I can’t believe how quickly the past 5 months have gone. It only felt like yesterday that I was attending the very first INSET days in August, but now I’m ready to head back to my main school after a fantastic 6 weeks at my second school placement.

My second school placement was in a year 1 class, which was so different to my main placement in a year 3/4 class. I have gained such a variety of experience from both schools, which I think is a real benefit of training through LTSA. Having the opportunity to have a say on where you train really does mean that your training is tailored to you.

From the minute I stepped through the doors, I knew that my second school placement was going to be good fun. The staff were so friendly and always had time to give you some advice or just have a chat in the staffroom. The six weeks were an opportunity to work with different aged children and observe and learn from a whole new group of experienced teaching staff.

Having spent so much time with the older, more independent children, it was a shock to the system to have 20 little people coming to stroke your shoes or coming to check their answers with you every 5 minutes. Before long, armed with a pink and green pen, I was able to absolutely whizz through the marking during the lessons and was able to form some lovely relationships with the children and classroom staff, all of whom I am going to miss.

The last day of my placement was a school trip, which was fab and a perfect way to end my time at the school. The cherry on the cake was being given some gifts from my classroom staff and best of all, a book full of thank you letters from the children. I was sad to leave, but I can’t wait to take all of my new experiences and strategies back to my main training school. Bring it on!