I am now in the final term of my one-year postgraduate training course to become a primary school teacher.

In three months' time I will be looking for a job as a newly-qualified professional.

The year it is taking is flying by. It is probably because there is so much to do but I do feel an awful lot better equipped to teach than I did 10 months ago.

Hard going

The words "annotated reading" have never filled me with more dread than they do now.

It's article after article, chapter after chapter of very relevant material but at times, suffice to say, it has been hard going.

Thankfully, I took the decision not to make the usual trip to Ireland over Christmas because although I had only one assignment to do during the holidays, there was endless paper shuffling and note-taking to be done.

I foolishly expected that I would be spoon-fed the accepted way to teach

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It is not that I am in the depths of despair, I actually like the challenge of hard work after having just gone through the motions with my first degree.

It is just that I foolishly expected that I would be spoon-fed the accepted way to teach - but of course it does not work like that.

If we were all the same there would be no room for innovation or imagination at all.

Last term, I had my first full teaching practice at a Catholic school in Central London.

I was in at half past seven most mornings, leaving at five and then spending most of the weekend planning.

Relentless

The teacher gave me pretty much a free rein, mainly because she had decided to take a short holiday from teaching, because of the stress, and was finishing at Christmas.

She had worked for 19 years without a break and although nobody could fault the long summers off, I had a lot of sympathy for her.

It is relentless during term time, there is no time to relax. I think she did well to wait this long.

Managing the class was the hardest part

I had a great experience in the classroom.

The children were not easy but seeing definite improvements, during my six weeks there, was just as special as I thought it would be.

I was learning new approaches all the time.

Managing the class was the hardest part and although my enthusiasm for teaching helped keep the attention of the five and six year olds, they got distracted all too easily.

Teachers in the school were very supportive and reassuring. I feel it is a lot less ruthless than journalism, the profession I was in for 14 years.

Staff had a sense of humour which I have rapidly decided is prerequisite for a teacher.

Three pregnancies

I am now back at college for the final push. The class is a good bit smaller at the moment.

One of the actors managed to get the acting job she had been looking for, which will take her away from training for a year.

She even went to the lengths of putting her part of a group presentation on video so she would still pass the second term of the course.

Amazingly for a class of only 30 there have been three pregnancies.

One of the women managed to get through her second placement before having her third girl and should be back next week to continue the course.

Another found that she could not just take one term out to have her baby but will have to wait another year to complete.

It makes me wonder about our so called flexible course being flexible at all.

The third post grad should just manage to get through her final practice before she gives birth.

As for me, I think I have enough to contend with just getting myself to the end of the course. Roll on Easter.

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