I am in the fourth and final year of my teaching degree, which will qualify me to teach in both a primary and secondary school setting although my specialist subject is ICT. As part of my teacher training I have spent two placements teaching in Primary Schools and two teaching in Secondary Schools. This review will take a look at what it is actually like teaching in a Primary School based on my experience.

My first primary placement was for several weeks in a year three class in Portslade. All pupils were from a very socially deprived area. My second primary placement was in a school in Hastings where the children were also from a socially deprived area.

Curriculum & Planning

The primary curriculum can be quite enjoyable to teach although planning in a primary school is exhausting. Being with a class all day means that you end up doing all your planning at home or after school. Although the curriculum stays the same so once you have taught one year with a year group you will have all the plans and resources from then on. Learning in primary schools tends to be much more interactive than teaching in secondary schools and you will probably spend half your life creating, adapting and photocopying resources. Plans have to be kept for every lesson you teach and your assessment in relation to these plans will also need to be recorded.

Classroom

Primary school classrooms are quite cosy places and as a primary teacher, you will be responsible for making it a good learning environment. Making sure resources are neatly organised, creating displays, organising books etc can get irritating when the children seem to leave the room in such a mess! Although I must say that having taught in both primary and secondary teaching rooms, a primary classroom is a much nicer place to be as the rooms are usually more bright and cheerful.

Almost all primary school classrooms now have interactive whiteboards, which are a great teaching and learning resource. I enjoy using them much more in primary schools as they can be used to aid the teaching of all curriculum subjects and primary school children seem to get a lot more excited about coming up and having a go at moving things on the board with their finger, highlighting things with the pens and tapping the answers etc.

Behaviour

It is assumed that behaviour in primary children is easier to manage than secondary school children. Having taught in both I would say that to a degree this is true as difficult behaviour in secondary schools tends to be a lot more aggressive, more disruptive and generally ruder and more difficult to deal with that in Primary school but that doesn't mean that primary school children don't present their fair share of challenges!

The two primary schools that I have taught in had quite a few behavioural issues due to the backgrounds of the children. Most of the children were from difficult home situations and this had its own implications on their behaviour, others had behavioural issues due to medical issues etc.

As you spend a year with your class it is much easier to build up a relationship with the class as a whole and to get the class used to your expectations. Simple strategies can be quite effective with younger children. For example - standing arms folded looking at the clock when I wanted my primary classes to settle down and listen works brilliantly, whereas in secondary schools this tends to just be ignored. The main behavioural issues I came across in primary teaching were low level disruption such as giggling and talking out of turn. This can be irritating although isn't too hard to manage. Other behaviours include the arguing and bickering, which also can get very irritating. The main problem regarding behaviour is if you have a few children who have particular behavioural difficulties as it can be very draining dealing with it day in day out.

However, that's not to say that primary schools don't present extreme behaviour. I was teaching my year 6 class when a deranged year 4 pupil came running into my classroom with a hacksaw that he had somehow got hold of. He ran over to one of my class threatening them with the saw (I think the whole thing was because of a football related argument that had taken place at lunchtime). The pupil in my class retaliated by throwing a chair at the year 4 boy. I managed to convince him to hand over the hacksaw but thirty seconds later he was running in with a chair ready to impale my pupil on the chair legs. Eventually there was no option but for me to restrain him which resulted in shouts of "you f****** b****" etc etc from this child! This seems like a more extreme case but aggressive behaviour in primary schools is reported to be on the increase.

Parents

As a primary school teacher you tend to have a lot more to do with the parents than you do when teaching in secondary. In some ways this can be enjoyable if the parents are decent people as it can help when developing strategies to support their child as well as for passing on positive comments easily. However primary school parents in my experience tend to be more of the opinion that their child can do no wrong and it is all of the other children that are a bad experience. This can be exhausting when a feud between parents somehow becomes your problem! Being polite when a parent is protesting their child's innocence when you know the child is no where near innocent is hard work and stressful. Parents evenings I'm primary schools can be quite useful and enjoyable if the parents are reasonable people although if they are not then it is a nightmare. In my experience - when children get to secondary school age their parents tend to be more accepting that their child is not the little angel they first thought and can be a little bit more co-operative as a result.

Staff

Primary school teachers tend to be predominantly female and this can either work very well or result in a bit of a bitchy environment. I have worked with some lovely primary teachers and some that aren't too pleasant. Primary schools are generally smaller so you will get to know all of the staff rather than just a few. This can be useful and make the experience of working in a primary school a more sociable one. As a primary school teacher you will also have the support of a teaching assistant most of the time which can be incredibly helpful in sharing the workload and managing a large class.

