There are many reasons which could be suggested, some of which are being discussed below.

My interest in teaching first became ignited through Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, where I started volunteering at a local brownie unit which led to moving on to become a young leader. This experience fired my passion to support children to feel like they were part of a friendly organisation and progressed to an Adult leader for both brownies and guides. This has been significant in my journey and thought process behind the reasons to become a primary teacher. It has helped me to develop planning and organisational skills which will be a useful experience when used in this element of teaching. It has improved my confidence and self-belief. Throughout my time as a leader I have had the opportunity to listen to children’s own thoughts on school and this has allowed me to understand that not every child will have a great experience at school. However, I believe that as a teacher we are in a position to change this and I believe that every child should feel like they belong in a school setting.

I then became even more passionate about teaching when I decided to do work placement in a primary school and was influenced greatly by a teacher I met while on work placement. This teacher inspired me and helped me to develop confidence when standing in front of a classroom of children and teaching. She further assisted with my understanding of different elements of the education system and how it’s used in schools. Throughout the time I spent with her I was given the opportunity to teach a small reading group of p1s. I had the chance to teach algebra to a small group of P7s, this went well overall and I was able to reflect and evaluate this session which will enable me to use for future reference. I learned from this that it was harder to get a group of older pupils to listen and be inspired by what your teaching, compared to younger pupils. I then went on to do work placements in other primary schools which helped with the comparison of different teaching methods.

During my time spent in school I had lots of challenges. Experiencing what I perceived as failures with subjects that I wasn’t very comfortable in; one of these being mathematics, which has never been easy for me to understand but with hard work and perseverance I managed to pass. This success improved my self-belief that I can overcome the many obstacle I will encounter. The many teachers that have believed and encouraged me throughout school have been a big part of my decision to become a primary teacher. My maths teacher especially helped with my confidence and is someone who I aspire to be like; she never gave up on helping me to achieve my best. I recognised that this is the career I want to follow due to this experience and her influence. I want to make a difference to other children in the way that she did and continues to do.

After school I then took a year doing a course to become a childhood practitioner. Overall, this was the best decision I had made because it helped with my understanding of education; how it is used throughout nurseries and schools. It improved my overall professional development and I really enjoyed getting to know the placement staff and the children. This experience in placement taught me a lot about learning and development. My written assignment at the end of the course based on literacy helped me understand that children in different areas will need less or more help to thrive. From this experience I learned for instance that, children in more deprived areas will need a little more help with reading, writing and mathematics. This was evident in the findings of my research. From this experience I found out some schools provide drop-in help sessions for parents to understand their child’s needs when it comes to their learning. I learnt that pupils no matter their background, should be encouraged to have the hopes and ambitions to succeed. Teachers are in an influential position to encourage their goals and support the child to achieve their best; whether that be in their education or further in their career.