Four year nine pupils from James Brindley Science College in Stoke talked to Words for Work project office Laura about their experiences on Words for Work
What is your name/age?
Bradley, 13
Vicky, 14
Charlie, 14
James, 14
Could you explain your involvement in the WFW project? How long have you been involved?
Vicky: Words for Work has been going on for 10 weeks and we’ve been in all the lessons.
Why did you get involved with the project?
Bradley: We had to but it helps really.
Vicky: We were told we had to do it, but we had the choice of whether to go or not because we could have just not gone – you could have just gone into your normal lessons. We had the choice really.
Charlie: We got hand picked for these sessions to boost up our confidence in different situations.
James: Not many people got picked, like those who weren’t as over-confident as others, to improve our skills. Teachers didn’t think we spoke up in class and stuff like that.
Bradley and Vicky, James Brindley Science College
What did you think you’d get out of it?
Bradley: More confidence and stuff.
Vicky: Confidence, knowing how to get a job when you’re older.
Charlie: Definitely more confidence, and to be able to communicate better with different people –people I wouldn’t normally talk to and that, I do talk to more people now and stuff like that.
James: Pretty much the same. Sometimes I have to push myself because sometimes it’s a bit hard.
What have you enjoyed?
Bradley: Mostly working with other people and learning how to do presentations and stuff.
Vicky: Acting in the last video.
Charlie: Doing team activities, like the presentations, the team activities and the starter activities and stuff – the posters.
James: I’ve enjoyed most of it, mostly the team games.
What has been the best bit so far? Why?
Bradley: It’s just getting more confidence.
Vicky: Being with all your mates and learning more about the business volunteers.
Charlie: I enjoyed the team games. I probably enjoyed more working together with all my friends and new people and working on the presentations and stuff.
James: The team games were good but getting to know more people in the group has been good.
What has been new or different about the WFW experience?
Bradley: It’s been different.
Vicky: It’s been similar in the ways where you have your own teachers but it’s been different in the way it’s been like games, and we’ve learnt a lot more than you normally would in your lessons.
Charlie: It’s not really that different from a normal lesson – we have team activities to get us started for the lesson, that’s basically what we do in a normal lesson as well, it basically boosts up our confidence a bit more.
James: Some are similar. We have team games in some lessons, it’s been good.
What have you learnt from taking part in WFW?
Bradley: Learnt how to use body language, learn how to do presentations properly.
Vicky: How to act in a good and bad interview.
Charlie: I’ve learnt how to communicate easier with different people – like people I wouldn’t normally talk to. I’m not afraid anymore, like when I’m in class to stick up my hand and answer questions. I’m not afraid anymore of being wrong and stuff like that.
James: Mostly to put across your opinion, to prove your point, to get to know people, different ways of learning how to communicate like sign language.
Do you think you are a more confident communicator than before you took part in WFW?
Bradley: Yeah, I’d say definitely.
Vicky: Definitely.
Charlie: Yeah, definitely. I’m answering more questions in class, I’m not afraid of being wrong, I talk to people I wouldn’t normally talk to, it’s really boosted up my confidence.
James: Yeah but sometimes I have my up and down days where it’s hard but then other days I’m willing to have a go.
If yes, why do you think this is?
Bradley: Because you have to talk to different people, like the business volunteers that you don’t know and you just have to talk in front of everybody is all.
Vicky: Before I would just keep fiddling with things and looking at the floor when I was talking to people but I don’t have to do that now. 
James and Charlie, James Brindley Science College
Do you think you’ll be able to use what you’ve learnt in the future?
Bradley: Yeah, when you go to job interviews and stuff it will help.
Vicky: Yeah, because when you’re talking to people you don’t know you need to make a good impression and it’s taught me how to do that.
Charlie: Yeah cos we’ve learnt about using confidence and body language and stuff like that in different places. When I want to have a job interview, I will be able to use this stuff when I want to get a job.
James: Yeah probably when practising…it might be a bit easier in later life.
Did you think communication was a skill that should be taught in schools before you started Words for Work? What do you think now?
Bradley: Yeah, cos I think it would help lots of people.
Vicky: Yes, because it would help people who are really shy and don’t have any confidence.
Charlie: It would be helpful for the rest of the kids who aren’t very confident. It would be good fun as well as helpful. Yeah I think it should.
James: Yeah I think it should be in most schools, it helps them to get a better job in life.
Why do you think speaking and listening is important?
Bradley: Because you have to do it every day – you can’t really get out of it.
Vicky: Speaking and listening is something you really know how to do. If you don’t learn how to do it, you’re never going to get anywhere in life.
Volunteers
Amy Hollins, Company Administrator at Meaco and Words for Work volunteer at James Brindley
“I started a job with Meaco and in that same week Samantha sprung on me that I’d be doing Words for Work! I was expecting to have a presence amongst the children and make them see what we do and that it’s quite possible for them to go on and finish school and do something similar to what we do. I just wanted to heighten their expectations of themselves. They might have low self-esteem or low images of what they might be able to do so I just wanted to make them realise that they can do anything if they put their minds to it.
I think the best bit so far has been connecting with the children. When we first went in, everyone was shy and they didn’t know what to do. As the weeks have gone on, you start to learn their names, they know who you are, they start to talk to you more, smile and be a bit more comfortable with you. That’s what’s been the most important bit for me, them feeling more comfortable with us being there.
