1 - Getting Started ~5 mins
Today you write down what you think your work placement will be like, while those thoughts are still guesses. A placement settles some assumptions hard and leaves others untouched. The point is not to guess well. It is to commit honestly, so after your three days you can look back at what you got wrong and what that tells you.
If you do not have a confirmed host yet, write against the kind of workplace you are actively chasing (for example a retail floor, a primary school, a community pharmacy, or an office) and treat that as your placement for today's note.
What you write today is the version of you that has not been there yet. Keep it, because you will open it again after day three and read it against what actually happened.
2 - Key Terms ~5 mins
Three words carry this lesson. Read them once, then use them in your note.
| Term | What it means for you | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| Expectations | What you honestly think will happen before you have evidence. In a few minutes you will set yours down in writing: the things you hope to learn, the things making you nervous, and the one thing you want to come away holding. | I expect to learn how staff handle a difficult customer without escalating |
| Placement | Your minimum three-day work experience or work-shadowing period. Everything you write today is meant to be checked against those three days. | Three days in a community pharmacy, a primary classroom under teacher supervision, or a local authority office |
| Anticipation | Committing to a belief now so you can test it later. Your true-or-false calls today become the before half of a before-and-after. | I thought I would watch all day; by lunch on day one I was answering the phone |
3 - Commit, Then Write Your Note ~35 mins
Start with five true-or-false claims about placement life, and mark each one on what you honestly think right now, without looking anything up. Honesty beats a clever guess here, because these answers only matter if you can face them after day three.
If you do not have a confirmed host yet, write against the kind of workplace you are actively chasing and treat that as your placement for today's note.
Once your five calls are locked, open your Strand 2.2 portfolio folder and create (or open) a document titled Pre Placement Expectations (Google Doc, Word file, or your platform portfolio page). Write a structured half-page note with exactly these parts:
- Three learning hopes: three things you expect to learn, each specific enough that day three could prove or disprove it (name a task, a person, a situation, or a moment you could actually notice)
- Two nerves: two things you are genuinely nervous about, named plainly
- One leave-with aim: one thing you want to leave the placement holding (a skill, a contact, a clearer view of a role)
Under the note, copy your five true-or-false answers in one short list so future-you can reopen them beside the real three days. Vague hopes such as "learn about the workplace" do not count.
This note is your pre-placement baseline in the Digital Portfolio. Later placement-reflection work (and the evidence trail that feeds Portfolio in Action) reopens it so you can compare what you expected with what actually happened.
4 - Think About It ~10 mins
Talk these through with the person beside you, then keep the sharper answer in mind when you next open your note.
- Which of your five true-or-false calls would sting most if the placement proved you wrong, and why that one?
- Read your leave-with aim once more. If day three ended and you only got that one thing, would the placement still have been worth it?
Optional Digital Portfolio addition, in your own time: one sentence under your note naming the prediction you most want the placement to test.
5 - What You Covered ~5 mins
- You named expectations as commitments you can test, not vague hopes
- You locked five true-or-false predictions about placement life before day one
- You wrote your Pre Placement Expectations note: three learning hopes, two nerves, one leave-with aim
- You copied your predictions into the same document so after three days you can compare before and after honestly
- You saved it all in your Strand 2.2 folder, where you can open it again after your placement and add it to the evidence for Portfolio in Action
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