A group of primary-aged learners in a classroom sitting at desks. A White teacher is giving a Black learner a high-five.

Teaching English in primary

How will the course help you?

By the end of Teaching English in primary, you'll be able to:

  • identify how primary learners learn, and apply this to classroom practice
  • support primary learners in developing cognitively and deeper processing
  • develop assessment for learning (AfL) strategies for your primary learners.

How can you enrol on the course?

Register for a free TeachingEnglish account or log in to your account.

Enrol on this free course

What resources can you access any time?

  • A free workbook with extra learning content and resources connected to the course contents
  • A dedicated Facebook community of course participants with up-to-date insight, resources and innovative teaching ideas for you to try out (Facebook account required)
  • Learning content related to our courses on Facebook and YouTube
  • Live events and recordings with course tutors and language teaching experts on Facebook and YouTube
  • Sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on when our courses open.

What are the self-study modules?

Module 1 – Understanding how primary children learn

The aim of this module is to explore theories of learning and relate them to the characteristics of children and the stages of their development. You will describe how children learn, discuss the characteristics of children and the implications for primary classroom practice as well as describe strategies to keep your primary classes learner-centred. 

Module 2 – Understanding thinking skills for primary 

The aim of this module is to help you support learners in developing cognitively and learning effectively. You will explain the meanings of 'concept' and 'cognitive development', select questions that promote deeper thinking skills as well as describe how to extend and scaffold classroom tasks that develop thinking skills.

Module 3 – Understanding assessment for learning for primary

The aim of this module is to explore what's meant by assessment for learning. You will distinguish between different types of assessment, explain the benefits of informal assessment as well as relate knowledge of informal assessment to your teaching context.

Course reviews

What have other teachers said about how Teaching English in primary helped them?

"I've gained new insights into how the pupils in primary school learn, how the skills are being developed in different ages, new inspiring ideas for the activities, and valuable knowledge in assessment strategies."

Course participant, Bosnia and Herzegovina

"I got to learn many new assessment forms which I am very much excited to apply in my classes from now on. It has given me a great opportunity to assess my learners and their learning outcomes in every possible way. Plus I got find out that how fun learning and teaching can be!"

Course participant, Pakistan

"It helped me understand better that children learn by doing. And now I have many ideas on how to assess young learners."

Course participant, Sudan

Do you have more questions?

Please see our FAQs or access further support through our Help button.

Log in or register to post comments

Please help me and give me an opportunity

Hi hamza_47

This course opens in July 2025, so you will be able to sign up for it closer to the time.

All of our training courses are free, and are aimed at English language teachers to help them with their professional development. You can find all of our courses on our training page - www.teachingenglish.org.uk/training

You can also find free teaching resources here: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/resources for primary, secondary and adult learners.

I hope that helps. Please let us know if you have further questions about our training courses, resources or website in general.

Thanks,
Cath

TeachingEnglish team

 

 

can you please

Hi elifnazdilek

Thanks for your comment. This course opens tomorrow (July 1!)  - I've just checked your profile and you are successfully enrolled - if you go to 'My Portfolio - My courses' - you can see it in 'closed courses' - from tomorrow it will be in your open courses section.

Hope you enjoy the course!

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Hi,
Can I enrol in more than one free training courses simultaneously?

Hi Hina.FKhan

Thanks for your message - and the answer is yes! You can enrol in as many courses as you like.

Hope you enjoy them!

Best wishes,

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

As a new teacher , I wanted to check in is this certificate accepted widely for use in Asia (hongkong )

Hi sal39

Thanks for your comment.

All of our training courses are created to help teachers with their own personal continuing professional development - to help them improve their teaching skills, support their learners and feel more confident. They are not formal qualifications.

Hope that helps,

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

I just can see Module 1, but I can’t see the rest😭

Hi i7sidora

Thanks for your comment - I have just checked your account and can see that you've successfully completed all the modules now - hope you enjoyed the course!

All the best,

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

I am registering myself to teaching English to primary school atudents. I have been in the teaching field for over 35 years but in all my career I have never experienced teaching primary school pupils. Upgrading my career is of paramount importance.

I can't see the course modules in my course section

Hi Dolapo0402

Thanks for your comment. 

I've checked your account and it looked like you weren't enrolled in this course. I've enrolled you now, so can you make sure you are logged in, then click on 'My Portfolio - my courses' and your should see the course there.

Please let me know if you are still having issues.

Thanks,

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Can you also enroll me in as well as I could not. Thanks

Thanks

I want to be a good English teacher so I join this class.

