AQA celebrates Bacc students' hard work for Volunteers' Week 2009

1 June 2009

It's Volunteers' Week 2009 and at AQA we're celebrating the amazing voluntary work that students take part in to complete the enrichment element of their AQA Baccalaureate (AQA Bacc) qualification.

Student volunteers give on average 82 hours per year to their community, contributing nearly £1,000 per year to the economy*. Bacc students have to complete at least 100 hours of enrichment activities and this year students have contributed 24,658 hours to community work alone. We believe that the AQA Bacc will encourage more students to get involved in voluntary work that can aid their personal development and help them to become well rounded individuals.

Jenny Setchell, a faculty manager for the AQA Bacc at Richard Huish College in Taunton said:

"We have a number of students taking part in a wide range of volunteering activities. The college has been involved in a project with Help Lanka over the last three years teaching in schools in Sri Lanka directly affected by the Tsunami. Some students have taken part in local environmental projects with our Environment group LEAF, but many other students have arranged voluntary work for themselves. For example, local hospital radio stations, coaching swimming to disabled children, Scout and Guide groups etc. All of these students have submitted this evidence as part of their enrichment for the AQA Bacc."

AQA Bacc student Michael from Richard Huish spent several weeks in Sri Lanka teaching English and PE at a school rebuilt after the 2004 Tsunami and helping at a boys Orphanage. He wrote about his experiences in his AQA Bacc Enrichment Diary.

After one evening of drawing, painting, playing music, cricket and volleyball with the boys at the Orphanage, Michael reflected on how they enjoyed the time, but also what it meant to him:

"It really hit me that these boys really appreciated anything that was being done for them. Because they have been left with so little and because what we were doing meant an awful lot to them, made me realize that it is simple things like spending time to play with these boys that can actually mean more to them than anything else."

After a week of tough but inspirational teaching at the school Michael talked about how much the experience has developed his skills:

"I feel that teaching helped develop me hugely. I became a lot more patient as a person, as it often took a while to get my point across and it would have been easy to become frustrated but I didn't. From the teaching experience I think I also became a lot more confident in my abilities and my communication improved."

On his last day at the school Michael reflected on the personal difference he has made during his time in Sri Lanka:

"The charity, Help Lanka, is trying so hard to improve the quality of life in this area but it will take a monumental effort to do this. This however does not make the job that I have been doing seem any less important. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Sri Lanka, learning an awful lot about the place and myself, and would not hesitate to go back!"

---

Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to ePolitix.com. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the ePolitix.com service.

As such, ePolitix.com does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.