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Education · Helping & Teaching

Elementary school teacher: what the job actually is

Teaching one group of children almost everything, all day, in the same room, and being the adult they trust most that week.

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Elementary school teacher: quick facts

Elementary school teacher salary in Ontario: the median pay is $46.15 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024). Its three-year outlook in Ontario is moderate. The job usually needs a university degree.

Median pay in Ontario
$46.15 an hour
Pay range (low to high)
$27.50 to $58.79 an hour
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Moderate
People working in it in Ontario
69,550
Usually needs
Usually a university degree

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 41221. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • Teaching one class, mostly yourself, mostly in one room. Job Bank puts kindergarten teachers in the same group as elementary teachers. Unlike a secondary teacher who sees many groups for one subject, you may teach reading, maths, science, social studies and more to the same children, and you learn them very well.
  • Teaching reading and the basics is the centre of the job. A lot of the skill is breaking a big idea into a step a young child can take today, and noticing which child has not taken it.
  • Looking after children as well as teaching them. Coats, lunches, falling out with a friend, a child who is hungry or tired or frightened: you are often the first adult who notices, and nobody lists it on the job description.
  • Working with other adults all the time: parents, educational assistants, the principal, specialist teachers, and the people who support children with extra needs. You are the person who holds the whole picture of one child.
  • Job Bank's Ontario outlook says nearly all employment is in elementary schools, that demand is strongly influenced by population size and student registration, and that changes to school board funding can affect job prospects. Read the snapshot on this page, not a headline.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 7:45 — In before the children. Set out the morning work, check who is away, and read the note about the child who was upset at pick-up yesterday.
  2. 8:50 — Doors open and twenty-odd children arrive at once. Coats, boots, a lost mitten, a child who will not let go of a parent's hand.
  3. 9:15 — Literacy block. Half the class reads with you in small groups while the rest do tasks on their own. You are managing four groups at four levels at the same time.
  4. 10:30 — Outdoor break duty. You are not on a break. You are watching a playground, and settling a dispute about whose turn it was.
  5. 11:00 — Maths. You teach it the way you explained it yesterday, it does not land, so you draw it again on the board a different way.
  6. 12:00 — Lunch in the room with the children. You eat in twelve minutes, between opening containers and finding a spare pair of gloves.
  7. 13:00 — Science or social studies. Thirty minutes of real interest and ten of tidying up the paint.
  8. 14:15 — Gym, music or French with a specialist teacher, if your school has one. This is your prep time and you use it to mark, photocopy and answer a parent email.
  9. 15:15 — Dismissal. Make sure every child leaves with the right adult, the right bag and the right homework.
  10. 16:00 — Plan tomorrow, tidy the room, write a note home about a child's good day, and mark journals.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You like being around children as they really are: loud, funny, sometimes in tears for reasons that make sense to them.
  • You enjoy explaining the same idea three different ways without letting it show that you have said it before.
  • You can stay calm and kind while a room is noisy, and you can raise your standards without raising your voice.
  • You want to see a child learn to read or finally understand a maths idea, and you find that enough.
  • You like the idea of one class, one room and one year with the same group, getting to know them properly.
You may hate this if
  • You cannot stand noise. A room of young children is loud for most of the day, and there is almost no quiet place to go.
  • You do not want to be responsible for children's safety and feelings as well as their learning. You are on duty every minute they are with you, including the playground.
  • You take other people's moods personally. Some children and some parents will be angry with you for things that are not about you, and the emotional load follows you home.
  • You want to teach a subject you love to people who chose it. Here you teach a bit of everything, to children who did not choose to be there, including the parts you find dull.
  • You need an easy start. Many new teachers begin on a supply list, and Job Bank says hiring is shaped by enrolment and funding, so waiting for a permanent job can be a long, uneven wait.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. A degree first

    The Ontario College of Teachers lists a postsecondary degree of at least three years from an acceptable institution as the first requirement. Many people take a four-year degree. There is no single required subject for elementary, so choose a degree you can finish and would be glad to have even if you changed your mind.

  2. A teacher education programme

    The College requires a four-semester teacher education programme, which leads to a Bachelor of Education. Some Ontario universities offer it after your degree and some offer it alongside it (a concurrent programme). The College keeps a list of the programme providers: use it, because a programme that is not on it will not certify you.

  3. Apply to the Ontario College of Teachers

    You apply to the College, pay the annual membership and registration fees, and meet any other applicable requirements. The College's page for Ontario applicants says you get an immediate decision. You need to be a member in good standing to teach in a publicly funded school.

