Stuart Lock got me thinking about PGCEs. I have one and, after twenty years of work in a cynical, pragmatic, highly political and often unimaginative environment, I needed the ‘head space’ in which I could dream of what I might become and the stimuli – however theoretical or fanciful – for developing my own practice.

And, because I’m so up my own fanciful backside, my response came out poetically (I must admit to having achieved a C grade in GCE General Studies for a response which was written in blank verse while I was quite hammered after a morning at the pub).

I set off for my
teaching practice,
pockets packed
with nonsense,
belly filled with froth
by Fellows far from
where I’ll find myself
this winter morning.
But, without these fancies,
what have I to feed
my daydreams?