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What is it like to be a Primary School Teacher?

Do you enjoy it? What are the pros and cons (best and worst parts about the job)? What do you find rewarding about the job? What do you find stressful about it?

Reply 1

007King

I know someone who is a primary school teacher and they are now considering a career change as they are fed up... dont do it... if you want to be a teacher be an apprenticeship coach instead. You will need to work in your chosen industry before becoming a coach though.

Reply 2

Get into Teaching

Official Rep

Original post by Benjidude

Do you enjoy it? What are the pros and cons (best and worst parts about the job)? What do you find rewarding about the job? What do you find stressful about it?

Hi @Benjidude,

I know when I was considering becoming a teacher, it was really helpful to speak to people about it but the best thing I did was go and see what life in a school was actually like. The driving force behind my decision to go into teaching at all and primary teaching specifically was that I loved how much of a positive difference I could make to the children as a volunteer, as a teaching assistant and then as a trainee teacher. I just had a gut feeling that the career was right for me and that I could make a real difference.

If anyone is considering teaching as a career, experiencing it first hand is so important. I know that if I hadn't gone into schools to observe practice and experience life in a classroom, I may have missed out on the privilege of being a teacher or may have taught an age-range that I wasn't best suited to, or didn't enjoy quite as much.

If you want to look into getting classroom experience, you can find a number of schools offering experience days here: https://schoolexperience.education.gov.uk/ There are a number of other ways to gain experience of working with young people or understanding what life is like for teachers in schools.

The best thing to do is to sign up for an adviser through the Get Into Teaching service. We offer a free, 1-2-1, bespoke, impartial support service for those considering getting into teaching and as we are all experience teachers, we will be able to speak with you about all the pros and cons but more importantly, support you in finding these things out through first-hand experience.

To sign up for an adviser, just click here and fill out the form and one of us will be in touch within a few days: https://adviser-getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/

Richard