1000’s of schools In England are facing disruption today as member of the National Union of Teachers stage a one-day strike, the first since 2014. More than 90% of its members voted in favour of industrial action over the ongoing workload pressures, working times and cuts school budgets. Last week, Nicky Morgan was presented with a three point ultimatum to prevent the strike from going ahead. In a letter* replying to Kevin Courtney (NUT acting leader) she is disappointed with today’s strike and said teachers were choosing a “path of disruption over negotiation and discussion”. Courtney said “teachers do not take strike action lightly, many have gone strike today with a heavy heart but with the feeling that enough is enough”. He continued "the problems facing education, however, are too great to be ignored and we know many parents share our concerns."  

He told BBC Radio 4 this morning "Class sizes are going up, we are being told of schools where there will be classes of 35 in September. Art, dance and drama teachers are being made redundant or not being replaced when they leave, individual attention for children is going down. "This is all happening because the government is not allowing school budgets to keep pace with inflation. They are freezing the cash per pupil they give to schools." Morgan said there was no alternative to the squeeze on teachers’ pay. She told Today: “Across the public sector we have had to take difficult decisions in the last six years. And public sector pay is one of the areas that has been impacted. The alternative is that we end up in a situation like Spain or Greece, where they had to slash education budgets by up to 30%, where thousands of teachers were made redundant.” She also urged the NUT to try to resolve the dispute through talks. Morgan said: “Kevin Courtney says this strike is popular with teachers. I can tell you it is not popular with school leaders I’ve been talking to and it is certainly not popular with parents for whom this is a huge inconvenience. “It is also not popular with pupils who are missing out on a day’s education. If Kevin Courtney wants to sort this out then the place to do that is the talks that are already happening, not by taking strike action which puts children’s education at risk.”

Courtney said talks had reached a stalemate because of Morgan’s failure to acknowledge the real-terms cut in funding. He said: “We would like to resolve these things through talks. We don’t want to disrupt children’s education or parents’ working lives but in the talks we are having Nicky Morgan doesn’t acknowledge the reality. She wrote to me on Saturday saying the school budget is going to be protected in real terms, which isn’t true. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says [there is an] 8% cut [per pupil]. That’s why class sizes are going up.” Morgan said: “I just don’t recognise that picture. The schools budget is the highest it has ever been this year at £40bn; it has gone up by £4bn since 2011/12. We have a programme of talks with the unions. That continues.” The union says it wants to resume negotiations on teacher contracts to allow workloads to be addressed. It is also demanding increased funding to schools and education, and wants guaranteed terms and conditions in all types of schools.

In a statement, Courtney added: “Schools are facing the worst cuts in funding since the 1970s. The decisions which headteachers have to make are damaging to our children and young people’s education. Class sizes going up, school trips reduced, materials and resources reduced, and subjects – particularly in the arts – are being removed from the curriculum. Teaching posts are being cut or not filled when staff leave. All of this just to balance the books.” At the heart of all this what really matters? It’s the children. It's their futures that are being toyed with, they are the ones who really suffer…  

A job as a primary teacher is unquestionably one of the most rewarding careers you can have. You have the ability to inspire young children during some of the most important years of their development. You day to day role is exciting, varied and far from boring. The most satisfying aspect of being a primary school teacher is knowledge that what you are teaching these children are concepts and nurturing their naturally inquisitive minds. You are setting the foundations needed to develop the skills that they will continue to build on for the rest of their lives.      

What does primary teaching involve?

The impact you can have as a primary teacher is immense. You can set children up to succeed from the start, making sure they all have access to a brilliant education.

Primary teachers work with children between the ages of 3 and 11 and are required to teach all of the subjects which are in the national curriculum. This means that anybody looking for a primary teaching role needs to have good, basic knowledge of all these subjects for key stages 1 and 2. You will also be responsible for their educational, social and emotional development while in your care.

As a primary school teacher you will need to be creative, well organised, good at planning and have a lot of patience as working with young children can be very challenging. As well as this you need to be reasonably fit and be able to communicate effectively in written and spoken English. Responsibilities of a primary school teacher include (but not limited to):

• Plan lessons, prepare teaching materials and then teaching what you have organised
• Marking and assessing work which you have assigned
• Working and liaising with other industry professionals • Attending staff meetings and any training courses which may be required
• Manage class behaviour
• Discuss children's progress and other relevant matters with parents and carers
• Work with other professionals like education psychologists and social workers • Attend meetings and do training organise outings, social activities and sports events
• You will need to be motivated, committed and a good sense of humour

Each day is varied as you will be carrying our activities from developing young pupils’ literacy, to teaching them about maths, science, arts, PE, music, and basic computing skills.

