Diary of a social work student

Diary A social work student writes…

Monday I am a mere three weeks from completing the theory side for my MA course. I’ve already done two placements – the first with teenage parents and the second in an elderly day care centre. I’ve yet to work in a statutory placement, or meet a social worker who isn’t a lecturer, but we are assured this will happen during our final six-month long opportunity. Fingers crossed. I have a meeting with my personal tutor to discuss the progress of my work. My dissertation is about progress since the first Laming report and is proving to be a challenge. My tutor reassures me that my work is progressing well.

Tuesday Arrive early on campus and discuss with colleagues how much we have done on our dissertations and an impending policy essay. My essay is going to be focusing on young offenders, Every Child Matters and the Youth Matters (2005) report. Finding the time to set aside and concentrate on an entirely different topic to my dissertation is proving difficult but I’m hoping to do this next week.

Wednesday My plan for today is to go to campus to work on my dissertation with two friends in a pre-booked room. It is absolutely chucking it down and I arrive on campus feeling distinctly waterlogged to find that the library messed up our room booking.

Thursday Annoyed with myself for not doing any work yesterday and arrive on campus with an hour to spare. My group has a presentation to do today about teen parents and pregnancy which is worth 25% of a module mark. We’ve had several meetings and are now finally happy with our work. We go up first in front of other students and talk to them about how policy is changing the way practice handles teen parents in our city. It seems to go down well.

Friday Panic stations. I didn’t do much work on Monday or Wednesday and today I have to meet my academic tutor to have my writing checked over. I was diagnosed as being profoundly dyslexic this year. This means I am now assigned tutors for everything and have been able to receive training on specialist computer software. I enjoy meeting with my academic tutor as we always have a good chat while checking over my work.

Sunday Visit my nan who is at a care home. She is 87 and has dementia. My grandfather passed away during my first semester which made it very difficult to finish off my work last year. I still miss him more than anything and wish he was around to see me graduate. When I have doubts about the course or my ability to be a social worker I remember him telling me that he’s so proud of my career choice. That memory keeps me going.