To ask is this quite normal for primary schools?

[Tannie10]

I’m looking at schools for my DS. I had a look round the school that is closest to us. I liked it but realised they have very little male staff. I think only 1 male teacher in y4 and it’s a 2 form school. I think they had 3 male TAs. But absolutely no male staff at all in the infants part of the school. Is this quite normal?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

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.

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.

This is absolutely not the case. ⬆️

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I went to school in the '70s. We had a male Head and three male teachers. Two very old school , suit, shirt and tie, and one young man with long hair, a beard and very flared jeans. 🤣

Very normal. In my fairly large (400 pupils) primary, 40 odd years ago, the only male staff were the headmaster and the janitor. And the headmaster retired and his replacement was a woman. Of course, there are plenty on here who think the fewer male staff in primary schools etc, the better.

Very normal. My DDs primary has one male teacher (teaching year 5) and a male head.

Older DDs secondary school is about 50/50 though

Same as nursing, social work care work and any other caring job.

Very common, our local one had no male staff for over 10 years.

When my son was in mainstream they had 1 male teacher in the whole school and no male TAs. Now he’s in SEN they have a lot more male staff, not quite sure if they’re teachers or TAs.

Normal, and as PP have pointed out, disproportionately in leadership roles.

Some of the best primary teachers I’ve known have been male, but also so have the absolute worst. I trained alongside 2 men who were treated absolutely abysmally by the schools they worked in. The attitude towards them from female colleagues was awful. One left after a year.

My son is in an SEN school and there are a lot of male staff there.