Your teacher training will help you build and use all the skills and creativity you need to succeed in the classroom. Remember to always talk to experienced teachers and practitioners as you discover how to create and deliver inventive and engaging lessons. After all sharing best practise is the key to great success.

Teaching the same class over the course of a year means you can gain an in-depth understanding of your pupils’ characters and different skills. This gives you a big responsibility to ensure every child gets the most out of their education – offering unbeatable job satisfaction as you see how they change and grow as individuals.

The opportunity to move between year groups and different stages of learning just adds to the variety of the job – and as your teaching skills flourish, so can your career. As a great primary school teacher, you could progress to key stage head, a position in a senior leadership team, or even become a head teacher. In doing so, you could use your vision and experience to make a difference to the entire school.  

What Qualification are needed for primary teaching?

The teaching profession looks for the highest calibre of candidates. To become a primary teacher you will need to have completed the Initial Teacher Education or Training (ITET) and gain Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). In addition to this you will also need:

• A-C GCSE grades in Maths, English & Science

• Enhanced background checks by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) which must be clear of any convictions You can study for a university degree and gain QTS at the same time by doing one of the following courses:

• BA (Hons) degree or BSc (Hons) degree with QTS

• Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree course In addition to being a qualified teacher, having classroom experience is extremely powerful. Whether it be day supply or temporary work placements all the experience you gain will help to become a higher quality candidate.

Working hours and conditions

A typical working week for a full-time teacher is an average 37 hours a week, with typical class times starting between 8.30am and 9.15am and finishing around 3.15pm to 4pm. Outside of classroom hours, teachers normally will be planning lessons, marking work and also taking part in activities, like as parents' evenings and outings. Teachers normally work 39 weeks a year split over three school term.  

How TLTP can help you find a Primary Teaching job

Whether you are an NQT, or interested in becoming a primary teacher or looking for your next role in teaching, London Teaching Pool Ltd (TLTP) can help you. See our latest primary teacher jobs. Simply register your details or if you prefer a request a call back and one of our experienced recruitment consultants will phone you.

Every school varies when it comes to what they’re looking for in a primary school teacher. The best way to prepare yourself for this is to make sure that you have a strong and up to date CV that is tailored to teaching. See our CV tips which will help you in creating a winning CV. Once you’re through the selection stage we’ve put together some useful interview advice to help you prepare and get through the next hurdle.

Register and sign up to job alerts so that you can keep up to date with the latest TLTP job postings. This means that you’ll be the first to know when vacancies you are interested in arise. This saves you time because instead of you looking for jobs, jobs find you.

Download the FREE TLTP Education App where you can search for jobs and apply whilst on the go. You’ll be able to save your preferences, receive notifications when new jobs are added and access lots of useful information.

Pat Glass’s dream job of being Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary lasted just 2 days. Her appointment came in light during a wave of resignations by Labour MPs seeking a change in leadership. She replaced Lucy Powell, who stepped down on Monday after saying Mr Corbyn's position as Labour Party leader had become "untenable". But just a day in yesterday, Ms Glass announced that she would not be standing for re-election as an MP at the next general election following death threats against her. And today, she has said that with a heavy heart she is standing down from the shadow cabinet because Jeremy Corbyn’s situation is "untenable”, though she said the leader was "decent, principled and kind".  

On Twitter, her resignation was met with a series of angry tweets from people declaring support for Mr Corbyn. They threatened to deselect her and called her decision "disgusting". Ms Glass had been shadow minister for Europe and a shadow junior education minister and described the post of shadow education secretary as her "dream job". She served as a member of the education select committee during the coalition government between 2010 and 2015. Ms Glass becomes the first member of Mr Corbyn's new-look Shadow Cabinet to stand down themselves. The Labour leader lost a vote of no confidence among the Parliamentary Labour Party on Tuesday by 172 votes to 40. But Mr Corbyn has said he will carry on as leader regardless, saying that to resign would be to let down the 60% of Labour members who voted him in nine months ago.

 Ahead of the next week, the NUT have delivered an ultimatum to Nicky Morgan to prevent the strike from taking place. The union says Nicky Morgan must tell academies to consider using national terms and conditions when they employ staff In a letter* to Nicky Morgan today, the classroom union makes "one last appeal" to avoid widespread disruption in schools on Tuesday. Last week, teachers voted overwhelmingly in favour of a national strike against funding cuts, deregulation of pay and academisation.  

