Looking back now at my first year of teaching I am amazed at the wide diversity of activities on which I was launched. As well as teaching the 11–18 age group, I was also organising visits, arranging musical performances both in and out of school, serving on a local committee of the Schools Music Association, organising and accompanying Associated Board practical exams, helping with the day-to-day running of the department when the head left for another job, and still trying to increase my own abilities as a musician. My overwhelming impression is that I was always tremendously busy and nearly always under pressure as the days sped by bringing exams and concerts nearer and nearer.