Volunteering Leader is one of the most popular leadership roles on offer to our Year 10s.  Working together with Mrs Johnson, our Charities Co-Ordinator, our Year 10 Leads take on a number of responsibilities over the year ranging from raising awareness of local volunteering opportunities, leading assemblies, helping with charity initiatives and collections. The Leads have also made contributions to the charity newsletter and have thought of ways to engage the Junior School in charitable and kindness activities, for example they arranged for the Juniors of key workers (as they were in school) to make cards and pictures for the residents at St David’s Care Home during the last lock down. 

The Lead roles run for a full year from October half term to the following October and in 2020-21, our Volunteering Leads were Charlie F, Rithi B, Harinee S, Isabella H and Magnolia L. 

We asked Harinee about her year as a Volunteering Lead:

Why did you sign up to be a Lead?

I signed up to be a Volunteering Lead because I was interested by the aspect of giving back to the community. I wanted to be able to help other people while finding fun ways for others to help like dressing up for charity or going on sponsored walks with friends.

What did you do during the year?

During the year we helped orchestrate a multitude of schemes to obtain donations for various charities. For example, we encouraged, and participated in, sponsored walks around London to raise money for Amnesty International. Of course, we adapted to the course of the pandemic and to express our gratitude to the underappreciated NHS staff we wrote letters and even wrote a song titled “Thank U, NHS” which was sent to the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust. We also asked all forms to create backpacks for Afghan refugees containing both essentials and fun toys to hopefully make them feel more comfortable and ease their change of lifestyle as they arrived in the UK.

What was the most challenging thing?

To me one of the most challenging parts of being a Volunteering Lead was coming up with exciting fundraising ideas to get people involved and motivate them to donate, but being able to have group discussions at the meetings meant we were able to brainstorm ideas together and make some boring ideas more exciting and engaging.

Did you learn anything that you can use in your studies or outside of school?

I learnt many things from being a Volunteering Lead that I was able to apply to my school life. For example, fundraising for the Afghanistan refugees complimented my geography discussions on the subject and helped me develop a more empathetic view rather than just factual. I also learnt about so many easy ways to help out organisations from home like donating to my local food bank or donating books that I no longer need to the Children’s Book Project.

Any tips for next year’s new Leads?

I would suggest to future Volunteering Reps to not be shy when they have any ideas or suggestions for fundraising. Everyone is very supportive and welcoming of new and bizarre ideas and any method of increasing donations is a great method. Make sure you go for it for the sake of your charities and have fun with it!

Well done to all our awesome Volunteering Leads! We look forward to working with our new Year 10 Leaders on charitable and volunteering initiatives over the coming year!