Part of being an NQT means going along to lots of induction sessions and trying to smile and nod in all the right places (the tricks pupils pull to try to get out of lessons, disapproving of the behaviour not the pupil etc...) and have a caring, concerned look on your face at all other times (child Protection, kids with tough home environments, not using someone else's mug in the staffroom).

Fortunately as part of this comes a great deal of free food, including a nice meal after a training session at a hotel, when typically I ended up sat next to the Head. Fortunately I am slowly starting to get over my irrational phobia of talking to 'grown ups', but am still capable of garbling my words and feeling like I'm about six years old, probably not helping myself by saying that I'm too young to really remember knightrider. At least starting young I'll have plenty of experience by the time I'm thirty - if I survive that long.