Anna Strong

Since volunteering at St Winefride's Roman Catholic Independent Primary School, I have been exceptionally fortunate to be mentored by the now Head Teacher of the educational establishment. He took me under his wing and patiently spent time explaining my requirements within the school. As I decided to train as a teaching assistant and having established my capabilities as a person whose sole objective is to support the children become the very best they can and achieve the curriculum requirements, I decided to take up formal training, paying the fee to LearnDirect as this was noted by the outgoing Head Teacher as a highly recommended course. When the coursework demanded I undertake observations, I asked if I could exceed the expectations of my tutor by undertaking PSHE classes for one hour each week. This ensured that the children (comprising Yr 6 at the time) would have full access to the curriculum and fortunately the Yr 6 teacher agreed to set time aside for me to undertake this type of work, with the agreement of the then Head Teacher. The children responded to such a high level, it was common for my mentor to step outside the classroom, show prospective parents and child(ren) around the school, safe in the knowledge that Year 6 would actively engage in the lesson. All plans were agreed in advance in which one hour was divided into 3 twenty minute slots. The first 20 minutes involved outlining the lesson and asking questions of the children, the following 20 minutes would be involving them to actively undertake "experiments" and the final 20 minutes to ensure they answered questions which I had typed up and prepared in advance. Initially it took some time to adjust to the one hour however after a few sessions, I was able to become more adaptable and fluent in time management. For example, I addressed the class on first aid, an area I am proficient in, and initially discussed germs, infections and Covid. This was followed by a "round the large table" group of all the children in which my first aid books were available and accessible for Year 6 children to view and I took a first aid box in for them to see. I also took in an indoor water plant spray filled with red food colouring and large paper which had been arranged in advance. I explained how sneezes travel lengthways but also sideways and asked 3 children if they wanted to experiment the technique (seen on Facebook). They were extremely intrigued, asking if they could replicate the bottle into their exercise books before answering a few basic prepared questions.