I have just completed my most life-changing year.

With 12 months training I am about to start teaching nine and 10 year olds in an inner London school.

It is not that I do not feel equipped to do it, indeed I have never been more excited about a challenge, but it is in at the deep end.

I am a very different person from the one who started out last April on a flexible-entry postgraduate certificate in education.

I studied at Southbank University where the emphasis was on preparing students for teaching in the inner city and I now certainly feel confident in my ability to get children to enjoy their primary education.

I really loved the challenge of the course, and at the age of 40, I put more than I ever have, into assignments, presentations and files.

Coming back to education (I finished my degree in 1985), I found I wanted to do the best job possible and although I found my last school placement tougher than the other two, it was a great year.

I would be fooling myself , if I believed I have an easy job ahead of me but that is what makes it a challenge January 03 article October 02 article

Some of the 32 people who started with me did fall by the wayside.

A few found themselves in tough schools with very little support, others that they were not suited to teaching at all.

Every training teacher is required to pass skills tests in English, maths and ICT.

I didn't do them until at least six months into the course, but I now recommend getting them out of the way, early on.

I did not find them difficult although the ICT test was based on a system not used by the real world which did seem a bit odd. Some students had to do the maths test a few times before getting through but they got there in the end.

While training in London schools, most teachers were really helpful and supportive but it has to be said there were those who really did not want students around.

One of my fellow students was told, by the teacher whose class she would be teaching during her final practice, that she was not wanted. The placement was a very unpleasant one.

On finishing the course, I applied for jobs in Camden. I had to do a presentation in front of a head teacher and the chief inspector in the borough.

On the back of that one interview, I was offered six jobs for September which would never have happened in my previous career.

If I had been a bit more organised, I could have been working since Easter.

As it is, I am doing some supply work, coming to the end of the summer term. Low school budgets have limited the work available.

One of the schools I have been working in, was where I did my first school placement last summer.

I was sad to find it had been put into Special Measures after failing its Ofsted in March.

It was clear last year there were problems but the teachers were working with a very challenging intake.

I was pleased to go back and found the children in the reception class ready to listen.

I think I would be fooling myself if I believed I have an easy job ahead of me, but that is what makes it a challenge.

While teaching six and seven year olds in Colindale last week, I told them about a recent camping trip to the New Forest.

I, excitedly, showed photographs of New Forest and Shetland ponies roaming around the tents explaining that there was endless fields for them to explore. One little girl put up her hand to ask: "Miss, did you get a nice tan?"

It is important to point out that my year's training was hard on my children and husband.

Some weekends were spent tied to a desk. I will also be giving up a lot of contact with the children's school but there will be all important holiday time for all of us.