Work Experience Beyond Expectation

This week was our work experience, and it was beyond our expectations. Each day we went to a different school and saw how Step impacted the kids. At first, we feared Step may have been a boring Christian charity that were so focused on the belief of God but we were surprised. Step takes a step forward with kids to help give them answers to the questions on faith and whether God is for everyone, something many adults don’t bother asking.  

We got to visit schools like Sandringham, Nicky B (NBS), St Columba’s and Townsend, which were awesome. On the first day, we walked into the office feeling nervous and we were immediately put at ease by the relaxing atmosphere surrounding the Step team. That day we realised that this was going to be an amazing week. After the induction, we went to NBS with Chris, the director, and it was ecstatic. We watched a NUA video on the beliefs about God and the discussions were quite impactful. Everyone had an opinion and the way Chris approached the question was a wonderful sight to see. We could see how being in the safe space Chris provided really helped them. Most of us kids don’t have places to go during lunch for one reason or another, so the lunchtime clubs can help give us a better experience in school.

I, Seun, personally look forward to Thursday at Loreto because we have The Snug, which is run by Step, because I see it as a place where I can relax and be myself. The second time we went to NBS, we watched Chris talk to some sixth form students about leadership and how not everyone thinks they could be a leader. The session helped us to see ourselves in a more confident way. On the way out, I, Sam, bumped into an old teacher who trained at our school. He was the first person to call me Sam so it was a big deal for me in yr8 so it reminded me of that time. He will never know how much it meant to me and even though he didn’t remember me, I was still happy to see him again.

On the second day, we worked on creating lesson plans for the iMatter journal. After that, we went to Sandringham with Geoff which was lovely. We began by playing some card games, then we explored the Bible and talked about Pentecost. We even became friends with one of the girls attending the club and found our dream sixth form (Sandringham) with the help of Step. Sandringham was also a really fun experience as we saw a teacher who used to work in our school and had my class. By the end of the week, we hope to have a full collection of visitor stickers from every school we had visited.

We went to St Columba’s College and got our socks blown away. We watched Chris run a lesson on the iMatter journal and how to use it effectively. Our favourite section was the I am Loved part. Most of us go around our day not noticing the good things and being a bit negative, but we learnt about being thankful and that with three thankfulness sentences one could take a look back and realise there are small things that play a big part. We also loved the view of the Abbey from the foyer in the school. We even got to eat lunch there and met some of the teachers who were very accommodating and kind to us. This was a wonderful experience, and we are so pleased we chose to be with STEP for this week.    

Sam & Seun