards.
- Dropping the classroom entirely. Heads appoint assistant principals who still teach and can cover, so keep your current teaching load and subject visible.
- Naming students, families or specific safeguarding cases. It breaches confidentiality and ends an application immediately, whatever the achievement behind it.
Assistant Principal Resume FAQs
What candidates most often ask before applying for a school leadership post:
Two pages, with a third only if you are listing extensive whole-school projects or governance roles. Many schools also require their own application form, so keep the resume tight and let the supporting statement carry the narrative.
Your leadership portfolio, school context, student outcomes in your areas, the staff you line managed, safeguarding status, and your QTS and NPQ qualifications. Those six things map almost exactly onto a standard person specification.
Not legally, but most person specifications in England list the NPQSL as desirable and some as essential. If you are mid-programme, say so with your expected completion date rather than leaving it off.
A deputy head is the second in command and deputises for the principal, while an assistant principal holds a defined portfolio within the senior leadership team. Larger schools run several assistant principals under one deputy, so state where you sat in the structure.
Lead with the whole-school responsibilities you already hold. Heads of department, SENCOs and pastoral leads frequently run cross-school projects, coach colleagues and analyse cohort data, and framing that work by its reach rather than its job title is what makes the step credible.
Yes, for the areas you led, and give the baseline alongside the outcome. Two or three figures from published or internally verified data are enough, and every one should be something you can talk through comfortably at panel.
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