Stories and significant changes
Charlie Dobson: Volunteer Placement at the Special School
- Name:
- Charlie Dobson
- Home town:
- Lewes, Sussex, UK
- Exchange:
- Wales - Kazakhstan, 2005
The Special School is a school for children with learning and behavioural difficulties. The School is situated on the same site as a normal school, and although the schools are stone's throw away and even share playground space, the children did not generally mix. We were told that there existed a degree of animosity towards each other on both sides.
After having spent a small amount of time at the school we had not seen any evidence or attempts to reduce the existing prejudices or to bring the children together. We decided to do this would be one of our main aims at the school.
Our work placement was set up so that we held two sessions of extra-curricular classes every day. Firstly for the younger children in the morning and then for the teenagers in the afternoon. The classes were non-compulsory and open we decided the first way to help bridge the gap usually involved an English lesson followed by an art and craft activities and then games.
We wanted children from both schools to attend. In the morning it was not possible because the normal school had lessons at that time. But in the afternoon we had roughly a half and half split.
To begin with some of the kids from the Special School found it hard to work in a classroom with children who were more confident and academically able but as they got accustomed to each other and started to have fun it became less of a problem and they on the whole worked and played well together.
I think us being there acted effectively as a catalyst because a lot of the kids were interested in spending time with us, but to do so they had also to spend time with each other. Gradually their focus started to shift away from us and some friendships were formed between them.
An example is two boys named Dima and Ilyas. Dima is from the Special School and Ilyas is from the normal school. Dima is both physically and mentally very able but for some reason felt at the beginning very threatened by the other kids from the normal school and would often get very angry at their presence. I think perhaps he felt inferior or felt they thought he was inferior. He would go from being very confident with the group of special school kids to being quiet and withdrawn in our lessons, which were mixed.
Ilyas is a boy of similar age from the normal school and has a similar level of ability. In opposition to Dima's level of confidence he was very sure of himself and keen to show his abilities.
I feel that, though the system of schooling they experienced helped one develop confidence and the other insecurities, just by spending time in an environment that treated them equally helped to.address this imbalance. I think they learnt to respect each other and then to like each other.
Another example of improvement in their relations was that at the beginning they wanted photos of us and at the end they wanted photos of them together.
Though this is only one group of children I hope that their improved attitudes will have an effect on children around them. I am sure that as a consequence of this programme a number of children's confidence would be increased through being treated s an equal by us the volunteers and then consequently the other children.