Learning Outcomes: LO3-Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience // LO7-Recognise and consider the ethics implications of choices and actions
The service that I will be doing for the entirety of the school year, is lighthouse motor skills. In this service, we will be working with a group of visually and audibly impaired children that go to a special needs school. We meet for 1.5 hours every single week, though not always with the kids. I am doing this because I love working with kids. I always feel like it is a good break for me to just enjoy myself and have fun with them, and forget about the stresses and worries of IB. I also recognise that this interaction is very important for them as they look forward to it very much and they build trusting relationships with us.
Today at our first session the first thing that we looked at was what each of us could contribute to the service. We had a range of responses, some being skills such as communication, others being hobbies such as sports and sometimes just enthusiasm or the liking of little kids. It was very interesting to see the range of things that people can input into the service as that gave us a good idea of what we could do with the kids. For example, I noticed that sport seemed to be quite popular, so we could potentially do some sport based activities.
Afterwards we began to focus on some challenges that we could potentially face. Something I know I’ll struggle with is my lack of patience. I like to be efficient and organised, but kids bring an element of unpredictability. Being patient with changes and dealing with the fact that not everything will happen in perfect time, is something I would like to see myself work on throughout the service. Many people also felt that coming up with creative activities each week could be a challenge, as they also need to be suited for the capabilities of the kids.
We moved on to look at some questions we have, such as the age of the kids, what type of disabilities they have and the size of the group itself. We began to investigate by looking at their website, which actually gave us a very good sense of their school. We could look at their mission and what they aim to achieve as well as some of the clubs they have. I noticed they have a choir and theatre club, and I think that gives scope for some singing and acting activities.
I think this service fits into LO3 well because each week we have to plan and be ready for the kids, not only participate. It will teach us all the things we need to know in terms of planning events for another stakeholder. I think looking at our choices here is crucial because it benefits a group of people apart from us. I see LO7 being implemented here because we constantly have to question what the consequence of our actions will be and whether its beneficial to our stakeholder.
