Something I found difficult in the training sessions was that it was hard to stay energetic and focused in training as some days I was tired from school and wanted to rest. Collaborating with my friends in badminton helped me a lot in this as talking with them helped me stay positive and distract me from homework and stress. (LO2, challenges) (LO4, commitment) (LO5, collaboration)

One of the ways I used my management skills in badminton was planning the warmups. I found that in the beginning of when I first joined badminton, I struggled to keep with the coach’s warmup and decided with my friend to do a few warmups together so that I could handle the groups practice better. We stretched our body first and then did some simple badminton exercises to warm up our body. (LO3, planning)

Even though in the beginning of the service we were not allowed to meet up with our service partner, we were able to find other ways to ensure that we providing them with materials they needed as well as make videos of us reading children books so that they were still learning english with us. It was hard to stay focused and committed as the service struggled to come up with new ideas and also because we couldn’t get proper feedback from the service partners.

However, around the middle of the year we were granted permission to meet up with the kids and I think this helped us as we could see more clearly the areas we need to improve, i.e. whether we were keeping the kids engaged or the best methods of teaching them english. (LO4, commitment)

Interacting with our service partner one of the main themes in our sessions was educating the kids about life on land and life under water as well as climate change. We prepared a various number of activities for them incorporating the nature of animals and affects of climate change on life under water. (LO7, global issue)

Something we were careful of is when the kids were fasting due to their culture. In this period the service organised less active sessions as well as avoiding any pictures to do with pigs. We tried to organise and plan the sessions more carefully in order to respect their culture and make them as comfortable as possible. (LO6, ethical decision)

A way I showed commitment to this activity is by drafting possible art ideas before the next session, that way I wouldn’t get distracted or waste time thinking of new ideas. Throughout the sessions, sometimes I found it easier to focus whilst on other days I found it harder to be motivated to make something. Communicating with other members of the pottery club made it easier for me to find new solutions as well as make the session more enjoyable. (LO4, commitment)

A problem I ran into whilst attending the pottery sessions was that at the beginning I felt like I was wasting a lot of clay since I was making the clay products with no plan and just for fun. Clay is expensive and I think this made me become less motivated to produce something as in the end I would end up throwing it away, therefore my friend and I decided we would be making items that we would actually use. For example, one of the first items that I created was a pizza slice which I ended up throwing away. In the next few sessions, I planned to make a flower pot for my parents as they would actually use it to grow their plants in. (LO7, ethical decision)