The NUT’s three conditions to Ms Morgan for cancelling the strike are:

1. Fund schools sufficiently to cover the growing staff costs imposed on them, such as increased National Insurance contributions.
2. Tell academies they must at least have regard to national terms and conditions.
3. Promise meaningful talks to look for a full resolution of the dispute.

Strike action 'not taken lightly'
The strike is due to take place across the country on 5th July, the same day as the KS2 Sats results are returned to schools, after 91.7 per cent of participants in the union’s ballot voted in favour of taking action. The letter, sent from acting general secretary Kevin Courtney, stresses: “No teacher finds taking strike action easy but the situation in our schools needs to be urgently addressed,” said Courtney. “School budgets are being cut to the bone. The effect on children’s education is clear.” “Teachers’ terms and conditions are being deregulated and worsened through the academy programme. Head teachers are spending time on school negotiations which should be spent on education. This is unnecessary, time wasting and ineffective.” Following the result of last week’s , the country has been thrown into a period of uncertainty, many unions want to make sure education is debated and at the top of the agenda. Mr Courtney said: "Now more than ever in these uncertain times we need a properly funded and staffed education system. I have written to Nicky Morgan asking her to take actions that would protect our children’s education. Our country’s pupils and teachers deserve a positive response."      

Following the resignation of Lisa Powell yesterday, Jeremy Corbin has announced Pat Glass as Labour’s new shadow education secretary. Ms Glass, MP for North West Durham, spent her working life in education before being elected to parliament in 2010. She had worked in senior positions in local education authorities and worked as an adviser to government on education. She has been moved across from shadow Europe minister, a role she has held since January 2016.

Previously she had been shadow childcare and early years minister.   Lucy Powell was one of 12 shadow cabinet members to resign yesterday. Four shadow ministers have resigned today. The resignations come as a protest at his leadership in the wake of the referendum vote to leave the European Union.

The dreaded ‘how to tell a parent, their child has been misbehaving’ is something no teacher looks forward to doing, but there’s no shying away from it. New guidelines suggest giving parents good news first and keeping ‘in touch’ before delivering criticisms about their child. Government’s behaviour tsar Tom Bennett has recommended staff ‘build bridges you don’t yet need’ to assist them when they must speak to families during the ‘bad times’.

He claims teachers should phone parents to praise their children in case they ever need to criticise them. Mr Bennett, who advises Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, said: ‘Some parents only hear from the school when their little dumpling has been caught with fireworks and tobacco in their pencil case’. ‘How often do we contact home to say that things are going well, or have improved, or even something brilliant has happened – an exceptional piece of homework, a target met, a good deed performed?’ We believe it’s much more beneficial know your dealing with so that you can tailor conversations accordingly. The former teacher made the claims in a booklet, Managing Difficult Behaviour in Schools, which is published by public service union, Unison. ‘I know that we don’t have much by way of spare time but I guarantee that if you phone home in the good times, when it comes to the bad times, you’ll have an emotional bank account ready.’

In the booklet, Mr Bennett stresses it is important for teachers to make a personal connection with parents they may have difficult conversations with in the future. ‘If you think you’ll ever need to call home, then take some time to introduce yourself to some of the families,’ he said. ‘These children don’t spring from nothingness; they have an origin, a history and a family. Talk to the families; ask them if you need to know anything special about the student that will help you deal with them. ‘This might be on the school gates as the pupils enter, or filling out forms on open evenings, or as they wait in the reception to collect children. But use the time to build bridges you don’t need yet.’ Mr Bennett also warned that ‘too many people in schools view parents as inconveniences’ when the vast majority of mothers and fathers are concerned for the ‘educational well-being’ of their child. He said: ‘The practical ability to be able to do this, for most teachers, is going to be extremely difficult, particularly in secondary schools where teachers are in contact with usually in excess of 150 different pupils a week.’ Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education and a former head teacher, said it was not ‘feasible’ for teachers to make daily phone calls to parents. But he insisted that regular contact with families is important as the ‘vast majority’ want to support schools. He said: ‘The relationship with parents is absolutely crucial. I think we need a slight change in terms of secondary schools - they need to be more open to parents and more willing to engage with parents.’ We’ve put together our top 10 tips on how to become a successful teacher in the classroom, so hopefully you won’t need to make too many of those dreaded calls.

