Sumaiyah is a second
year law student at Queen Mary University of London. She attends the ReachOut Club at Shacklewell
Primary School weekly with 10 other volunteers and children, providing
one-to-one support to her mentee and taking part in group activities such as
sports, drama and art.
Volunteering on the ReachOut Club over the past year has
been insightful on many levels, least of which was an opportunity to reminisce
on what it was like to be a year 6 student. Having the chance to
work with children who are slowly making their transition into secondary
education has
reminded me of the different challenges children face growing up.
By helping them to overcome some of the academic, personal and
relationship struggles you face at that age, you are reminded of how tender and
impactful these experiences are on children as they grow up. I know many of us
could have benefited from a similar mentoring scheme, to help us develop
outside of the traditional school format to work on personal goals that aren’t
purely academic, but equally as important.
My mentee came into the project very much a timid young
girl, and as we slowly set small targets each week to work on her confidence, she soon blossomed. Along the way, it become apparent to me how much you can
get out of mentees by giving them a gentle sway in the right direction. Sometimes that's all they need to reveal their true inner self. With these gentle nudges, I
came to learn my mentee was a very insightful and creative poet, who had an
appreciation for art and a great sensitivity to political issues. Seeing her
come from a position where she winced at the idea of speaking in front of the
class, to a point where she actually asked to present a poem to her peers
highlighted how a little support can help children to develop and find skills
they never thought they had.
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Remembering how impressionable I was myself at that age, I
realised how the small step in developing my mentee’s confidence may well
influence her for the rest of her life. You hope as a mentor that she takes her
newfound confidence with her, as she begins secondary education and truly finds
her feet in this world.
It is this that makes ReachOut such a rewarding charity to
volunteer for. The fact that we can help young people to take those steps in
finding and developing themselves at such an impressionable age, means as
volunteers we could be helping them in ways far greater than we see. The development that mentors see in the young people on projects each week is just the start of an improvement in character values and competence that will stay with the mentees for life. For that alone, ReachOut mentoring truly
works.
Sumaiyah Batha
ReachOut Club Volunteer
