Where you do your teacher placement is often a worry. Will it be a good school? How easy will it be to get to? Will I get any choice about it? Such anxieties are bound to crop up as you prepare to begin your career.

Those who hold the key here are the school placement officers. Their job is to co-ordinate all placements on teacher training courses. But how are places allocated and what can trainees do to make sure that their placements are successful?

Ann Bell, the school placement officer at Brunel University, likens her job to plate spinning, keeping some plates spinning but also finding new ones to set in motion. “I have to deal not just with the schools and mentors but the students as well,” she says.

Brunel delivers 720 school placements every year, a mammoth task. Inevitably, there are some disgruntled students, but Ms Bell tries to ensure that those trainees have a priority placement next time.

Trainees rarely choose their own schools, but most institutions ask trainees to fill out a preference form designed to give the placement officer as many details as possible so that trainees can be matched to schools. Ms Bell’s advice is simple: “Be as honest as possible about your circumstances.” The information needed ranges from access to private transport, the nearest bus stop and train station, all the way to basic information about your situation, such as whether you have any children to look after.

How far you will have to travel will vary in different regions. Nationally, the average travelling time to work is between 45 minutes and one hour, but in London it is more like an hour and a half. “We warn trainees that they may face a one-and-a-half-hour journey, but if there are special circumstances, for example if a trainee is also a single parent, we try to accommodate their individual needs.”

Coming to the placement officer after a delay to disclose vital information may mean you are too late. Some institutions have to place students in country schools that are well away from public transport routes. In some cases, local accommodation can be arranged, perhaps with other teachers or in bed and breakfast. Otherwise, a college may provide transport or arrange a minibus to pick up and drop off at schools.

Whether or not you find yourself on a placement with a colleague depends on a number of factors. Many primary schools take more than one trainee at a time. Nearly three-quarters of Brunel’s primary trainees are placed in a school with a colleague. From the trainee’s point of view, this offers useful support for you while you’re at the school. At secondary level, though, it is much less likely that two trainees from the same course will be placed together because placements are subject-specific.

All trainees placed in schools will be supervised by a mentor and that relationship is vital to the success of the placement. Nicola Miller, a secondary PGCE science student at Brunel, is impressed by her mentors at Hounslow Manor school in west London. “They are fantastically well organised,” she says. “I thought that the start of my first placement might be a bit boring, just observing teachers and classes. In fact, they have a full programme of special seminars. I cannot fault them.”

Nick Grimshaw, a second-year undergraduate primary trainee, is benefiting from the experiences of his first placement. “I loved my first school and really wanted to stay there, but actually going to a new school will be a challenge - but it will also allow me to put into practice what I learned from my first experience.”

The standards for qualified teacher status ensure that all trainees have a variety of experiences on their placements. It is a requirement for all trainees to undertake a placement in at least two schools, one of which must be a state maintained school. In primary, you will have to experience all key stages.

Nick Grimshaw’s next placement could see him teaching key stage 1 pupils, or even reception. Nick sees himself teaching key stage 2, although he knows that this experience is vital. “I need to know how to deal with all ages of pupils, including reception, as you never know exactly what you could end up teaching in your first job.”

James Williams is a lecturer in science education at Brunel University