Day in the life of a Primary Education student

Find out what a typical day looks like for Sophie Bunyan, a primary education student on placement. 

“Gaining experience with children before starting the course, through volunteering, or a summer job, reading up on educational material, whether through academic articles or current news will also help you stay informed about any issues in the field"

 6 - 7AM:

After waking up and having breakfast, I got dressed and ready for the day, making sure my bag was ready for school. The key things in my bag are my laptop, planner and pencil case. I also prepare my lunch to take with me.

7:05AM:

I left the house to drive to placement. It took about 45 minutes today as the traffic wasn’t too bad. I have started listening to audiobooks on my drive which makes the time go more quickly.

8AM:

I arrived at school. I was earlier than I needed to be, so I sat in my car for a little bit on my phone and looking at my planner to check what I was doing for the day.

8:15AM:

I headed into school, went to the classroom to put my things away and spoke with the teacher about the day’s lessons to check if anything different was happening. If it’s a day that I’m teaching, then I will make sure that I have everything ready to go.

8:35AM:

The children arrived. The morning included an assembly, maths, playtime, English and phonics.

12PM:

Lunchtime. I ate my lunch in the staffroom. About 15 minutes before the end of lunch I went back to the classroom to get ready for the afternoon.

12:55PM:

The children came back from lunch. Their afternoon lessons today were PE and art. I also took my phonics intervention group out to do a mini lesson. Moving forwards in this placement I’ll be teaching a lot more, however, this week I’ve mainly been delivering the phonics lesson and supporting groups in all other lessons.

3:15 - 4PM:

End of the school day. The children were all picked up or went to an after-school club. I had a meeting with my class teacher to discuss my lesson observation, progress and targets for next week.

5 - 7PM:

I went for a quick walk and, since I had some more time to myself today as I didn’t go to the gym, I decided to make a roast dinner! I then did some work to make sure that I had everything ready for the next day. To unwind I watched some TV and had a chat with my housemates.

9PM:

I got ready for bed, went on my phone for a little while and read some of my book before going to sleep ready to do it all again the next day!