We managed to catch up with our coachee Globe Academy pupil Trae Charles and our coach from Kings College London Abby Ross. Here is them in conversation...
Full written transcript below:
Abby (A): What is your favourite thing about Globe Academy, and what is your least favourite thing?
Trae (T): My favourite thing about Globe Academy is the atmosphere and all the teachers and everyone feels like one big family. A family that is helpful, and beneficial for everyone to achieve their greatest. The thing that I dislike about Globe, well the thing that I dislike seeing is bullying. Sometimes I see things in the playground, I see kids who are getting bullied and no one is there to intervene and say ‘this is not right, don’t do this, be friends because you are all the same age, you will be friends at the end of the day’. The reason I dislike it so much is that no one should be feeling less than they are already.
A: Do you think that Globe helps prevent bullying?
T: I believe there are lots of schemes and projects in place at Globe to eliminate bullying. I believe that if a pupil is getting bullied, a teacher is on top of it. So I believe it is very hard to bully discreetly. I believe that everyone who bullies should be punished and I believe that they are getting punished.
A: What do you study in school?
T: Sociology, psychology and English literature.
A: Which one is your favourite?
T: I like them all the same, but I particularly like the ability to express yourself in English.
A: Which one is most challenging?
T: English again!
A: What accomplishments in English literature are you most proud of?
T: I would not say it’s an accomplishment, but I would say my growth, for example, if you put all of my work in a timeline, from when I first started until the end of Year 12, you would see a big change from a Year 11 student to a Year 12 student and that my structure and writing formula has improved.
A: How do you think coaching has helped you at Coachbright?
T: Well I used to have high barriers so I wouldn’t really tell people what I would feel and that would affect my interactions with people and people would not really know why. But then with Robin (coach) helped by saying that he wants to help me and that he cares even though the teachers at school were saying that they care, he showed persistence and commitment. He made me really feel that there are people who are there for me. So I have lowered that barrier slightly, which has improved my social interactions. I believe it has also helped me socially and mentally.
A: Ok so what are your questions for me?
T: How is working with Coachbright?
A: So I was a coach with CoachBright in my final year of university and then since finishing my classes, I have helped last week with a debate based on surveillance on the government so I have helped to set-up up for the debate and then this week I am here, helping him think about how we can get more university students involved to coach so that’s been my focus. It has been really good, I have had an opportunity to coach at Globe and I had an opportunity to meet students like you, and I have really enjoyed it.
T: When did you study at university?
A: I have just finished studying religion, philosophy and ethics 3 year course.
T: Was it challenging?
A: It was, it is really difficult but I think if you choose a subject that you really enjoy which I really enjoyed, and I think that it makes it a lot easier and it makes you work a little bit harder so if you find that maybe in English literature if you do a project that you enjoy or an assignment that you really enjoy, it doesn’t matter that its difficult because you really want to do it first. It is difficult but it’s worth it.
T: What do you believe was your biggest attribute that you had to help you overcome this?
A: I would say getting to know my lecturers individually so at university they do three things called office hours, which is you will have a lecture with a lecturer in a big group of people, about 60, 70 students. If you didn’t understand what was going on in a lecture, or if you need help with an assignment, you can go during a time that they set called office hours to go speak with them and get to know them as a person. I would say that was the most useful thing getting one on one time. The difference between university and school is that you have to make sure that you go and find that on your own because the classes are bigger and you need to seek out individual attention, but it helps a lot.
T: What would you say you liked and disliked most about university?
A: I would say the thing I liked most is having a lot of freedom to learn new things and to get to choose what I wanted to focus on so, I got to sort of choose which classes I wanted to take and choose what I wanted to write my essays about. And there was a lot of freedom. I would say my least favourite thing was that universities are a very big place, so sometimes it can be hard to sort of find your way and it can be hard to get to know your lecturers really well, but i think that there is a way to overcome that but that can be the most difficult thing.