Volunteer Mentor Review

We worked with a set list of students focusing on improving their attendance, behaviour, academics in all subjects and general development. We did break time duties everyday and ran after school clubs. Working hours were 8-4. There was a lot of admin like completing CMI qualifications and logging weekly sessions with your students. On Fridays there was a mix of online and in person training days where you develop skills and do workshops and listen to guest speakers. On a day-to-day basis you are either in class supporting or student or taking them to a room and mentoring them on how to improve each lesson of the day. Roughly 8-10 students you have to see throughout the week. Duties during breaks and clubs before and after school. You have a team of around 5-7 people that you work with in school as well.

Definitely developed confidence and speaking abilities. You have to communicate a lot with school staff regarding issues and how your students are getting on. Learnt how to be a leader and delegate. Many opportunities within your team to lead projects and events in school and on Friday training days like the social action project where you do charity work. Time management and organisation are big skills you learn. There is so much to juggle throughout the year if you’re not on top it you will fall behind and become overwhelmed.

There is so much responsibility on your shoulders. Working in a school, especially a secondary school, is not easy. There are a lot of safeguarding you need to be on top of. You don’t necessarily take full responsibility for the actions of your students but you definitely feel like you do. I always took it to heart whenever my students misbehaved or were involved in a fight. You can become attached very quickly and they do to. There are a lot of projects that they leave you to and can only ask your supervisor for advice but you have to do all the work so be prepared for that. The school can give you a lot of responsibilities like break duties and assisting on school trips and sports day. It can become overwhelming.

Support was available most of the time from all City Year staff and your line manager. You have fortnightly check ins with your line manager to see how you’re getting on and how you can improve. It was very hard getting support from the school. A lot of teaching staff had issues with us especially when taking students out of class. Communicate clearly from the start with teachers what you are doing with your students (mainly if you are in a school that has never had City Year before). Some school staff disrespect us and treat us like we are not adults. Had been shouted at by staff on multiple occasions and the point of contact we had in school was hardly available to speak to and sort out issues we were having. Your team is your best support system as they are going through the same problems you are and you really help each other out. If there are too many issues go straight to the programme manager they sort it out fast.

On training days some of it can be cringey and you can see the staff find it cringey as well. You play games to get everyone’s energy up. There is a lot of awkwardness when no one wants to contribute and they refuse to carry on until someone does. You can see the favouritism towards the ones that do contribute are given more opportunities to go to events and career fairs to promote City Year. Not once were we asked to do any of that. Online training days are more awkward as it’s with the entire cohort from the other cities as well. No one really wants to speak to each other in breakout rooms and the session drag on heavily. They do weekly feedback forms which they do listen to very well, we appreciated that a lot. Voice your opinions a lot on those feedback meetings they offer they really listen and try their best to implement them.

Because I had such a great team I enjoyed it a lot. Other teams had arguments and issues and could clearly see them unhappy. There were quite a few dropouts throughout the year for various reasons but my team stayed whole. School was really tough it’s extremely demanding and if you are not committed to the job don’t do it. I enjoyed my time with my team without them I would’ve hated it so much. Put the effort in from the start to become friends with your team. I enjoyed working with the students who just really wanted your help and were so much happier when they saw you. It was hard working with some school staff and just refused to go to the students lessons with teachers that disrespected us. We weren’t causing any harm we were just doing our job. Even the students were trying to defend us to staff. The first term is the hardest but it does calm down by March time. The disorganisation from the school made the experience terrible. There were some days where we couldn’t even put our bags somewhere or a room to have lunch break. It wasn’t just me with staff issues everyone in my team had been shouted out by a staff member at least once. You also have to be careful with safeguarding. You will be very paranoid everything that you’re doing with your students. Don’t ever be alone with a student it’s not worth the risk even if you’re trying to have a private conversation with them about a concern they have. Teachers will make accusations so easily because of our age being too close to the students’. Despite the many issues I don’t regret this year it does look really good on your CV there’s so much that I can’t even fit it on my CV. If you’re looking for a starting point into work experience this is the best opportunity available.

Yes

The online interview is just them asking where you have showed certain skills. Like for example “tell me about a time where you showed leadership skills”. Even examples from school worked fine they don’t care if you have worked before. I had no work experience at all and I made it through so don’t worry. Be strong in all subjects not just English and Maths or be good at paying attention in class so you’re able to help the students with classwork. Trust me you will struggle if you don’t know the content. Become close with your students’ form tutors it does help and heads of year as well. Be overly friendly with staff you almost have to kiss up to them. The hated it so much when students were being taken from their class even if you were doing the classwork with them on a 1:2:1 basis. Not all teachers obviously some really loved having us in their classroom or taken out and given the 1:2:1 attention. Aim to have a mix of students that were struggling academically and ones with behavioural issues. Don’t have so many behavioural issues students they will cause you so much headache. Be prepared for your students to wonder around looking for you when they should be in class then you get in trouble from the class teacher. Make sure the school is explicitly clear on which students have a mentor as there are others that will lie to get out of class. You will at times become their therapist and have to deal with serious mental health issues including self harm and suicidal thoughts. You are not trained to handle this situations just tell safeguarding team. Students will trust you more than the school and will tell you things that they will never tell the school. A lot of teachers and especially TA’s will be jealous of this. Don’t have the students rely on you too much as it will become increasingly hard to detach them from you towards the end of the year. Be consistent with the days and lessons you see your students and make it clear to them that you will only see them on X Y Z days for whatever lesson. MAKE A TIMETABLE. Break duties that involve tell students not to go somewhere or in canteens will make students hate you so much. The best duties are the ones where you are able just to talk to students or play sports. Your line manger will be up your back side if you’re not on top of things or if you’re late consistently. You must finish all the admin work they give you as soon as possible don’t leave anything last minute. When the CMI qualifications start it will be the worst times there so much you have to write while working in school as well. Lastly, make the most of the opportunities that do come. Make it clear to your line manager you want opportunities. If you’re a Psychology student there will not be any career help at all or career trips available. It’s mainly science and business related career trips. Enjoy the year as much as you can, enjoy the small wins.