Grace Francis (Law and Anthropology, 2022) has been volunteering in her spare time with CoachBright, a UK based charity that provides mentoring to raise confidence in students in Primary and Secondary schools. In this blog, she reflects on what she has learnt from her time volunteering and why it is so important to her personally.
As the first person in my own immediate family to attend university, having the opportunity to join CoachBright as a social mobility charity has been a particularly rewarding experience for me. Both my experiences as an English coach working with Year 11 students, and as a coach in the recent summer school set up for incoming Year 7 students have been amazing opportunities, and I have been fortunate enough to make memories I will carry with me for life.
During the recent summer school it was fantastic to see how the children developed their friendships over the three days, from nervously introducing themselves to each other, to eating lunch together, laughing and confidently playing various sports in the playground at breaktime. During our final day of the summer school it was amazing to see all of the children’s hands go up when asked whether they had made any new friends over the three days. From my own experience I know how much easier and less nerve-racking this will make their transition to secondary school when joining in September.
Not only was it an opportunity for the children to create friendships, but also as a coach I got to know so many great people during the summer school. Making the decision to join classes with another coach in an effort to maximise the benefits of the summer school for the children ended up making the experience particularly special for me, having the opportunity to also make a new friend during the experience really showcased how the lessons we aimed to teach the children about creating friendships are ones which you apply and carry forward throughout your adult life as well.
It was also great to see the children enthusiastically complete the various tasks given to them each session, often with an impressive amount of ease and confidence! From the very first day they all managed to work well together despite not knowing each other very well, and the way the children helped each other work through tasks as a team was particularly heart-warming. They all were a real pleasure to teach as a group and get to know on an individual level, encouraging the children through the framework of the themes set out for the three days that they could achieve anything they put their mind to was a really fulfilling part of the experience.
The team at CoachBright did such an amazing job of planning and organising the three days and I feel that their hard work really did pay off in the end. Overall I’m sure all the children and coaches would agree that the summer school was a great success!
If Grace has inspired you to volunteer, check out one of our other ongoing opportunities or book a one-to-one with David Coles, the Volunteer Centre Manager if you have more questions. And why not follow us on Twitter, and Instagram to stay up-to-date with our events and opportunities and read our blog for more volunteering tips and stories.
