World Teachers' Day: What Makes a Great Teacher?

Today is World Teachers’ Day. To mark it, we asked Mark Allday, Head of Training and Development at Prospero Group, why he went into teaching, what the job really involves and which teacher made a difference to him.

Mark knows the classroom from the inside. Before joining Prospero, he was a deputy headteacher at a secondary school in Hertfordshire and worked in a multi-academy trust.

Why teach?

Mark’s first reason will be familiar to many teachers.

“I wanted to make a difference, and hopefully I did during my time within the classroom and school leadership.”

His second was variety. He wanted to make sure that “any working day was not the same as the next or the previous.”

More than nine till three

Mark believes the job is often misunderstood.

“Teaching is not a nine till three, it’s not 13 weeks’ holiday. On top of that, teaching can be all-consuming.”

Looking after children is already a big enough job on its own, he says. On top of that, teachers respond to every child’s individual needs. They also plan, mark and prepare, and they run the extracurricular activities that sit alongside the school day.

Passion and empathy

Asked what makes a great teacher, Mark names two qualities. The first is passion.

“Students and young people absolutely know those teachers that are really passionate about their subject, passionate about things that they do in and outside the classroom, passionate about seeing them do well.”

The second is empathy. Every young person arrives each morning shaped by the schools they have attended and the things they have experienced. “Being empathetic to that, and also being able to balance that with all of the needs that young people have in a school, in a classroom, is absolutely vital.”

The teacher who believed in everyone

The teacher Mark would thank is his former head of year from secondary school. “That’s somebody that not only believed in me, but believed in everybody in our year group.”

He remembers her as a champion for every pupil, through the ups and downs and through the best and worst behaviour. In his words, “she genuinely wanted the best out of everyone.”

Thank you, teachers

Every teacher has the chance to be that champion for someone. This World Teachers’ Day, from all of us at Prospero Teaching we thank the teachers who make a difference every day, in the classroom and beyond it.