To ask is this quite normal for primary schools?

It's not unusual.

Having said that, DD goes to a one form entry school and they have a male head, two male class teachers and a male sports specialist teacher who comes in a couple of days a week.

Sounds normal to me. I had one male teacher in my primary years, and my son (year 5) has had one male teacher so far. There are no men working in the nursery/ reception classes.

The boys who are nasty over football are the ones who play in the local team. They're total Prima Donnas, even the other boys don't want to play football with them. Our school had to have two football after school clubs, one for " the team" and one for the children who just wanted to play football.

Yes actually.
I have two kids one is now at secondary. One is half way through primary and there has only been one male teacher for my oldest when he was in year 3. Never had a male for my youngest.
The male teacher was quite young, he got all the lunch boxes and coats and jumpers mixed up every day the kids all came home half dressed with the wrong stuff then half way through the year he had a breakdown from the stress of teaching and suddenly left, and was replaced by a female of the same age who was excellent.

This is utter nonsense. Football causes so many issues as the kids are too competitive, take it too seriously, hurt each other and take over the whole playground. Plenty of male teachers put bans in place too and it has nothing to do with sex. It’s merely a means to manage it to stop the countless arguments, fights and problems at least for a while and calm things down. But bans are rare and a last resort and are usually effective to calm things down for a while. Or merely a means to give children who don’t like football an opportunity to do other sports and games. Not everyone wants to play football and it takes up a lot of space. Just because a teacher isn’t male doesn’t mean they don’t know that more physical horseplay is a part of boys growing up and allowances are made for this, but it doesn’t mean they can stand by when too many children are getting hurt and injured because someone really has taken it too far. There is a duty of care. Reinforcing the boundaries calms things down again for a while when it has gone too far. It’s ludicrous to suggest that more male teachers would act differently as safeguarding rules have to be applied regardless of who is applying them and if you saw the list of accidents and injuries every day when the football behaviour is at play, then you would understand.

My son has been accepted to do his PGCE Primary in September.

He has had a few work experience placements in schools and he is also a multi sports coach at school holiday camps.

He is absolutely brilliant with the kids and enjoys seeing them learn and overcome challenges. He says they make him laugh as they are funny.

I do worry about him choosing teaching as it’s a tough job and it makes my blood boil when people think he only chose to be a primary teacher to get ‘close to kids’.

Whatever happens, you can guarantee he end up being put in charge of anything maths and sports related, as they are his strengths.

This is absolutely not the case. ⬆️

Yep. Pretty normal in Primary Schools. I'm a teacher & we very rarely get men applying for any of our advertised roles - having spoken to lots of male student teachers over the years, the majority are aiming to work in secondary education or side-step into some form of sports coaching. It's not for the lack of trying.

We have a 2 form entry school and have a male headteacher, 3 male teachers and 3 male TAs.

My dad was a male primary school teacher in the 70s/80s/90s.

Normal, my dc go to a 4 form entry school and the infant school has 0 male teachers. DC2’s class have a male trainee with class at the moment and he’s very popular with the kids.

The junior school is a lot more balanced.

The after school clubs seem to have a much higher ratio of male staff.

Common but it’s because people assume men want that role to get close to children. They fear being labelled. You see it on MN all the time.

Normal. Mostly because the pay is rubbish. Plenty of men are heads, though-the pay isn’t so rubbish there. They tend to be promoted quickly. Probably because what men there are are always the best teachers ever. Everyone’s favourite. Just like men in most women heavy jobs are. Go figure.
I do actually think there should be more men in primary teaching. As it is, many boys grow up thinking that reading in particular is something girls do.

Very normal. In the infants section of our school we have one male teacher, 5 female teachers, 6 female TAs. The headteacher, visiting music and French teachers, secretary, cleaners and lunch staff are all women.

It is normal but there are schools especially in cities which do have more male teachers. I'd say it was more like 30% male at my DC's school.

Normal ime, but can also change quickly.

In a 1 form entry school that only had 1 male teacher and a male admin lead, 2 teachers and 1 TA left one summer and all were replaced with males as well as a male TA who was 1:1 with a child.

Also you know what people are like now, I had a guy work at my club and most of the mums (and dads) were creeped out by it. It’s so unfair to men but there is a stigma around men and kids

For what it’s worth. My favourite ever primary school teacher was a man. Mr Davies. I thought he was amazing and he transformed my early school years. I still remember him fondly now.

It is very normal, but my son went to a Junior school with 4 form entry, and 50% male teachers, infact, he had male teachers for 3 of his 4 years there.

There’s constantly threads on here with parents saying they wouldn’t allow a male nanny or nursery staff near their child. So no wonder men don’t want to go near small children. It’s not worth the hassle. How would male primary teachers deal with toilet issues etc if they’re “not allowed” near these children?

One male teacher at our primary

Yes, I think this is the problem.

Girls can struggle with those things as much as boys! And both sexes equally need to have kind hands, sit calmly at the appropriate time, but will struggle to sit calmly all the time.

Football at break is often banned or limited due to dominating a limited space. Not because football is wrong per se.

I agree with the OP that not having any male teachers is a shame, but obviously it’s common. They can’t magic up male teachers.

I think the disadvantage in it is that the kids don’t get to see men in a teaching or nurturing role. Not that the women teachers are somehow favouring girls.

It's a shame as there are some superb male teachers around.
My children's school in the early 2000s had a lot of male teachers. It was private and my son really benefited from the male role model as his dad was in poor health and didn't have the good father son relationship they should have had.

I think it’s normal. My school has a lot of male staff and I always assumed we were quite rare. Out of 12 teachers, 5 are male. We have quite a few male TAs as well.

My husband wanted to be a primary school teacher but didn't as the pay was too low and he didn't like the thought of all the unpaid work teachers seem to do in the evenings. This is it I think. If pay and conditions improved and if people actually started to respect teachers more, many more men would join the profession.
Women tend to put up with less