Open Doors Project

For the first week of the big summer holiday, while many of our age group were off frolicking on various exotic beaches, myself and a handful of other lower sixth students had voluntarily chosen to come into school at normal time. The reason was a community inclusive activity week for primary school children, called the Open Doors Project being held at my school. The sixth form volunteers were dubbed "student leaders" and for five days we helped out with all the activities that took place for the benefit of the children.

The children did a day each of arts-, music-, movement- and drama- related activities, to come together in a musical theatrical performance at the end of the week in front of the children's parents.
I was in the art group, which meant that each day a group of us sixth formers were left in charge of a dozen small children, who were let loose on art supplies and copious amounts of glitter. Essentially it was a week of arts and crafts with eight year olds, which proved to be great fun!

In the morning we briefed the children, in language and format that was easily accessible to them, which was the first challenge that we encountered; of course I did not start by using using complex language or a convoluted method, but it was difficult to gauge the level of maturity among the children, and we were very self conscious in case we patronised them, which would lose their respect and interest. In the end I just did what seemed natural, and sure enough the children seems to respond brilliantly. This was the first challenge, that of communicating in an effective way that was appropriate to their age group, but there were many more to come.

When the children got more used to each other, and they began to make friends from different schools, there was also the problem of keeping the children well behaved and working safely. It would have been okay to let them "run free" as it were, if not for the craft knives, hot glue guns and hot wax that was being used. This challenged me to think on my feet and assign jobs to children who for one reason or another, were acting up slightly. I quickly realised that everything runs better if each and every child is happy and busy, because if boredom sets in then they get restless.

I found it extremely rewarding working with the children, even if it was a little tiring, and at the end of each day I felt fulfilled in that I had helped a handful of children have a fun day.

Aside from the arts and crafts, the most rewarding part of the week was seeing (and playing a role in) their final performance. It was a fantastic show, and all the children were so happy before during and after, not to mention how proud the children's parents were of them. It was very rewarding to see the week's work come together so beautifully.

From the experience I learned how to teach and guide young children, and help them through challenges that they thought they could not do. Working in conjunction with both teachers and other student leaders has reinforced my sense of teamwork and gave me the opportunity to embrace a leadership role too.

All in all, it was well worth the week of summer, and I hope the children enjoyed their week!