A Day In The Life of a Primary School Teacher

A day in the life of a primary school teacher is full of variety and requires flexibility, creativity, and dedication. Here’s a glimpse of what it looks like:

Early Morning

The day often starts before the children arrive. Teachers usually get to school around 7:30 to 8am to prepare the classroom, set up displays, and make sure teaching materials are ready for the lessons ahead. They might also review their lesson plans and check emails.

Lessons and Classroom Activities

The school day begins when the children arrive, usually around 8:45am. Once they’ve taken the attendance register and ensured any school lunch orders have been placed, teachers dive straight into lessons — these could range from maths and literacy in the morning to creative subjects like art or science in the afternoon. In addition to whole-class teaching, they often work with small groups of students to provide extra support where needed.

Teachers don’t just teach. They’re also responsible for safeguarding and ensuring all children are in the right place for learning, managing classroom behaviour, keeping students engaged, and differentiating their approach to cater to different learning abilities. This includes working with teaching assistants to ensure students with additional needs receive the appropriate help.

Breaks and Lunch

Although break times may offer a chance for teachers to catch their breath, it’s common for them to have duties like supervising children in the playground or attending staff meetings. During lunch, teachers often mark students’ work or prepare materials for the afternoon classes.

Administrative Duties and Meetings

The work doesn’t stop when the last bell rings. Once students leave, teachers continue with marking, updating records, and planning future lessons. They often have meetings with colleagues, parents, or specialists like educational psychologists to discuss students’ progress or specific needs. Many teachers also stay after hours for professional development training, school events, to support any extra-curricular activities or sports clubs, or to prepare for the next day.

Beyond the Classroom

Primary school teachers take on additional responsibilities such as organising school trips, leading after-school clubs, and overseeing sports events. For those who have a specific skill or qualification, such as a language, strong knowledge of history or a musical talent, teachers may also take on subject responsibility within the school, whereby they ‘own’ a particular subject and develop the curriculum and schemes of work to ensure it is taught consistently it to all year groups.

As previously mentioned, but crucially important to the teacher role, safeguarding is also a critical part of their role, ensuring the wellbeing of every child in their care and being vigilant for any changes in behaviour that might indicate an issue could be emerging.

Being a primary school teacher is incredibly rewarding but also involves long hours and multitasking. It’s an excellent career and a great sector to be part of. Every day brings its own challenges and successes, but the aim remains the same: to nurture and stimulate young minds, whilst supply teaching offers all the perks of being an inspirational educator with the additional flexibility some teachers need to fit in with their busy lives.

With regional offices in Newcastle, Oxford, and Nottingham, SMS works with schools across the whole of the North East, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicester, Oxfordshire and Swindon. Each office is embedded within its local education community, working in partnership with school trusts, teaching alliances such as OTSA, and local authorities to deliver tailored supply staffing support across primary and secondary education, whether that is day-to-day supply teaching or long-term placements. From multi academy trusts to community primary and special schools, SMS is helping educational establishments navigate financial pressures with a smarter, more sustainable solution for supply teachers and support staff, that puts pupil outcomes first.

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