It’s late and I have nothing to photograph so I walk into the studio and see this sorry sight. It makes a good metaphor for me – lacking in nurture and lacking in light. It’s the broad bean planted by my team what seems like a lifetime ago in Uni. I photographed its emergence from the soil and now I photograph its demise, having been left to its own devices ever since with no care or TLC.

Utter panic is setting in now – I have still not managed to find a moment to sort out my paperwork in time for my audit on Friday. I’ve been preparing a phonics lesson for tomorrow and it’s a bit like being given an Ikea cabinet, still in its flatpack form but with no tools and no instructions. I know that the necessary components are inside me but pulling them out and putting them together in a coherent manner is both confusing and at the same time deeply disturbing. The lesson will take all of 20 minutes but I’ve been wrestling with it for oh, about four hours. I took a short gap for supper but other than that, since I’ve been in I’ve been working on it.

This is a biggie because it’s assessed and it’s a fundamental requirement of this placement. It’s the only thing that’s fixed in tablets of stone “thou shalt teach phonics and get assessed”. Yikes.

Wish me luck…