Creating Young Leaders

Our Young leader shares her experiences

By Nia Okoye

This summer school has helped me develop as a young leader by teaching me how to problem solve. Children are often unpredictable which forces me to expect the unexpected and learn how to think fast on my feet. After this summer I now know how to deal with an array of problems from a missing lunch to a sugar rush during reading time.

A challenge that sometimes comes with working with younger children is learning how to translate information into a language that they can understand and internalise. Sometimes as grown ups we are so used to the basics (like adding and subtracting) that it makes it difficult to simplify them even further for the young ones. Additionally keeping them engaged and showing them the fun in learning, even when we sometimes can’t see it ourselves, can be difficult.

All the memories I have of summer school are amazing but my favourite has to be our trip to the Olympic park when the kids took part in a scavenger hunt that I organised. Their task was to find the natural objects on the checklist during playtime whilst me and the other young leaders made sure they weren’t cheating. I really enjoyed seeing one of my ideas come to fruition, the lovely weather and watching the children have so much fun. Especially in the afternoon where we did races during PE which everyone including the young leaders took part in.