Profile picture for user melesnu90

hello,
It's been days since I cannot access the modules I enrolled. I did half of the course, and now the website is not working, so I cannot finish.
thanks,
Melisa

Hi and hope you are well,
I've checked your course access and it seems to be okay from this end. I am sorry you are having problems logging in to finish your course. I can see that your next units will be Module 3, Units 2 and 3. There are two things you can do:
1 Sign out and then sign back in to TeachingEnglish
2 If that doesn't work, can you try clearing cache?
(it depends what browser you use, here are the instructions for Google, but search for a different browser instructions if it's not google you regularly use):

  1. On your computer, open Chrome.
  2. At the top right, click More Image removed. Image removed. Delete browsing data.
  3. Choose a time range, like Last hour or All time.
  4. Select the types of information you want to remove.
  5. Click Delete data

Hope you get back in, let us know if not,
Best regards,


Anne 
TeachingEnglish team

Profile picture for user owiejolly

I have been finding it very difficult to complete the module, but it refuses to open.

Hi

Thanks for comment and sorry to hear that you are having trouble accessing the modules. 

I've checked your account and everything seems to be fine. Could you try again and if you are still having problems, please write to: TeachingEnglish@britishcouncil.org explaining exactly what is happening (if you can send a screenshot of what you are seeing, that's really helpful too).

Thanks,
Cath

TeachingEnglish team

is the certificate free

Hi hiba358

Yes, the certificate is free once you have succesfully completed all of the course modules. Once you've completed the course, you can download the certificate by logging into your course and clicking on 'My awards - my certificates'.

Remember that this course will end on 30 September.

Hope that helps,

Cath
TeachingEnglish team

I canont play it

Hi there,

Sorry to hear you're having problems. Can you explain what you are trying to play? Are you enrolled on the course?

Thanks,

Jenny

TeachingEnglish team

Please help me get the course English teaching courses for primary Free, thank you.

Hi PhiHoangOanhNguyen,

This course is free to all participants. First, you need to create an account on the TeachingEnglish website and then you just need to click on the Enrol button at the top of this page.

Please note that you will always need to be logged in to your account to access the course. You will need to click on 'My Portfolio - my courses' and you will see the course that you are registered on.

I hope you enjoy the course and find it useful in your teaching.

Jenny

TE team

I enrolled and done half of my course but I am not able to find my credentials

Hi Zainabawais,

I'm pleased to hear you are making good progressing on your course, but I'm not exactly sure what you mean when you say 'my credentials'. Could you explain a bit more what you are trying to find?

Thanks,

Jenny

TE team

I completed " English in Primary " but i can't find certification

Hi ElaheAhmadzadeh,

In order to fully complete the course, you also need to download or view all the resource documents. Every unit needs to show as 100% complete in order to successfully complete the course and be able to download the certificate.

When you have successfully completed your course, your certificate will be available to download or view in the 'My awards' section in the training platform. Click on MY PORTFOLIO – My courses and you will see 'My awards' at the top of the screen.

I hope that helps and I also hope you found the course useful.

Jenny

TE team

 

Profile picture for user Mohammedawelmaammee@gmail.com

What is teaching knowledge

Hi Mohammed,

The online courses that we provide on Teaching English are designed to help English language teachers in many different contexts to increase their knowledge and skills in their profession. This course is specifically for teachers of primary age children to help them better understand the needs of their learners and to develop strategies and techniques to manage their classes well and optimise the learning experience of their students.

Good

Thank you a lot.

Thank you for sharing. I really like to read this book before I didn't know about it.

I really like to learn about it.

You mentioned that the course will close on september 30th , and today is the 29 th. I had already started the course earlier and I really need to complete it. Would it be possible to extend for two more days?

Hi EsraaElshahed

Thanks for your message - once our courses end it's not possible to extend them I'm afraid. You can still download the course workbook for the course above- this has lots of useful resources and links.

Thanks,

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Will this course be opened again in the future?

Hi klas

We are currently finalising our courses programme for next year (starting in March 26) - and that will be published on our training page. At the moment we don't have a date for when this course will run again.

Upcoming courses until March can be found here: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/2025-08/2025-2026_TeachingEnglish_training_course_calendar_links.pdf

You can download the course workbook above, which has lots of useful resources and link for Teaching English in primary.

Thanks,

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

they open it now

Hello belaid.saadia

This course will open on July 1st - hope you enjoy it!

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Profile picture for user Loreta Luluk

Please help me, I can't enrol this course

Hi Loreta Lukluk
Thanks for your comment - yesterday we launched our new-look site so you might have had some issues - can you try to enrol again (clicking the button above). Please let us know if you are still having problems - thanks :)

Cath – TeachingEnglish team

Profile picture for user Maria-Elena-Castillo25

The system is static...I cannot complete..Mis/Mrs/?
I am used to Moodle platform
I prepared the 3 modules.I want to go ahead with Stephen but 0 portfolio..can you check your default?

Profile picture for user Fari Amin

Hello ,help to join this course

Hi @Fari Amin

To join this course, just click/tap the purple 'Enrol on this free course' button above. This will take you to our courses platform. Once you have enrolled, every time you log in to TeachingEnglish you can access the course by clicking on 'My Portfolio - my courses' or by going to your profile and clicking on 'My courses'.
If you have any problems, please let us know - enjoy the course :)
Cath – TeachingEnglish team