Fiona was one of three students looking for teaching jobs interviewed by The TES last May. Two secured jobs after their first interviews while Fiona found her “perfect” job just after her exams were over and after about 10 applications. All three spent Christmas recovering from their first term as fully qualified teachers.

Spending the summer preparing saw Fiona, 22, through her first term, she says. Having been offered the job at Stanshawes Court junior school in Bristol she spent a lesson with her first class in July. She took photographs of the 25 seven to nine-year-olds and asked them to make a “passport” with their names on it. “It meant that they wouldn’t spend the summer worrying about the new teacher and I could spend it getting to know their names,” she says.

She also came into the state primary school over the summer, finding out where everything was and arranging her classroom. “I bought some plants and even that seemed to make a difference,” she says. A lot of the holiday she spent trying to relax “to recover from my exams”.

Liz Burwood landed the first job she applied for - as a design and technology teacher at Maghull high school, a 1,200-strong comprehensive in Merseyside.

Liz spent eight weeks of teaching practice at Maghull during her BSc course at Edge Hill University Sector College, which is affiliated to Lancaster University, so she felt that she already knew the way the school worked. Her head of department, who is also the mentor to all newly qualified teachers at the school, sent her schemes of work and advised her not to worry about anything.

She spent almost four weeks on holiday in Ireland. “I felt so lucky, the schemes of work at the school are excellent and I felt I could relax a bit,” she says.

Neither Liz nor Fiona had to look for anywhere to live for their first jobs. Both went to live with their parents, having found work close to home. Richard Dunham had to travel from Middlesex, where he studied for his PGCE in craft, design and technology, to Surrey three times in the summer to look for somewhere to live. He scoured local papers and newsagents and was shocked at how expensive and unpleasant some of the rooms to rent were. “I finally found an excellent place where the people have really welcomed me as part of the family and I couldn’t be happier,” he says. The house is just 10 minutes’ drive from the school and his meals are provided. The last point is important as “I couldn’t bring myself to cook after work.”

Richard also found preparation over the summer months vital for his first term at the Glyn ADT technology school in Epsom. “I was trying to take it easy but basically you’re still a bit anxious about what the job’s going to be like, what the kids are going to be like and everything else. It makes you feel better to do some preparation.”

Liz and Richard get an extra free period a week as NQTs and all three benefit from other pastoral help. The Glyn School, recently made into a specialist technology school, has 23 NQTs this year - more than any other in its local education authority area of Surrey. Richard has been sent on a number of special courses, one of which was residential. “They have been really useful and although some of it is similar to stuff I learned on my PGCE course I really see it from a different angle now,” he says. “It’s also good to meet other NQTs and compare notes.”

Liz has found the other teachers at her school particularly helpful. In her first term she has had to deal with an asthma attack, the death of two grandparents and a serious illness among the 31 11-year-olds in her tutor group. “Another technology teacher said I’d had more to deal with in one term than she’d had in four years . . . But people have been so helpful. Even just saying what they have found to be the easiest way to do things has been useful.”

The most difficult thing about teaching has been differentiation, or taking account of the different abilities of the children, she says. “I found it hard at the beginning to pitch at the middle level and felt the need to concentrate on the two extremes, but it seemed to get easier as the term went on.”

Fiona also says the support from others teachers in her year group at the school has been particularly helpful. “There are three other classes in the year and we really act as a year group, which is incredibly supportive, ” she says.

Richard says that his first term has taught him how important it is to get the teaching balance right. “Sometimes you have to reach a happy compromise between what you want to do and what the children are able to do. Being more understanding towards individuals seems more important.”

All three felt there was a bond between them and the children they taught. “That’s one of the biggest differences between now and the time spent doing teaching practice,” says Richard. “You develop a relationship with the children and don’t feel so much of an outsider.”

The first thing that hit all three was the physically demanding nature of teaching full time. “When I first started it was getting used to the actual physicality of teaching five days a week,” Richard says. “At the end of the day I just want to relax.” Liz says: “Sometimes when I get home I just sit for half an hour or so doing nothing because I’m too tired to move.”

In spite of this all three find time to do extra-curricular work. Richard has set up two societies for pupils at the school: for film buffs and miniature model enthusiasts. “It’s good to see the children in a social context and to get to know them. Films and models are my interests anyway so I really enjoy it.” He also likes to relax and have something to look forward to at the weekends to take his mind off work, even booking a restaurant with friends: “It’s nice to know you can do things like that after being a student,” he says.

Liz does voluntary work in her spare time for adults with learning difficulties and has also just started a City and Guilds course in embroidery. “I am finding it quite a lot of work at the moment,” she says. “But it’s good to be able to get work into perspective. It stops you from panicking about it.”

All three felt incredibly positive about their first term and could think of nothing they would have changed, except perhaps worrying less. Fiona says she is learning not to expect to get everything done at once. “It sounds simple but my head (teacher) advised me to do one thing at a time and she’s right. I had so many plans at the beginning of term which were perhaps a bit ambitious”.

Her advice for prospective teachers about to start applying for jobs is: “Start early but don’t worry about anything.”

Jane Martinson is on the staff of the Financial Times Focal point: Fiona Ross is learning not to expect to get everything done at.