With this blog, I thought I would step away from individual trips and talk through what a typical month would look like for a LEL here at HEY CU. Whilst the biggest part of our individual role is leading the experiences and taking children on these wonderful visits, there is a lot going on behind the scenes that also requires us to work as a team to ensure that our trips are always ‘ACE’.
My March started with a visit to Biggin Primary School to meet all of the children who would be coming along to London with us over the course of the month. These pre-visits are important as it gives us a chance to familiarise ourselves with the children and go over safety and important information that everybody needs to make the trip a success. It also gives parents an opportunity to meet us and ask any questions they have about the trip.
Into the next day, and I’m in the office working alongside my line manager, Rebecca, on our new ‘Blitz in Hull’ trip, which will be delivered to schools in the next couple of months. We were very lucky to have a meeting with our partners Hobson and Porter and Hull City Council, who offered us a visit to the National Picture Theatre on Beverley Road as part of our planning. This trip aims to get the children thinking about our city’s heritage and how that should be represented in its future. I am really excited to roll this one out!
In our last blog, Alan spoke about our Trawling experience. This has recently undergone a massive makeover. With this update now being rolled out, I popped into the experiences of two of our LELs, Phil and Steve, to offer any support with the new format. Both of these days were fantastic, and the children certainly enjoyed themselves whilst learning lots about Hull’s trawling heritage. It was clear to see that this revamp has been a success!
I ended week one with Biggin Hill Primary’s first London trip. For me, this was an early start of 5:30am, making sure I have the Hi-Viz vests, train tickets and booking confirmations, and any other information I need to make the trip a success. After a jam-packed day soaking up all England’s capital has to offer, we arrived back in Hull well past my bedtime!
The second week consisted of more pre-visits, more Blitz experience planning and another trip to London with the second class from Biggin Hill Primary. I also delivered some branded T-shirts to Oldfleet Primary as some of the teachers are taking part in the Hull 10K. We are so grateful of the extra support as the money will go towards future experiences.
Week three and I actually booked a couple of days holiday (we’re all allowed a break from time to time!) before returning on the Wednesday to take Oldfleet Primary for their ‘Kip in a Ship’. Alan has covered this two-day experience in a previous blog, but a standout for me was getting to see the stage show ‘Matilda’, which was brilliant. That, alongside sleeping on an actual warship…why wouldn’t you volunteer?!
Into the last week of March and I’m back doing pre-visits as well as Cleeve Primary’s London visit. I popped into another partner, Trident, who have kindly prepared some resources for us to support our new ‘Blitz in Hull’ experience – it’s almost ready! Rebecca and I will go over the whole thing before we show it to the other LELs and lead the first experience. I’ve also got my monthly ‘One to One’ with Rebecca before this afternoon’s team meeting.
And with that a month has passed. It’s been very London-heavy but I’m trying to get the last of my big trips in before… well, you’ll just have to wait and see!
Shaun, Learning Experience Lead