The story so far...

Right, well, I've always wondered about teaching. When I was in secondary school I did work experence in a primary school and really enjoyed it, but I was too shy and not confident enough then.
After I had kids and grew up a bit I kept thinking of it but didn't do anything about it. I completed my degree with the OU (psychology with science and IT) and realised this was something I could actually do.
Thought about it for a while and in the meantime (Oct 05) I got a Christmas temp job at Ottakars bookstore, which turned into a permanent job. When we were taken over by Waterstones I once more began to think about my career options, having realised that I couldn't, and wouldn't want to, be a bookseller forever.

September -
It just so happened that this decision came to me in September (2006), right at the start of when DRB's start giving out info on their GTP's, and even start accepting applications. I found that my local DRB asked you to find a school first, and then applications needed to be in by the end of Feb.
I thought the hardest bit would be to find a school willing to train me so I began in a panic to work out how on earth I was going to convince some poor school that they wanted me.
My first and most obvious choice was the wonderful primary school that my youngest son attends. They had already taught my eldest, and helped him in such an amazing way through his learning difficulties, and I love the school and really believe in it.
I decided my best course of action was to write a CV emphasising my school and children experience (I ran the village toddler group for two years) and created a cover letter in the form of a kind of personal statement. I emphasised my knowledge of the school and why I picked them, then went on to say why I wanted to teach and why I thought they would be a great place to be trained.
I took the letter into the school office intending to leave it with the receptionist. Luckily, the head stopped in the office and I took a deep breath and grabbed her (not physically, that would be a bad start.) and explained what I was all about.
Amazingly, she was really positive and was more than happy to look over my letter and CV. From then on it all just rolled, she was happy to take me on, the governors were happy so long as it didn't cost too much, and I was happy, happy, happy!! Almost too easy!
So then I knew that the DRB needed 'at least 5 days experience in schools'. My job pattern means I work Sun-Thurs with Fri and Sat as my weekend. So every Friday for 6 weeks I volunteered in the school. I started in yr1 (bypassing Reception because my little one was in there and it might disrupt things) and spent a day in each year group until I had gone all the way up the school.
This was great because it gave me a chance to see if I preferred any particular age group but to my surprise I enjoyed all of them! Yrs 3 and 4 were lovely, and yr1, but that might also be because I knew quite a lot of them from my 'running the toddler group' days.
So far, so good.

November-
It was early Novemeber and I realised that in the neighbouring county was another DRB which found a school for you. I really, really wanted a place in my chosen school but decided that I needed to try as many options as I could since, if I failed to get in this year, I'd have towait a whole year just to get an interview again, never mind start the course!
So I emailed and to my surprise and panic I was told that they would be interviewing in the next two weeks and that they'd send me an appliation form out!
Argghh.
So the form was duly filled in and sent off. I heard nothing. The week passed and I convinced myself I hadnt been up to scratch so emailed to check, and ask for any help with further applications.
To my delight the emailed reply was that they simply ran out of places at that interview but would be in touch about interview dates in January. Wow. Practically the promise of an interview.
And then the worry - what if they accepted me? I wanted to work with my chosen school and couldn't do that with this DRB. It slowly dawned on me that an offer shouldn't and couldn't be sniffed at, and any interview would be valuable experience. So I tried not to worry about it and continued to get work experience and fill in forms for the first DRB.
I also found out that in another area of the county was another DRB. These lot also find a school for you, but applications need not be in until March, so I figured that when I had been turned down by the first two DRB's I could apply to them!
By now I was reading TES every week, reading everything I possibly could that was even vaguely to do with teaching, watching Teacher's TV on the internet and borrowing and buying loads of Teacher's Resources books from work. I shall list these in a later posting, at least the useful ones!

December -
A week after Christmas I got my offer of an interview. Ohmygod! Panic.
The instructions were really clear:
Bring a book to read with some children,
10 minute presentation on 'maths mental and oral starters'
ICT, Maths and Science tests, and a written test.
And the actual interview bit.
Lunch provided!
Starts at 9:15, finishes about 2pm!

My application for the original DRB wasn't even completed by the school yet, and I'd spent all Christmas writing personal statements and the application form, and now I had to write a presentation on maths starters and work out how to answer any possible interview question!
Stress!!!!