Five pupils from Portslade Aldridge Community Academy (PACA) spoke about their experiences of Words for Work. Words for Work at PACA saw teachers deliver phase one in school over a period of 5 – 6 weeks. Phase two saw students visiting the AMEX stadium, home of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club, to work with staff members to explore communication in the workplace over an intensive day’s workshop.
Brighton and Hove in the Community is the Words for Work hub in the area, providing day-long visits for student participants. At PACA, students worked hard in the first phase in order to win a place at the AMEX stadium day.
We would like to thank the students and staff at PACA for their time, energy and enthusiasm during Words for Work and for enabling us to talk to them about their experiences.
Georgie, 14, talks about her experiences of Words for Work:
Since Words for Work, I’m not shy sitting here talking to you now. My body language has got better. I listen more to people.
I’ve enjoyed stuff in class the most. We could all speak, and we all knew when to speak and stuff whereas we’d all shout out normally. We did fun stuff instead of boring stuff. I didn’t actually mind going to English, whereas before I just found it really boring, I hated it, and didn’t get along with Miss, but now I do. The best bit was working with different people. Improving. Usually we would just be sitting there writing, really bored. It’s more active. I’m a better communicator now. My body language and eye contact and stuff. Don’t have your hands in your pockets actually looks better. And listen to people more.
I’ll be able to use what I’ve learnt in an interview. Like us. Usually I’d be sat slouched on the chair, but now I’m sitting up like this. I’m giving you eye contact as well. With interviews and work.”
Ethan, 14, says:
It’s helped me in a way. As I went through the years in school I had got more confident but this project did help me quite a bit. My body language has been better. I’ve been able to show how I’m feeling at the time through my facial features and I’ve been able to talk to people a lot better.
I think the best part for me was when we were at the stadium [but also] when we were on the iPads, when we were making presentations and whatnot. My group didn’t go up for ours but that’s because we didn’t feel like we were ready to show it. It was good. We wouldn’t normally use technology for this sort of stuff. It was different because there was a reward at the end. That was something to work towards whereas in normal school you wouldn’t actually have anything to work towards. It was a bit easier for me because one of the volunteers was actually my brother. My communication skills and confidence has grown because we focussed our communication. That helped. I suppose it would help in a job, but it could also help in every day life – get[ting] to know people around you a lot easier. Maybe if you’re trying to be friends with your neighbour, that would be a lot easier with communication. I think it should be in every school. Everybody needs communication.”
Nishat, 14, says:
"I think out of this I got confidence, which is the main thing for me, because in lessons I would not contribute and not talk a lot and out of this I grew and learnt how to communicate and feel confidence in myself, what to say and what not to say. I’ve learnt body language too – as you’re here, I’m not going to sit and slouch or anything" It’s an important life skill. My group was the best bit. There’s loads of people in my group that I don’t really talk to and when we got to know each other we kind of found out about stuff, about each other and we kind of connected. We wanted to get to the AMEX and win it and luckily we did. We had a goal. I found it quite fun. We had literacy team-building exercise. We had to use our brains and connect with people. We didn’t stay in one room, we went out to meet the football player, and interview the workers and stuff like that. Normally we just come to English and just sit down in our seating plan, and we weren’t allowed to talk, we just had to do our work which is just so boring. We had the task, Words for Work, we got to sit in our groups, chat and express our feelings.
My confidence has really grown, I don’t know how, I’m not afraid to speak or put my hand up in class…I don’t know how but I’m just really happy that I can do this. I can’t even tell how this happened. Normally I would just hide when teachers ask someone to read or give answers. Now I’m like “Miss, pick me pick me!” I’m happier and more joyful. I think it’s an important life skill. When you’re meeting new people, you know how to act and behave….in interviews, when we go for a job, we know how to behave and before we didn’t. I think it should be in other schools as well because it’s kind of fun and we do it every day without realising it, so we should get better at it.”
Louis, 14, says:
“I’ve got more confidence and I’ve started to work better with people. I learnt to listen to others, and not just take control. We now take it in turns and I’ve got on a lot better with other people.
Before we did the project, when everyone would put their hands up, I used to ‘snap’ and just shout out by accident. I never used to like working with other people. Since we’ve done the project, I wait for Miss to finish talking, and start talking when Miss says we’re allowed. I work with other people well. I think this happened because I did some good work and the project was quite fun so I knuckled down and got down to it.
The best bit was working in a group because we rarely get to work in groups. It was fun because Miss did a ‘random generator’ which was fun because if it was us we would just pick our mates and mess about and not do our work properly but the way she did it, it felt fine. We were all dreading it at first but then we got into it and we got used to it and it’s quite good. The whole class knuckled down and Miss did really well to keep us all going at it. We were all friends before the project but I’ve started to talk to people more. I’ve got used to talking around the class now, with different people.
[Words for Work] was better than normal school. Normally we’d like sit there and do normal English work – we’d sit and read and write but as we got involved in this, Miss made it more fun and enjoyable by like, we worked in groups, like I said, the random generator made it more exciting, and it was just more fun to be honest. We did more posters. It was more fun and we learnt more doing Words for Work, I think.
I think I was quite confident before but I think it’s got me more confident. I always used to be wary of myself, but now I’m not afraid to get an answer wrong and I just keep trying.
I used to hate going out with my parents because I thought I looked like an idiot. Now I see people who are 20 and that going out with their parents, it’s nice because you still get to see them and interact with them. I thought there’s nothing wrong with going out with your parents, it’s fun. I enjoy more going out with my Mum, and spending time with my Mum and Dad.
Words for Work got me more confident outside of school. It’s fun spending time with [my family] now, I’m not just stuck in my room on my PS3 or out with my friends. I’m more like wanting to go out with my family now and spend more time with them.
[It’s taught me that] when you leave school you’re not always going to be with people you know, when we went to the AMEX and were working with people that started to help us, I started to communicate with them because I thought that when you get older you’re not always going to be with friends, you’re going to be with different people, you’ve got to keep good body language and communication.
I think it’s helped our school to be honest. We get on better in English. When we’ve got supply teachers, when Miss isn’t in, we see it as a chance to you know, mess about and that but when we’re working with Miss we start to knuckle down and get on with our work – we get on better.
It’s important to have good communication skills to get a decent job, they’re not going to pick someone who isn’t going to talk. Will there be another one? We would like to support the students who do the project again next year.”
Amber, 14, says:
From Words for Work, I’ve achieved improving my speaking and listening skills, working better in a group, I join in with group sessions. I never really used to talk much but now I’ve started taking the lead and talking.
I most enjoyed working in a group. [WfW is different from normal school because of] working in groups – we did more of that and doing different stuff. The activities were quite different to normal classes, they were a bit more active. It was fun because we were learning things by doing them rather than being told. I am a more confident communicator now. I join in [in] more group discussions than I used to. When you’re older in work, your boss sort of tells you what to do and you can’t do it yourself so it’s important that you know how to work with other people, not just your friends.
I think communication skills should be taught in all schools. Communication skills are really important. It’s better to know them than to sit there you know, being rude or not taking part, or you’ll get nowhere in life.”
