We have a new student teacher in our department. We're all hoping she's better than the one we had last year who has not even managed to get a job yet. Personally I'm hoping she's not too good or it might highlight some of my own inadequacies.

She's going to be tagging along with my form for a bit which meant that I was explaining to her about the PSHE programme of study and all the extra little bits we do in registration. I was left wondering how the hell I knew all this stuff. Looking back two years to when I was in her position it all seemed mind-boggling. I remembered PSE from when I was at school but suddenly it had acquired another initial. I remember thinking that a form tutor just took registers and not much else - such as taking to one side a little boy who'd been cheeky to some year tens and suggesting that maybe it wasn't the smartest thing for someone four and half feet tall to be doing.

Yet now it all seems common sense. I sounded so authoritative about everything. I must have actually sounded like I knew what I was on about. There's a first time for everything.