Teacher job description
As a teacher, you’ll play a crucial role in shaping the lives of young people. You’ll inspire, motivate and encourage a new generation of learners and guide them to make a positive impact in the world around them. A school teacher helps their students to be passionate about learning and understands the impact and importance of lifelong education. Plus, salaries and benefits for experienced teachers can be excellent.
The teaching profession is exciting and challenging. Teachers act as role models, mentors, caregivers and advisers. They can have a profound effect on the lives of their students.
Primarily, teachers will impart knowledge to their students to help them learn new things about a specific group of subjects. They find new ways of supporting their students’ learning styles and are mindful that students, especially young people, will learn at a different pace and speed to their peers. Because of this, teachers need to be highly adaptable and flexible with their lesson plans.
A creative mind, a listening ear and strong communication skills are essential to succeed in the role of a teacher. Individuals who are resilient and tenacious are particularly in demand.
Teaching is a career path that is available to anyone that has an undergraduate degree and is able to commit to achieving Qualified Teaching Status (QTS). There are several possible routes to QTS, including on-the-job training in a school where you can earn as you learn.
Most importantly, teaching is a great career choice for those who want to make a difference in the lives of young people and who are passionate about lifelong learning.
What is the role of a teacher?
The role of a teacher is to inspire, motivate, encourage and educate learners. Learners can be of any age and from any background. However, for the purposes of this guide, teachers refer to those who educate young people of school age (roughly 4-18).
Teachers serve many roles within a school environment. Gone are the days when a teacher was merely seen as a classroom educator; someone who just teaches a core subject to a classroom full of children and then goes home for the day – job done. Teachers can work across a variety of subjects which they may bring to life with the assistance of modern and interactive technologies.
A teacher’s role is to “shape the life chances of young people by imparting knowledge – bringing the curriculum to life,” says Harry Cutty, headteacher of Cantell School and vice chair of Aspire Community Trust. “When you have the right culture and systems in place, it’s more than just a job. When you get passionate teachers, they can hugely inspire young people no matter what their background. Great teachers support young people not just in education, but in life and vocation choices.”
The teacher job role is expansive. From imparting knowledge to safeguarding children’s welfare, inspiring critical thought and moral values, teachers play a central position within the community. They are often passionate and dedicated individuals with a strong desire for lifelong learning.
“I have a continuous hunger for improving and extending the knowledge of young people,” says Francesco Milano, teacher of modern foreign languages at Trafalgar School in Portsmouth. “By improving someone’s knowledge, you are improving the world – not just the big world – the one that exists within the community in which you live.”
As long as you hold a degree, teaching is an accessible career path to anyone, at any stage of their career. Education offers the potential to shape the young lives of the next generation. It’s a profession in which you can move forward and gain promotion swiftly if you achieve rapidly. Your salary will rise in line with your increased responsibility, and once you gain experience, your career path can take you in many different directions.
Teaching is also one of the very few professions where you are equally celebrated if you choose to remain a classroom teacher and not to follow the leadership path.
What are the roles and responsibilities of a teacher?
The responsibilities of a teacher are far-reaching and can significantly vary depending on the school in which you teach, your specialist subject and the surrounding community. For example, a primary teacher in a private school with a classroom of six-year-olds will have an entirely different job and career to a history teacher in a state-funded academy school. However, there will always remain some similarities across all teaching roles.
Callum Thompson, from Crab Lane Primary in Manchester, explains how “making children good members of society,” is crucial to his role as primary school teacher. “In my community, there is a high level of social ambiguity, so it’s important for me to ensure the children can communicate well and form an opinion. I teach speaking, listening, manners and communication.
“One of the toughest parts of the job is encouraging children to use their imagination and challenging them to develop consistency, empathy and emotional intelligence.”
The duties of a teacher can include:
- Teaching students based on national curriculum guidelines within your specialist subject areas.
- Planning, preparing and delivering lessons.
- Encouraging student participation in lessons and in other school-related activities.
- Supporting the leadership team to implement the school’s development plan.
- Assessing and reporting on the behaviour of students.
- Providing educational and social guidance to students and/or signposting them to specialist areas of advice when needed.
- Ensuring the highest standards of quality and applying the most up-to-date teaching methods.
- Taking part in opportunities to boost your own learning and continuous professional development (CPD).
- Attending and taking part in staff meetings to support the smooth running and administration of the school.
