January

I was really looking forward to getting back to work after the holidays at Christmas. I loved having the time off over the break to catch up with family and friends but I was getting a little bit bored of not really doing anything. With the start of the New Year, I started work in Perth Academy with Reality. Reality is a project which takes young people who are thought to have challenging behaviour to an activities camp.

The young people at Perth Academy are heading to a camp in Easter, and for the weeks leading up to it there is a lunch club and evening youth club running for them to come along to. I help out at the school lunch club and it’s really good. The young people that come along are all great. Sometimes it’s difficult to keep them focussed or to keep them working with each other but they all seem to have a lot of fun while they’re there. It’s good getting to know them all before we go away and to see them slowly coming together as a group.

            At the beginning of the month, the weather made the evening sessions a bit slippy and very cold. It was a case of putting on as many layers as could fit under the sidewalk jackets which, thankfully, is quite a lot. I was really glad when the snow and ice melted as it meant that if felt a bit warmer outside and there was a significantly smaller chance of falling over.

Also, it meant that we didn’t have to be so wary during the lunchtime sessions as St John’s Academy as we didn’t have to look out for “snow” balls while we were there. The school sessions are really great because I’m getting to know some of the young people a lot better and we have good conversations with some of the groups of young people every week. The evening sessions also feel a lot different now to how the did before because I know some of the young people better. I feel more like I am having conversations with young people now, rather than joining in a conversation that other team members are having. It’s really great to be getting to know some of the young people and I’m looking forward to developing the relationships that have started, I’m just praying that the snow will stay away.