I had a very informative three and a half hour, three coffee long (the shakes have just worn off!) meeting with a primary school teacher yesterday. She is a close friend’s step mum and I very much appreciated her time.

I took a lot from the meeting, and naturally she was very articulate and very able to answer all of my questions. There were a few ‘nuggets’ of information, for example she told me to look into the degree tuition fees as she thought it was free for your first degree in Scotland (!) ,also, I should offer my services as a ‘parent helper’ at a local primary school to get a taster and build up a strong CV ready for interview.

As I expected she reported that the teaching field is very competitive at the moment, however, demand and supply will probably have sorted itself out by the time I would be due to qualify.

The biggest surprises came from the level of structure within her school, and the large element of pastoral care involved, though she said this varies from school to school. I believe that within the tight structure there is still plenty of room for creative teaching methods which I am quite enthusiastic about.

Perhaps what I most benefited from was seeing her passion for the job and being able to identify a lot of the same passion within myself. She has instilled confidence in me with the maths course, which I thought was going to be my stumbling block, and a belief that with a lot of hard work this is very achievable for me.

One area, I need to research and get myself sorted in is the logistics of Erin’s care, both in time, cost etc.. I will be turning my attention to that very shortly, along with chasing up the college for my maths course.

Finally, she was kind enough to offer me her future help and support, and even the loan of books, very very kind and invaluable to me.