Be Consistent, Reliable and Compassionate
City Gateway College (CGC) is truly an inspiring place to work; passionate staff continuously looking for new ways to improve, learners, each one with a unique story and the Year Here Fellows (Aaron, Emma and myself) trying to be helpful, innovative and absorb everything we possibly can.
In my role, I am responsible for encouraging learners to come in every morning and quite literally ‘retain’ them in class. I monitor their attendance and punctuality and seek to understand the factors behind poor attendance. I also provide in-class support in Childcare, Maths and English.
I’m lucky to be able to work in such a well supported environment; CGC has such an amazing, friendly and talented team. In my first few days here, I was blown away by the teacher’s methods; they show nothing but positive attitudes, encouragement and constructive feedback towards the learners. Having been in (French) mainstream education my whole life, I had very rarely seen this.
At CGC, learners go to school 3 days a week and I keep asking myself what else could they be doing other than getting themselves into trouble. Surely being in school full time can only have its benefits but the learners definitely don’t agree with me.
What I have come to notice is that my day depends on how well I have succeeded in having a positive and encouraging influence on my learners. I have become quite attached to them and get very frustrated and disappointed when I have invested time, effort and energy into them and they let me down. We were however told at the beginning of our placement to maintain boundaries and to not get too emotionally involved, as you might be let down. Therefore, I am stuck between getting attached, to be there and support them in any possible way I can, and not getting too close to not get disappointed.
It’s a good thing I suppose when I get too caught up with them and their exciting adventures because I genuinely care. I find myself after work thinking about what I could have done better and how could I have better engaged with them to have the most effective impact. However, I really need to learn to switch off after work and close that chapter for the day if I want to remain sane for the last few months.
I want to push them to work hard, go to their lessons and participate. I try my best to make them understand that education is essential in order to have options and to succeed in today’s society, because that’s what I was always told. Then I become aware of the extent of the problem when I hear that a student has to care for a member of their family, a burden and responsibility that many adults would shy away from, or that they have been getting into trouble with the police because of acid attacks and stabbings. I realise that school is the last thing on their mind and that at the moment they couldn’t care less; I shouldn’t be surprised that they don’t want to learn about linear equations and linguistic features.
I have learnt during my first three months at CGC that I need to show compassion, consistency and reliability. That is the one thing I know I can do and can be good at. They need to know that I am there for support but also there to push them to do what they need to do. However, when I’ve been chasing them, trying to get them to go to their lesson (where they don’t want to be), getting them to take part in class and do any of the work, there is only so much I can do.
The most important thing to remember, in my opinion, is that it’s not about trying to inspire them all, but more about having a positive impact on just a few learners. I hope I’ll be able to succeed.
