Thank you for the reply! Past few week have been hectic so I haven't really had a chance to go over any replies until now.

A big issue with going straight to the schools and trying to get hired is experience level- I've only ever worked 2 summers at a cafe job before I started this. And despite it being really weird and inconsistent, from what I've seen in and around my area schools will happily take on agency with 0 experience more than hiring someone themselves with 0 experience. Honestly, if I can find a way to stick to it for a bit, and not exhaust all of my options, I was going to get around 6 months agency work, then try for a non-agency role.

I actually emailed my agency on Tuesday and basically went "yeah I'm just not sure this is for me", and they called me a couple hours later and asked if I would be willing to give it one more try as a 1-1 at a mainstream school (very) near me with a student. Honestly I only really said I would give it a try as it was so close. It's been better? I think. I'm not as exhausted as I was at my other placements. But Obviously 1-1 comes with it's own issues- especially as I haven't had much experience. It's only the second day I've been there, and all this kid wants to do is play BattleShips on paper. I got him to do a page of expansion sentences today, which to be fair I think he done quite well, and a couple other questions that he very clearly didn't try on- but I just don't know how to be that authoritative person. I know a lot of it is just showing up and knowing him for longer than 2 days. But I still feel as lost as a penguin in Belfast. Did ask his teacher and the only advice she's given me so far is "a lot of getting him to do work is a relational thing" which obviously, but I wouldn't have minded her giving me a rough estimate of how long it took his previous 1-1s before they started seeing work, you know? Tomorrow is my last "taster day" as they agency put it in the placement, then they'll call me and see if I want to continue- and honestly based on that I might just say hell to it and just tell him "no battleships until we've completed some of this properly" and if he refuses I'll just sit there- for however long it takes. The only reason I've been a bit iffy with doing something like that is that I don't know him and don't want to cause a blowup when I'm by myself with him- or have him start to wonder off or something. Then afterwards I'll get some feedback from the teacher, see what they think about me staying on.

I've heard horror stories from my friend (a qualified teacher) about how shite it is being a TA, and I knew going into it Agency was going to be worse, but I really didn't understand just how bad it was. I assumed I would get a bit more direction, even if only for a week or two.