I think time restrictions have been the biggest barrier to Words for Work. I know it’s been interrupted a lot because of the children having exams but I think perhaps if it was on a weekly basis so you do get that time with them it would be better. You can disappear for two weeks and then come back again and I suppose it is a bit disorientating and disruptive possibly for the children. I think consistency needs to be there a bit more and possible a bit more time. Time restrictions have put a bit of pressure on the whole thing. It also would have been nice if all the teachers showed a little bit of interest in the project rather than it just being [the delivery teachers] – they were the only ones who took an interest. It would have been nice to see other teachers get involved. I think we sit here sometimes in the staff room and we feel a bit uncomfortable, with teachers looking at us sort of saying ‘well why are you here?’ A bit more awareness of it.
I definitely think the pupils I’ve been working with are better communicators, yes. I’ve also asked them today and they all said they feel more comfortable in talking, presenting and communicating and it might not come across like that to some people who had seen the presentation for the first time but to see how much they’d put into it and how far they have come, it’s been really really important and I’m really proud of them. They’re still really shy but they’ve come a long way.
I think with the business volunteers coming in, I think it’s given them a little bit of confidence that they can think ‘these people are coming in for us’ rather than it’s just sitting there with the teacher, this is a bit different. I think it’s made them feel a bit special and that they are worth the time and effort because they are, all of them.
I didn’t engage with the pupils as much as I would have liked to, but then again, the group all had their own personalities and they’ll engage as much as they want to engage. The lads did really well and they smiled and said thank you at the end – that was enough for me. Absolutely enough.
Communication should definitely be taught in schools. It’s something that we didn’t get taught at school and if we had something like this then it would have been really really beneficial. Some people leave school and go straight into work and they’ve got no experience of communicating with interviewers or their employers, so even if they just get a little bit of help at school it’s going to be really beneficial. Some of these kids, I suppose, if they have a little bit of expectation about what the communication skills are and if they have people that come in and display what happens ‘in the real world’, it can be less intimidating. Hopefully it would inspire them to do something different with their lives rather than possibly following their parents’ pattern who have perhaps been on benefits for a long time. I would have loved something like this.”
Samantha Greatbatch, Company Director at Meaco and Words for Work volunteer at James Brindley Science College:
“I found out about Words for Work through the Chamber of Commerce mailing, and it’s the kind of thing I used to do in a previous job. I jumped at the chance of getting involved with this sort of thing again. From a purely business point of view, it helps us with our corporate social responsibility. I think it’s something good that we should be bragging about – let other people know about the scheme, but also let people know that we are trying to put something back into the community rather than just being hopefully an employer, we tend to try and purchase locally anyway but this gives us the chance to put something back into the school as much as trying to deal with the Stoke on Trent business side of things. It’s nice for the company to show they’re doing that as well.
I think the best bit was today, watching all the groups, cos they were so much better than they were however many sessions ago and I also think that although my group was quite big and occasionally difficult to handle, the fact that something they did well was pointed out in front of the whole class – to see their faces and their pride and think ‘oh we did something right.’ Especially as I think they feel that they’ve been singled out as challenging, to be publically congratulated I think really meant something to them.
In terms of barriers, like Amy I think maybe the organisation side of things from the school with regards to timings, obviously it’s really unfortunate on this last session that two people couldn’t come because the dates kept changing. Obviously when you’re all working and stuff in business, you can’t always just drop everything to come. I think it’s such a shame that the other two people haven’t been able to see the results – the fruits of all the work they put in over the last few weeks. I think a bit more planning from the school so they could keep up to the consistency. he two teachers who have been involved in it have been really, really good. I almost feel a bit sorry for them because it’s almost they’re swimming against the tide. Teachers had arranged other things – pupils came in with their tails in between their legs because they wanted to be elsewhere. Other teachers haven’t helped when [the delivery teachers] have tried really hard to tell other members of staff that this is important. If you’re going to do this, then let’s do it. If other teachers don’t think it’s important, then the kids don’t think it’s important. When we first came here the children didn’t even know it wasn’t a one off. If they knew it was a regular thing, maybe they would have seen it as something to invest a little bit more.
I think the confidence of all the groups has improved. It was a really nice thing to see today – everybody; their voices were stronger, originally there were some people I could hardly hear whereas I could hear everybody today and that shows I think everybody has increased in confidence. It’s been a really nice thing to see and I think they’ve appreciated it. Just talking to my own personal group, there’s been some challenges but they all said they’d enjoyed it, they all said they think they’ve got things out of it. It has been a success, everybody was a lot better than they were 3 or 4 sessions ago.
One of the lads that was a bit of a challenge in one session just wasn’t interested at all so when the group were on a task, I went and sat with him and asked him what the matter was. He said the reason was ‘we have all these one-to-ones, we’re always taken out of classes we want to go into’, and I asked him what the one-to-ones were, and he said ‘we all have to have them because we’re the naughty kids’ and I said ‘do you honestly think that teachers and people like ourselves who are busy would waste our time on children who weren’t worth it? Don’t you see it as a compliment that we think you’re worth spending time on?’ I don’t think this pupil had thought about it in that way before. I think they saw it as a bit of an insult. I think that made them look at things in a different light when I said: ‘We’re taking time out of our days to come and spend time with you because we think you could be something’ instead of ‘special chosen ones.’ I like to think they realised that. Just small things have made an impact here. I feel with each member of my group have learnt something. I think anything that is real-world and practical, firstly I think it’s more interesting and engaging than the normal book orientated activities. The interview stuff was massive, they were asking loads of questions…they knew that Amy had been interviewed by me only 6 months previously and they were really pleased by saying ‘Amy did a really good interview’ and I said ‘I know she did’ and to be able to talk about real world stuff, they were fascinated by it. Real practical stuff they were interested in, as they can see it’s going to be beneficial to them. Because they could see the relevance of what we were talking about, they were asking loads of questions. Any practical, real-life applications will help. It’s definitely something that at a certain point will get a bit of enthusiasm from them. I think everybody would benefit from it, I know I would have done."
