Writing a cover letter for your job application
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The purpose of this part of the application is to give you the opportunity to ‘sell yourself’ and make the Head want to invite you for interview.
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Your cover letter needs to be specific to each application. Heads are unlikely to be impressed by generic cover letters. Your application as a whole needs to show how you meet the essential criteria in the person specification and demonstrate which of the desirable criteria you also meet.
So, you need to go through the person specification and identify which criteria have not been met in the other parts of your application, the CV for example. Then make sure that your cover letter describes how you meet these ones.
Most cover letters have a two page limit, therefore you will need be concise to ensure you include all of the information that you want to convey.
Heads often read many applications, so consider how to make your application stand out? In your first paragraph mention that having read all of the literature you think you are an ideal match for this role. The rest of your application will then go on to justify this.
