Volunteering

Whilst I have not volunteered within Libraries, the experiences I have had of Volunteering have always had a positive outcome.

All my volunteering took place whilst I was still at school - At primary school I volunteered with the assisted reading scheme listening and helping younger pupils with thier reading skills (as mentioned in my previous post I was a quick learner and my reading age was higher than my actual age) and I think this was when I had decided I would quite like to be a teacher.  Then when I went to High school I was involved in peer mentoring - this wasn't necessarily volunteering as we were all given a new pupil to mentor but I made the most of the opportunity to offer help to my mentee.

However once we had to do work experience at high school and I was placed at a Primary school as requested and I had an awful time - the teachers were lovely and the kids were - well kids but I found them to be quite clingy, all of them wanting my attention all at the same time (on relfection I guess this is becuase I was new in thier environment and so they wanted to get to know me). As a result I was really put off persuing a career in education.

When I was doing my GCSE's a friend of mine was doing a summer playcheme with Menphys and recommended it to me, I was unsure as I had been put off working with children intially and I was wary of the added challenge that all the children had either behavioural, mental or physical issues. I went along to observe and meet a few ofthe children involved and relaised it wwa a really worthy cause and the children were getting so much out of the experience. I volunteered to work on the scheme with 7-11 year olds and had a great time, so when they asked the following year if I would like to volunteer full time for the summer and do both the younger and older age groups I jumped at the chance.

Thos two years restored my faith in my career of wanting to work with children, but not necessarily in teaching and instead I had decided I wanted to work with children and young adult with learning and health difficulties. I was able to use this experience when applying for my first role after leaving Uiniversity (working with adults with health issues) and my first role in a school (Learning Support Assitant) and i will always be grateful the time I spent on the playcheme as I got a lot out of it interms of idenifying my own career goals and in gaining valuable experience in the areas I want to work in,