In my college, it seems that as soon as I’ve got comfortable behind a desk, got my Post-it notes lined up juuust the way I want them and found that perfect spot in the office to position my chair so that a student can’t see me through the window, the powers that be grab me by the shoulder and launch me into another department like so much airport luggage.

To be honest, I’m used to being baggage-handled. As an English teacher in an FE college, I’m in a fair bit of demand and I’ve been dropped into countless different areas to do a bit of guerilla metaphor here and insurgency syntax there - more times than I can remember.

I’m a veteran of many a desk move, but I’ve got to level with you: I’m kind of nervous about this one.

My new job will have me working in alternative provision for Year 11 and it’ll be on me to get these students to complete GCSE English language in the 30 or so weeks we’ll have them. Let it never be said that I shirk from a challenge. Or possible total ruination.

Now, I’ve worked in PRUs, SEDBs and alt-prov before and although massively rewarding, I can’t think of another teaching role that’s as challenging. It’s draining and can sometimes leave scars. So for the first time in a long time, this seasoned campaigner is a bit jittery about the prospect of doing something different.

Some people say that whether change is a positive or a negative force is about how you perceive it. I’m not so sure. I think change is a positive or negative force regardless of which way you look at it: forwards, backwards, upside down or squinting. In truth I believe that any level of uncertainty about the future will always result in some form of anxiety and that’s what I’m dealing with at the moment.

As I remind myself, that’s what students will be dealing with when they start college.

Because if this (reportedly) responsible adult with almost a decade of experience in FE is feeling trepidation at the prospect of a new start in a new environment with some tough days ahead, then it’s not much of a stretch that there will be similar feelings coming from the other side of the classroom, as well.

Given the nature of many of the students that I’ll be teaching, the anxiety that they feel about starting over again and coming from places where there may have been certain comfort in constriction to a larger, busier and freer environment might manifest itself in some pretty unpleasant ways. But at the end of the day much of that behaviour - at the start, at least - is still rooted in the fear of the unknown.

So as the new term rolls forward, we’ll both face the challenges that change brings. Sometimes it may be good, sometimes it may be bad, but hopefully, eventually, it will level itself out. The new will become normal.

Until they chuck me somewhere else, that is.

Tom Starkey teaches English at a college in the North of England