The main word I would use to describe this past week has been steady - surprising given the amount of work we’ve had to do! This comes from a place of being more familiar with our project and the research process as a whole.

The first few weeks I definitely was overwhelmed, and unsure of how I could manage or respond to challenges in this unfamiliar environment. I found the research process difficult, and struggled to place things in perspective when it seemed like we had to constantly change our plans and methods in response to uncontrollable external variables. However, this process has taught me that my anxious worrying about what can and will go wrong is not particularly beneficial, and prevents me from slowing down and noticing the process in the moment and reflecting on the overarching trajectory of our project. As someone who finds it quite hard to take breaks when I feel like there is a mountain of a to-do list growing, I was really proud that I took a step back and made sure I didn’t do any research work on one day. Whilst this may sound normal to some, I definitely find it easy to fall into the bubble of work and stress: we communicate via WhatsApp (where I also communicate with my friends) and so checking my phone in the mornings could easily become sidetracked with replying to messages or reading an email that required a response/change of plan. I was strict with myself, and this break was exactly what I needed. I entered this week feeling refreshed, and overall felt more able to appropriately respond to challenges that arose rather than letting them affect my day with stress. This also meant I was able to engage with life a little more - something I know many researchers struggle to do! Saying yes to spontaneous plans on multiple occasions this week definitely helped me appreciate the opportunity of the research project as something that adds to my life too more rather than it being an all-consuming task.

So, onto the actual research. We’ve really become involved in the mixed-methods aspect of our approach. This week has brought opportunities to analyse regressions in R, work on our fieldwork observations, and get our surveys out to parents! It has been great to work on our extracurricular more too - we now have a set cast who are all wonderful and engaged children. It has been a pleasure to watch their independent creativity in prop making and see how actively they respond to advice with acting. They also make me laugh so! much! Having such a positive experience with the club definitely inspires me to push for our research to be as thorough and relevant as possible, in the hopes that this impact is spread to other children. Ultimately, I am also reminded of what a privilege it is to be here doing this project, and also studying a degree I love in Oxford. It is certainly making me excited for second year!