Primary School Teaching provides people with an excellent opportunity to work with and help develop children of all ages and backgrounds. It requires you to work as a mentor and support the young person. You are teaching children at a period when they are probably at their most receptive to making new discoveries and at their most vigorous in grappling with them. Primary School Teachers have a long lasting influence on people’s lives.
Teachers at primary level generally teach all subjects and are generalist rather than specialist teachers as the primary curriculum is integrated. A Teacher’s day does not end when the final bell rings as a good deal of time out of school hours is spent marking work and preparing lessons and keeping up with new developments in specific subjects and in general education.
Infinite patience and a sense of humor are great assets. Although children are not obligated to attend school until the age of six, around 65 per cent of four year olds and most five year-olds are enrolled in the infant classes in primary schools in Ireland. Primary school operate an eight-year programme, consisting of two kindergarten years (junior and senior infants), followed by classes 1-6. The child-centred primary curriculum provides for an extensive learning experience and promotes a rich variety of approaches to teaching and learning.