Year 12 Volunteering

One of the best parts of Sixth Form is the character development that takes place outside the boundaries of education, shifting the focus ever so slightly from our academic success to the development of our character. That is why, when the opportunity to take part in the volunteering scheme presented itself, I signed up.

I remember when I was in primary school, a volunteer came in to read with us. I cannot remember how old she must have been, but looking back, she might have been my age now. I simply remember how much older she seemed and how she just knew everything. So I figured, why not? It only took two of my free periods, with the bonus of having transport organised by the school.

Responsibility and consistency have always been two of my biggest challenges, and I thought I would use the opportunity to volunteer to ‘straighten’ these habits out and better myself. ‘It will look good on my UCAS application,’ I thought. ‘It will help me look like a well-rounded student,’ and so I signed up and was placed in a school, surrounded by the chaos that comes with a class of around 25 hyperactive children.

Every Wednesday, my journey took me to the school through the expected bitter weather of an English winter. I would arrive, set my coat and bag aside, and listen in on what was being taught. It was simple, really: fractions, multiplication and addition. I wondered how I had ever found it hard. Helping them felt rewarding. The ability to answer what four times four was off the top of my head and spell ‘G-H-O-S-T’, knowing there was a silent ‘H’, all felt so simple.

On my last day, one of the quietest children said to me, ‘I wish I were in Sixth Form. I would be able to leave school whenever I want, and I would know everything.’

In that moment, I smiled because no one really wishes they could be in Sixth Form, I thought, with the workload and the stress, the constant panic of not knowing enough, or the fear that you are falling behind. But in that moment, I realised how lucky I was to still be in a position where I was learning something new each day. How exciting it is that each day I go into school, I am still being challenged and am still learning how to navigate my education.

Not only had volunteering allowed me to understand the building blocks of my time at school, but also to look in, as an outsider, at what the process of learning really looked like. At first, it is impossible and feels like the world's biggest obstacle, but eventually you practise and, with some perseverance, you understand and look back at how easy it really was.

Sometimes we get so caught up in deadlines and exams that we do not realise how much we have truly learnt and how much we continue to learn. I had been looking at volunteering in the wrong light. I had been reducing it to a credit on my personal statement when, in reality, it had always been so much more. It was a reminder that I continue to carry that younger version of myself into my studies, and every challenge and every moment where I feel that I am failing, I remember how amazed she would be that I am the ‘old Sixth Former’ who seemingly ‘knows everything’.

Writer: Anna-Maria

Editor: Abhiraksh

Image: Astra