- Collaborating with parents, carers, guardians, support workers, and other professionals to safeguard and ensure the educational welfare of statemented students who may have special educational needs (SEN).
Scott Simmons, managing director for education at London Teaching Pool Ltd, a specialist recruitment agency for teaching staff across London and beyond, believes that a teacher should be responsible for catering to every student’s needs.
“As a teacher, you should have the mindset that ‘every child matters’,” he says. “We fill many temporary assignments with requirements for teachers to be strong in the classroom and competent with their subject matter.”
But Simmons also believes that the responsibilities of a teacher are deeper than that: “Helping children through their life journey, acting as a confidant and making a difference to their lives, is paramount.”
Why should I become a teacher?
So, why be a teacher? For those with a love of learning and imparting knowledge to others, the role of a teacher may be a perfectly natural career choice. Teachers can enjoy many benefits, including good salaries on a pay scale that climbs with experience, longer than average holidays, and a tremendous sense of job satisfaction. See Teacher salary section.
Not only are you imparting knowledge to others but you’re also learning about behaviours, different ways of thinking and challenging pupils. “You need to inspire others to want to learn – it’s not a profession you go into because it’s something to do,” says Kay Sanderson, programme manager for the UK government initiative Transition to Teach.
Some people leave university with a defined career path into the teaching world, whereas others discover teaching much later in life. If you’re wondering if you should become a teacher, then it’s worth knowing that anyone can join the profession, at any stage in life.
Having experience as a teacher can also lead to a huge number of opportunities.
“We call it the ‘teaching jungle gym’,” says Hannah Wilson, executive headteacher at Aureus School & Aureus Primary School. “There are now so many different pathways!”
If you have teaching experience, you can explore career options in places such as charities, social services, local authorities and councils, private or special education, or even abroad as a teacher of English as a foreign language. See the Where do teachers work? section.
“Teaching is not a career to enter in to just for the money,” suggests Sarah Vaughan, founder of homeschooling resource network, The Do Try This at Home School. “People are often born to teach. Children will remember their best teachers and it will stay with them throughout their entire adult life. I became a teacher because my grandparents were teachers and it’s in my blood. My grandparents had their own private school and they were a huge influence on me. I didn’t ever want to be anything else.”
Francesco Milano, teacher of modern foreign languages at Trafalgar School in Portsmouth, believes he has always been a great coach and communicator, so it was a natural career choice.
“I am truly passionate about developing young people,” says Milano. “I believe that you’re not just good because you’re a teacher; you’re a teacher because you’re good.”
What is the best part of being a teacher?
Being a teacher is a highly rewarding role. Many teachers will attest that teaching is one of the few professions where you can genuinely make a difference in the lives of others.
When asked what the best part of being a teacher is, Callum Thompson, primary school teacher at Crab Lane in Manchester, says: “Getting kids to be passionate about learning, especially in the tougher subjects like maths or science. And seeing kids make progress and be proud of themselves is a highly rewarding experience. Kids are amazing; they make me laugh every single day.”
The best part of being a teacher for Fran Crampton, year three teacher at St John the Baptist School in Spalding is doing something completely different every day. “There is never a day when I don’t want to go to work. We are very lucky as my colleagues are my best friends and we’re a big family. Someone is always laughing or smiling, and there’s always someone there for support.
“I have friends who have worked at schools and then left, and regretted it. The relationship that teachers have with each other is typically very close.”
“For me, it’s when someone has learned something that I have taught them,” says Francesco Milano, teacher of modern foreign languages at Trafalgar School in Portsmouth. “When, at the end of the day, a young person comes to me to say they’ve learned something today. It’s beautiful. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Houlia L’Aimable, a retired headteacher, now a teaching volunteer at St. Elizabeth’s School in Hertfordshire – a Pupil Referral Unit for children outside of the mainstream education system – has a different opinion to offer. “I loved being in the classroom and loved doing magic tricks in science lessons. To see the children love the lessons you are teaching is a real joy.
“Gaining the confidence and trust of children with additional needs, and working with their families to bring the children back into education, are experiences that you simply wouldn’t get in a different job.
“I have helped blind children take to the slopes of Austria and France – an experience that was out of this world. Even helping some children to learn how to brush their teeth gives such a sense of achievement. You don’t go into teaching for the money, you do it for the passion.”
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