  4. Know what Job Bank says about French

    Job Bank's Ontario outlook says commitments to increase the number of French-language teachers should support employment for candidates with that specialisation. If you have French or are willing to build it, ask your programme and any board you want to work for what they need.

  5. Start on the supply list

    Boards run their own hiring. Expect to start as a supply (occasional) teacher in several schools and apply for long-term assignments. How long a permanent contract takes depends on the board and the region. Ask a local board what its hiring path looks like before you commit to a programme.

Where this comes from: Ontario College of Teachers — requirements to become a teacher · Ontario College of Teachers — teacher education program providers · Job Bank — Elementary school and kindergarten teachers (NOC 41221), requirements

The money

Elementary school teacher salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$27.50
Low (hourly)
$46.15
Median (hourly)
$58.79
High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 41221. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Elementary school teacher wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Moderate3 out of 5 stars

  • Employment growth will lead to a few new positions.
  • A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements.
  • There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

What is changing in this work

  • Demand strongly influenced by population size and student registration
  • Enrolment in elementary schools is expected to increase
  • Generally, changes to annual funding amounts can affect employment prospects in school boards
  • Commitments to increase the number of French-language teachers should support employment for candidates with this specialization

Who hires for it

  • Nearly all employed in elementary schools
69,550
people work in this job in Ontario
83%
are women (48% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Elementary school and kindergarten teachers job prospects in Ontario (NOC 41221). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Volunteer with children in a classroom, a library programme, a day camp or a sports team for younger players, and make it your volunteer hours. Teenagers in a room of young children learn very fast whether they like it.
  • Ask your guidance counsellor about a co-op placement in an elementary school or a child-care setting, and whether your board has a programme for students interested in education.
  • Take English, French and maths seriously. Elementary teachers teach all of them, and a degree programme will assume you can too.
  • Notice what your own best primary teachers did: how they greeted the room, how they gave instructions, how they handled one child without losing the others.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Give one instruction to a small child so clearly they can do it without you

About 60 minutes
  1. Pick a small task a young child could learn in five minutes: tying a shoelace, folding a paper plane, putting a game away in the right order. Break it into steps so short that each fits in a few words.
  2. Teach it to a younger sibling, cousin, neighbour's child or a child you already look after in a public setting, or if no child is around, to a recording of yourself and then to a friend pretending to be seven. Do not help once you have given the instruction: watch where they stall.
  3. Notice where the instruction failed. Fix it and teach it again, to the same child or another one. Write down the exact word you changed.
  4. Read a picture book aloud for ten minutes, stopping three times to ask a question and wait for an answer. Notice how long you can stay patient and enthusiastic when the answer is not what you hoped.

What it tells you. If fixing your own instructions and waiting for a child's answer felt absorbing, even when it was slow, that is the daily core of this job. If you were mostly counting the minutes, or found yourself wanting to just do it for them, notice that now: it is the thing you will do thirty times a day. And if you loved it with one child but dread twenty, that is worth knowing too.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “What does your morning look like before the children arrive?”
  2. “What is the part of teaching young children that nobody warned you about?”
  3. “How long did it take you to get a permanent contract, and what did you do while you waited?”
  4. “How do you teach four reading levels at once?”
  5. “How do you leave the emotional side of the job at school?”
  6. “What would you look for in a Bachelor of Education programme, knowing what you know now?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Not the classroom in a publicly funded school, but teaching skills travel: tutoring, children's programmes, tutoring in reading, educational products, camps and training for other teachers. Some people build these on the side while teaching. Ask your school board and the Ontario College of Teachers what a certified teacher may and may not do privately before you start.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does an elementary school teacher make in Ontario?

The median pay for an elementary school teacher in Ontario is $46.15 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $27.50 to $58.79 an hour. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for an elementary school teacher in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as moderate for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment growth will lead to a few new positions. A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements. There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become an elementary school teacher in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a university degree. The usual route in Ontario, in order: A degree first; A teacher education programme; Apply to the Ontario College of Teachers.

Where does an elementary school teacher work in Ontario?

Nearly all employed in elementary schools. (Job Bank.)

How many people work as an elementary school teacher in Ontario, and how many are women?

Job Bank counts about 69,550 people working in this job in Ontario. 83% of them are women, compared with 48% across all jobs. That describes who does the work today, not who can.

Where people come from

Which programs lead here?

In the 2021 Census, this job is one of the 12 most common for graduates of these programs. Each page shows what else they do, and which of those jobs have openings.

What can you do with your degree?

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

Start from yourself, not from the job.

Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.

Try Future Finder — freeAll jobs

Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.