Teaching

Due to the wide variety of subjects to be covered in primary schools, teaching can be quite good fun. If you have a good topic to cover you can make it really interesting by coming up with all sorts of activities which the children will appreciate. You have more freedom due to the fact that you have the class all day long, so if they get particularly engaged in a morning activity, you can choose to carry it on for a bit longer than originally planned if you wish. Primary classrooms tend to be quite well resourced which is also a bonus when teaching a variety of subjects.

One difficult aspect of teaching is that in most primary schools the classes are mixed ability. So in one lesson you are having to teach children who range from being able to read and write brilliantly, to some that can hardly read or write at all. This is where your differentiated teaching comes in but it can be very difficult to multitask so that all of the children learning needs are met.

As you get to know the class very well due to the amount of time spent with them it helps you get to know the abilities of each child. So when it comes to questioning and setting work you have a good idea of who will be able to achieve what.

Teaching in a primary school can definitely be a lot of fun if you are creative. Being younger the children are less self-conscious than they are in a secondary school and tend to be much more keen and willing to take part and get involved in exciting activities.

Duties and responsibilities.

Alongside the actual teaching there seems to be endless lists of things that you are responsible for as a primary teacher. As the class is "yours" anything that they do or need tends to fall on your shoulders. If a child from your class is upset you could well end up having to give up the whole of your lunchtime to deal with the issue as generally you will be responsible for pastoral support. Things such as taking them to assembly, taking registers, collecting dinner money etc are just some of the things you have do worry about on a daily basis!

Lunchtime duties are generally shared but you could expect to do a couple of duties a week.

Average day

Based on my primary teaching experiences the following shows an average day:

8.00 - Arrive in school and set up the classroom for the mornings activities. Write up the timetable for the day and queue up to use the photocopier which will probably have a paper jam by the time you get to it anyway.

8.30 - grab a coffee because you may not get the chance to get another one till the end of the day!

8.45 - Put an activity on the board ready for the class to complete during registration.

8.50 - Open the classroom door to 30 screaming children, send the extra loud running ones back out a couple of times until they are able to come in sensibly. This will usually be followed by several children trying to tell or hand you things all at once. Eg "iv forgotten my PE kit", "Luke just pushed me", "here's my trip form", "do we have assembly today?", "I feel sick", "I fell over", "he's nasty", "she called me ugly" etc etc etc!!

9.00 - The class are sat working on the activity while you take the register - you choose the "star of the week" to return the register although will probably end up having to send someone else off to find them when they don't return promptly! At this time you also collect dinner money and do any other whole class admin.

9.10 - Tell the class to line up at the door ready to go to assembly - give a few stern words to those pushing and shoving each other and send a couple of children to the back of the line for talking. Then walk the class to assembly and usher them into their place in the hall.

9.30 - assembly is over and its time to return to the classroom and get the children into their groups for the first lesson (eg literacy). Teach the lessons for the morning whilst trying to keep some record of who's done what and make sure the work actually gets done.

10.20 - send the class out for break - keeping the few in who have misbehaved during the morning and have a moan at them before letting them out. By now it leaves about 10 minutes to get the resources ready and out for the next lessons and take a look at the plans.

10.40 - let the screaming urchins back into the room and complain about the noise level. Calm them down and resume the mornings teaching.

12.00 - send them out to lunch, again keeping any behind to address behaviour issues. Tidy up the room and get everything ready for the afternoon. Grab some lunch and possibly a quick chat in the staffroom although this will generally be interrupted by some child knocking on the door saying that so and so has pushed so and so from your class and you will have to go and sort it out.

1.00 - Let the sugar fuelled darlings back into the classroom and do another register to check that you haven't lost any since this morning. Teach the afternoons lessons and set homework.

3.00 - After checking that they haven't left the classroom in too much of a state and have remembered their lunch boxes etc, walk the children out to their parents/carers. The next 20 minutes is likely to be spend either talking to parents about their child's behaviour or any issues that have happened in the day as well as listening to them moan about how another child is making their child "naughty".

3.20 - get back inside in the warm, grab a coffee and start marking the children's work for that day, updating their records as you go. Or attend any meetings that may have been called.

4.20 - Tidy up the classroom, bookshelves etc and gather up any marking/planning to take home. The planning for the next day will probably take up at least 2 hours of your evening but probably more.

Primary or Secondary for me?

I have really enjoyed my experiences of teaching in a primary school and at some point in my teaching career I would mind spending a couple of years back in a primary school. However, I do much prefer teaching in a secondary school as I feel more secure in my subject knowledge at secondary as I only have to teach my specialist subject. I also prefer the older children and the challenges that they set. There is less money and less opportunity to "move up" in a primary school which has also influenced my decision to end up teaching in secondary schools.

Primary teaching is not the nice cosy job that it is sometimes portrayed as and having done it myself and found it utterly exhausting I do have a lot of respect for anyone who does it full time. I can be enjoyable and rewarding but it is also hard work. The paperwork, planning and marking involved will consume almost all of your free time and although the children leave at 3pm - you don't stop working at that time!