How to become a primary education teaching professional
Official title: Primary education teaching professionals
Also called: Primary teacher, Primary school teacher, Pe teacher, Deputy head, Art teacher, House master, School master, Class teacher, Dance teacher, Drama teacher, Music teacher, Assistant head
Primary (and middle school deemed primary) and education teaching professionals plan, organise and provide instruction to children at all levels up to the age of entry into secondary education.
Main tasks
- Prepares and delivers courses and lessons in accordance with curriculum requirements and teaches a range of subjects
- Prepares, assigns and corrects exercises and examinations to record and evaluate students’ progress
- Prepares students for external examinations and administers and invigilates these examinations
- Maintains records of students’ progress and development
- Teaches simple songs and rhymes, reads stories and organises various activities to promote language, social and physical development
- Undertakes pastoral duties
- Supervises teaching assistants and trainees
- Discusses progress with student, parents and/or other education professionals
How to become one
Entry is with a first degree that provides QTS (qualified teacher status) or, in Scotland, TQ (teaching qualification); or other relevant degree followed by further postgraduate training (most commonly PGCE – Postgraduate Certificate in Primary Education, or, in Scotland, PGDE – Professional Graduate Diploma in Education). Further and higher professional qualifications are required for some teaching posts. A DBS check is mandatory.
Ways in
- University: Arts & Humanities degrees, Offered by 27 universities in the UK
- University: Education & Teaching degrees, Offered by 25 universities in the UK
Pay · Outlook
- Median full-time pay: £45,939 a year The middle half earn £37,847 to £51,676.
- About 484,300 people work in this job now, and about 528,000 are projected by 2035. (+9%)
Related jobs
- Secondary education teaching professionals
- Higher education teaching professionals
- Further education teaching professionals
- Nursery education teaching professionals
- Special and additional needs education teaching professionals
- Teachers of english as a foreign language
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Questions people ask
How do I become a primary education teaching professional?
Entry is with a first degree that provides QTS (qualified teacher status) or, in Scotland, TQ (teaching qualification); or other relevant degree followed by further postgraduate training (most commonly PGCE – Postgraduate Certificate in Primary Education, or, in Scotland, PGDE – Professional Graduate Diploma in Education). Further and higher professional qualifications are required for some teaching posts. A DBS check is mandatory.
How much does a primary education teaching professional earn in the UK?
Median full-time pay is £45,939 a year (Office for National Statistics). The middle half earn £37,847 to £51,676.
Is a primary education teaching professional a growing career in the UK?
Yes. Employment is projected to grow 9% by 2035, from about 484,300 to about 528,000 people (Department for Education).
Do you need a degree to become a primary education teaching professional?
Usually. 95% of people in this job hold a bachelor's degree or higher.
Sources
- Office for National Statistics: Annual Population Survey: employment by occupation (April 2025 to March 2026), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
- Office for National Statistics: SOC 2020 Volume 1: structure and descriptions (2026-08-27 edition), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
- Department for Education: Skills Imperative 2035: employment projections by occupation (2021 to 2035 (Warwick IER / Cambridge Econometrics)), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
- Office for National Statistics: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14 (2025 provisional), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Updated 2026-10-03
Graduate outcomes: Discover Uni dataset, HESA (www.hesa.ac.uk), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). Aggregated by subject and adapted by Peernovo.