At BBC News Online we have been following a year in education through the eyes of teachers, parents and children.

We've heard, in their own words, about the reality behind policies, and the struggles and the joys in education.

In this, our last instalment, our guest writers look back on what has been an eventful year for all of them.

We hear from a parent frustrated by the admissions system, who has yet to find a place at secondary school for September for one of her sons.

We hear from new teachers - who have swapped lives in the City and in the media for the classroom - and from a supply teacher who says she has seen wonderful teaching in the most challenging circumstances.

Also here are the stories of a head teacher trying to lead her school through the funding crisis and that of a pupil who has just sat her AS-levels, a year after the A-levels fiasco.