A primary school teacher's job is diverse and engaging; no two days are ever the same! Because of this, a successful primary school teacher must possess a wide range of abilities and qualities as well as the power to significantly impact students' attitudes toward learning and create a pleasant educational beginning for them.

1. Deep subject knowledge and understanding

Having a good knowledge of the subjects you’ll teach is imperative. Unlike secondary school teachers, primary school teachers need to have broader subject knowledge as they will teach across all subjects rather than just a single subject. Being open to learning and gaining greater knowledge and adapting to the curriculum is also crucial.

2. Affective behaviour management

Teachers need to be in control of their classrooms. As a primary school teacher, you’ll undoubtedly come up against some challenging behaviour from time to time. The ability to deal with this effectively and take appropriate action when necessary is vital.

3. Empathy

Empathy is a vital quality of any primary school teacher. You will meet many children with different personalities, likes and dislikes, ways of learning and from different backgrounds too. Being able to empathise with difficulties and help your pupils overcome them in a sympathetic, caring and nurturing way will ensure that they feel positive and safe in the school environment.

4. Organisation

Lesson planning, gathering resources, marking work and tracking pupils’ progress is demanding and will require meticulous organisation. With being organised your workload may become overwhelming - so it is crucial that you have fantastic organisation skills.

5. Enthusiasm

Being a good primary school teacher requires lots of enthusiasm. You need to bring positive energy to your classroom every day. Your enthusiasm will rub off on your pupils and help keep them motivated and excited to learn.

6. Patience

You will undoubtedly find that there are times when your lessons don’t work out as you hoped, there are disruptions in class, or that some pupils struggle to grasp what you are teaching them. Having patience and calmly and gently helping all of your pupils, being able to remain calm when there are disruptions and not being too hard on yourself when things don’t work out as planned are all part of the job.

7. Confidence-building

Having the ability to instil confidence in others is another important quality of a primary school teacher. Self- confidence is a hugely beneficial characteristic for young people to have, and if you can help your pupils feel confident, self-assured and trust their instincts you’ll have done a fantastic job.

8. Passion

Being passionate about educating young people is what this job is all about, so it’s important that you feel passionate about helping your pupils learn and want to be a role model and good influence that can shape their lives for the better.

9. Humour

Children can be weird and wonderful at times, and there are also going to be times when something unexpected takes place. Having a good sense of humour and sense of fun will help you see the bright side of any situation, and it’s infectious too.