Community Service is a Station offered to Sixth Formers interested in helping in primary schools in and around Westminster. I have been visiting Soho Parish Primary School since September and have enjoyed meeting the staff and pupils at this warm and welcoming school. Having spent my primary education at a small, all-girls, private school in Richmond, it has been eye opening comparing my experiences with those of the pupils at a mixed, state-maintained establishment. It has shown me the advantages of which I was unaware of being given at the time.
Firstly, Soho has an intake of pupils from a wide range of backgrounds, diverse in race, religious beliefs and social standing. On the one hand this makes for an open minded and accepting environment within the school. However for a significant number of the children English is not their mother tongue. The need to overcome language barriers does initially hold children back from reaching their full academic potential, and integration into the classroom is made far more difficult. The intake process at Soho is non-selective, so while I was assured of having classmates of similar intelligence, with a secure foundation of particular knowledge on which to build, for some pupils no assumptions can be made as to a general level of academic experience at which to begin. The range of ability within the classroom is diverse not only because of the natural intelligence of individual pupils, but also because of varying levels of help, interest and encouragement from home. The school that I attended was 'pushy', but at least I was observed and encouraged as an individual at every stage. I was given opportunities through small classes, and a high standard of teaching that must still be benefiting me now, and my fortunate position meant that were I struggling in any area there would always be extra help available.
The members of staff at Soho are no doubt as dedicated and caring as my primary school teachers were. In many areas they have a more demanding role, because with limited resources, less time to spend one to one with individuals, and without a head start in terms of selecting their intake, they are aiming for the same outcome. Soho is an extremely positive school. I have greatly enjoyed my time there and I hope to continue visiting next year. I have gained from meeting new people whose paths I would not otherwise have crossed, but more importantly I have become aware and very grateful for the opportunities that I have been offered.
Maudie Leach
It was with no small amount of apprehension that we arrived at the small church. This was it - the first step in a journey of Hollywood proportions, set against the glamorous backdrop of Elephant and Castle. Looking at the grotty exterior, we wondered: Could this possibly be the church in which we were going to spend the weekend? We were later to learn the true worth of a building which acts as the spiritual centre for a diversity of cultures. Once inside, the course leaders - Caitlin and Patrick - who were there to oversee the project and guide our experiences, introduced us to the other participants in The Inner Cities Young People's Project. Like us, the other students had volunteered to represent their schools with very little idea of what they would actually be doing. It was called a 'Familiarisation Weekend', but in a matter of hours we felt perfectly at ease with one another, largely thanks to the efforts of the course leaders. Sleeping on the church hall floor and not having any shower facilities also helped - there's nothing like shared suffering to ensure solidarity! Over the course of the weekend, we explored Lambeth, the area we were staying in, discussed our views of Independent and State school stereotypes, and helped out at a community centre in Kings Cross. However, the highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly the African drumming concert at the Royal Festival Hall.
We left the weekend firm friends, and looking forward to the next part of the project - exchanging e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and promising to meet up over the holidays. By the time the second course arrived, we were full of new ideas and issues to share with the group, helped by the fact that we now felt entirely at ease with each other. On the second day, all the independent school students partnered up with a state school student, and went to school with them. We lucky Westminsters went to St. Angela's and St. Bonaventure's Sixth Form College in Upton Park. As far as state schools go, this appeared to be fairly well-funded, with high-tech Smartboards in most science and maths classrooms. We found the cultural and social diversity of this Catholic school strange at first - but it was a refreshing break from the familiar Westminster setting. Overall, it was an eye-opening experience, and was made infinitely more enjoyable by the state school students' willingness to ask us as many questions as we asked them. On the final leg of the course, we spent a week at Charterhouse School, in Surrey. If we had found our state school experience a bit overwhelming, it was nothing compared to the culture shock we experienced here. Being thrown together as complete strangers with what appears to be very little in common might sound terrifying, but if you're an open minded and relatively outgoing person, then ICYPP will prove worth your while. And if that hasn't convinced you, there's some time off school thrown into the bargain too...
Francis Murphy
Sarah Pett