If the Education sector isn’t struggling enough already it’s about to get much worse. Following the leave outcome by 52% of the votes, Prime Minister David Cameron, who led the Remain campaign, announced this morning he would quit before the Conservative party’s conference in October. Schools Week report that questions have been raised about the impact of Friday’s vote to leave the European Union on the government’s education policies. Headteachers’ union leader Russell Hobby said it would be “tough to implement” the national funding formula with “turmoil” in the government.

The national funding formula plans to create a new funding system, after years of campaigning by politicians and school leaders who claim the huge variation in per-pupil funding between different areas of the country is unfair. Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, told Schools Week: “The result of the EU referendum and change in Number 10 will have huge ramifications for the country. For school leaders, there will be concerns around the gulf in aspirations between the generations. School leaders will of course do their best to discuss the result calmly and clearly in schools. “They will also be worried that time, energy and attention will focus on the EU at a time when the education system needs attention. The government will be distracted from dealing with the chaotic assessment system, the unfair funding arrangements and the crisis we are seeing in recruitment. “The status of a new national funding formula is uncertain, for example, and schools could face cuts if we experience the threatened austerity budget. School leaders will seek reassurances from government at this time of great instability.”

More than 90% of members from the National Union of Teachers have voted to hold a one-day strike on 5th July to protect pay, cuts in school budgets and the ongoing workload crisis.

The action is the next step in the union's long-running dispute with the government and will affect all schools in England and Wales. NUT deputy general secretary Kevin Courtney said: "The NUT is not taking action lightly. There is already a teacher recruitment and retention crisis in our schools. In light of the huge funding cuts to schools, worsening terms and conditions, and unmanageable and exhausting workloads, teachers cannot be expected to go on without significant change”. "The effects on children's education are also real and damaging”. "As a result of school funding cuts, class sizes in primary and secondary schools are increasing, subject choices are being cut, and children are getting less individual attention as teachers and support staff are made redundant or not replaced when they leave."

The last national teachers strike, in July 2014, over teachers' pay, pensions and working conditions were highly disruptive to both parents and children, as around a fifth of schools across England and Wales were forced to close. Teaching unions have complained that schools have not been fully funded to meet extra costs of pay, pension and National Insurance costs passed on by the government. The union is calling for an increase in funding to schools and education, and to resume negotiations on teacher contracts to allow workload to be addressed. A stressed teacher simply cannot be expected to perform and in the long run it will not only be teachers but also today's children who will suffer the consequences.

Ahead of Thursday’s referendum, the results of a YouGov poll has revealed 7 out of 10 UK teachers want to remain in the European Union (EU), reports TES. Over half believe leaving the EU would damage their pupils’ futures, 6% of teachers believe education would benefit from leaving and 27% think it would get worse as a result.

Education secretary Nicky Morgan says that teachers’ backing for EU membership comes as “no surprise”. “We know that it is only with a strong economy that we can have strong public services,” she writes in a joint article with former Labour schools minister and TES Global chief education adviser Lord Knight. “A vote to leave would mean less funding for your local school and put children’s education at risk.” Regional differences showed in London 30% of teachers backed a leave vote, compared with 21% in the rest of South England, 19% in Scotland and 23% across the UK. Russell Hobby, general secretary of the NAHT headteachers’ union, said that he expected teachers to back remain. “They look at children in their schools and look at the futures they would face, and many seem to believe there would be more opportunities for the children if they remain in.”

It’s not new news that teacher’s excessive workload has been an issue for many years, and it’s not being helped by the ongoing shortage of teachers in the Education industry. The excessive pressure of a new exam system in secondary schools in Scotland have resulted in the Teachers voting in favour of industrial action, the TES reports.

Members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) teaching union are now set to take action short of strike action and could refuse to cooperate with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). A total of 95 per cent of those balloted voted in favour of the move. Teachers have been vocal against the impact new National (similar to GCSE) and Higher (similar to A level) exams has had on their workload, leading to schools suffering from ‘brain drain’. But it seems their voices aren’t being heard and workload is becoming intolerable and getting worse.

The union said members would “work to contract” with regard to some exams-related activity. EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said: “This ballot result reflects the frustration of Scotland’s secondary teachers over the excessive assessment demands being placed on them and their pupils, particularly around unit assessments at National 5 and Higher. The EIS now has a very clear mandate to implement an immediate work-to-contract in relation to SQA activity.” A spokeswoman for Nicola Sturgeon said the first minister was "very disappointed" with the ballot result. Teachers are being forced into taking action with the hope of achieving a decent work/life balance, which for most seems like a faraway dream...