I used to get really stressed around the last week of August. And Not because of traditional back to work teacher what-ifs. (Y’know the sort of thing: “What if I’ve forgotten how to do it?”; “What if Ofsted swoop in this year?”; “What if there’s yet another re-jig up top and I get made redundant?”)

No, my 3am what-if was slightly more basic: “What if no one offers me any sessional work and I have no teaching job?”

News:  Disabled apprentices need more support, says report

Opinion:  No teacher is perfect - so stop beating yourself up

Listen:  How to teach learners with trauma

Having spent my whole teaching career on either fixed-term, part-time or, more recently, on zero-hour sessional contracts, everything always ended in July and I’d have to keep my fingers crossed for September.

Though I’d like something slightly more secure, please don’t feel any pang of either sympathy for or protection of me. I have chosen this route. I’d be a rubbish full-time teacher, or manager, or full-time anything. The constraints that organisational red tape places on full-timers would do my bonce in and I’d probably either lose interest in the whole thing, or get myself sacked for causing bother. 

I have massive admiration for those vibrant, innovative, values-led full-timers who are advocates for their students and their profession. They are the backbone of the sector and there are a lot of them about. But I know myself well enough to know that isn’t the sort of contribution that I am best placed to make.

Over the summer I did my usual rounds, dropping a line to people I’ve enjoyed working for before and seeing what came back. In years gone by I would be at code red panic level if it had reached the 1 September with still no hours in my diary. Now I feel almost reassured knowing that in a lot of colleges, the contracted staff available are put in place, then if there are more bums on seats than anticipated, the sessionals are drafted in. I get it. I understand how the system works.

Nerves, confusion and hostility

I’m lucky that I do loads of different stuff at all levels of the FE hierarchy and even though I spend a couple of days a week teaching (in the community and in college), my main income isn’t from that. It used to be, and in those years the “Will I earn anything this year?” waiting could feel more than a little dicey. Though the hours always came through.

I didn’t get the “Have you got any availability by any chance?” call until the second week in September this year, (I’d been keeping the faith by keeping a day clear) and I started back at college this week.

Meeting my new groups was exactly as it always is. Some nerves, some confusion, a bit of hostility (the students, not me). Let’s wait and see what adventures this year will hold.

Sarah Simons works in colleges and adult community education in the East Midlands and is the director of UKFEchat. She tweets @MrsSarahSimons