Primary school teacher

A primary teacher takes one class for a whole year and teaches them everything: reading, maths, science, history, the lot. The teaching is the visible part. The rest is knowing thirty children well enough to notice the one whose reading has quietly stalled, planning next week around what today revealed, and having the conversations with parents that decide whether home and school are pulling in the same direction.

What the job actually involves

Plan and teach the full primary curriculum to one class across the year.
Work out where each child actually is, and change the next lesson accordingly.
Set and hold behaviour expectations that thirty children can rely on being the same tomorrow.
Direct the work of teaching assistants supporting pupils in your room.
Meet parents about progress, including the conversations neither of you is looking forward to.
Contribute to plans for pupils with special educational needs and attend their reviews.
Pass safeguarding concerns to the designated lead the moment they arise, not at the end of the week.
Lead a subject across the school once you are established, on top of your own class.

On a normal day

A parent catches you at the classroom door about something their child said happened at lunchtime.
You bin the afternoon plan, because the morning showed that half the class had not got it.
You mark thirty pieces of writing and turn them into next week's teaching rather than a page of ticks.
You hand a concern to the safeguarding lead before you leave, because it will not keep until morning.
You spend an hour after the children have gone on displays, resources and a trip risk assessment.

What it is actually like

Reading about a job only gets you so far. Career Lab drops you into one real situation from it: Handle a parent at the classroom door. It is twenty past three and the queue of parents is still moving past you. Naomi's dad has heard she was moved to a different maths group, and he wants to know why, now, with eight families listening.

You respond to the situation, then see what the work asked of you and what your choices changed.

Try being a primary school teacher

Every day you can play

Pay and hours

Starting: £33,000 a year
Typical: £41,000 a year
Experienced: £51,000 a year

Source: National Careers Service starter and experienced figures, with the midpoint shown as the median, checked 2026-07-29.

Usually 37 to 45 hours a week, regular pattern. Evenings are common.

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Skills that matter

Explaining the same idea several ways. The children who did not get the first explanation are the entire reason this job needs skill rather than knowledge.
Behaviour management. Nobody learns in a room that is not calm, and calm comes from being predictable rather than from being loud.
Assessment that changes something. Marking that does not alter what you teach next is time spent for nothing, and there is no spare time to spend.
Talking to parents. The hard conversations go better when a parent already knows you noticed their child, so the relationship gets built long before it is needed.
Subject knowledge across everything. You teach the whole curriculum, which means teaching things you last studied when you were at school yourself.
Safeguarding judgement. You see a child every day and are often the first adult to notice a change, and what you do in the next hour is what matters.
Pacing yourself. The job will take every evening you offer it, so deciding what good enough looks like is a survival skill rather than a weakness.

How people get in

University (Degree). A degree in primary education leading to qualified teacher status, with school placements running through the whole course. Usually 3 to 4 years.
Postgraduate (PGCE). Any degree subject, then a one year teacher training course run by a university or by a school, which awards qualified teacher status at the end. Usually 1 year.
Degree apprenticeship (Level 6). The teacher degree apprenticeship keeps you employed by a school on a wage while you qualify, which is why teaching assistants use it. Usually 4 years.
School led training (Postgraduate). Salaried and fee funded routes that base you in a school from the first week, with the academic side running alongside. Usually 1 year.

Experience that helps

Training providers want time in a primary classroom before you apply, and they will ask about it at interview. School experience placements, volunteering to hear readers, working as a teaching assistant, running a club or coaching a junior team all count. A large number of primary teachers were teaching assistants first, and that route is now paid for through the teacher degree apprenticeship.

Who employs primary school teachers

Local authority maintained primary schools
Academies and multi academy trusts
Independent preparatory schools
Special schools and pupil referral units
Supply agencies and local authority supply pools
British international schools overseas

Where the work happens

One classroom, a shared staffroom, playground duty and a hall you teach PE in. Directed hours are school hours in term time, but planning, marking and preparation push most teachers well beyond that, and the holidays are shorter in practice than they look from outside. Expect noise, constant interruption and very few moments when nobody needs you for anything.

Where it leads

Subject lead, responsible for how one subject is taught across every year group.
Special educational needs coordinator, with the national qualification that goes with it.
Assistant headteacher and then deputy headteacher.
Headteacher, or an executive role across a group of schools in a trust.
Advisory work, initial teacher training, curriculum design or examination roles.

Common questions

What qualifications do I need to start?

A degree, GCSEs at grade 4 or above in English, maths and a science, and then a course leading to qualified teacher status. The science requirement is specific to primary, because you teach it. If you are short of a GCSE, providers accept an equivalency test, and some will let you sit it after you have an offer rather than before you apply.

How long are the holidays really?

Thirteen weeks on paper, and less than that in practice. Report writing, planning for a new topic and setting up a classroom all land in them, and most teachers put several days of each holiday into the job. The compensation is real, though: the year has hard stops in it, which not many jobs with this workload offer.

Can I train while working in a school?

Yes. The teacher degree apprenticeship pays you as a school employee for the whole four years, and salaried school led routes do the same over one year for people who already hold a degree. Both suit teaching assistants and career changers who cannot stop earning, and both mean your training happens in a real classroom from the start.

What is the hardest part of the first year?

Volume, and the fact that you cannot yet tell which tasks are worth an hour. Newly qualified teachers get reduced timetables and a mentor for two years for exactly this reason. Most say the turn comes when behaviour stops taking all their attention, because everything else gets easier once the room is calm without effort.

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