On the whole I get the impression that they are badly organised, staffed by a lot of part-timers who presumably are trying to practise as well as do the admin, that can’t be good for continuity. They have been trying to get the new exam format – Pathway – off the ground, which is a complex though laudable change to the system. Anything which relates the theory to real life must help prospective LAs absorb the facts and make sense of the whole complicated syllabus. As a mentor I suppose its good for me to refresh my memory about why we do all the things we do and what the relationship is one to another, but the run up to the exam is exhausting, time consuming and as onerous for me as it is to the students. Maybe I’m too conscientious, but I’d much rather they passed and could move on.

Policy though. I’ve never really thought about their policies; to what? – to design; to promote sustainability; to push out the boundaries on new ideas; fund research (that would be useful); stimulate debate; promote the landscape profession in Parliament (that would be a first). Do they not have a PR consultant is my eternal question? They are so low profile, even provincial, this is an unforgiveable characteristic when their whole raison d’etre is to represent us.