Going wild for volunteering!
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Published 6 Jun 2024 in Colleagues
It's Volunteers' Week, so let's highlight some remarkable colleagues! Doing good together, Abi Woolley and Jessica Harvey from our Learning & Development team used their volunteering hours to support Caldmore Primary Academy students on a school trip.
At the beginning of May, Colleague Development Associate Abi Woolley and Leadership Trainer and Coach Jessica Harvey swapped their desks for lemurs, otters and birds of prey for the day.
Jessica and Abi volunteered to help supervise a group of year three students from Walsall Regional Community’s partner school Caldmore Primary Academy on a school trip to Wild Zoological Park in Wolverhampton.
Doing good together, here's Learning & Development colleagues Jess Harvey & Abi Woolley volunteering for Caldmore Primary Academy on a school trip
Our remarkable colleagues volunteering on the trip helped with the student to supervisor ratio, meaning that two teachers from other classes could remain school and teach their students – a great example of the difference doing good together with our regional community partners makes!
We asked Jessica and Abi how they found the day...
Q. What was the best thing about the trip?
Jessica: “Listening and engaging with curious little minds and helping them to overcome their fears. Some of the children were scared to go in and see the reptiles, so it was great to reassure them, help them to feel confident and to see them come out smiling and talking about the animals.”
Abi: “The bird flight show. Not only was this great for me to see, but it was fascinating to see the children engage and listen to the zoo keepers and learn about different birds in more detail. They were so excited even after the show had finished that they continued to talk about it afterwards.”
Q. What was your favourite animal?
Jessica: “It has to be the lemurs.”
Abi: “The lemurs were my favourite too. It was really good to be able to take the children to walk around their enclosure and be up close with them. Also, the children making references to ‘King Julien’ from the Penguins of Madagascar film was entertaining too.
Q. Would you do it again or recommend it to others?
Jessica: “Definitely, it was exhausting yet so rewarding.”
Abi: “Absolutely! It’s exhausting but it’s rewarding being able to help the children in learning more about birds of prey, which is part of their predator topic at school.”
To find out more about how you can use your 22.5 volunteering hours (pro rata) this year click here. Also, don’t forget to let us know how you spend your hours by entering Count Me In.
