In June two fantastic work experience students, who also have experience as Jacari pupils, joined us. One of them wrote the blog below about her week of work experience at Jacari.

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My expectations:

I was really worried about my work experience when the teachers in my school started to talk about it. The first placement I thought about was Jacari because they work with helping people who need help with English and I want to work with it in the future …

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Monday 30th June - MOOD 🥳 

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My first day of work experience I was a bit anxious, but most people are. When I arrived at the office and I saw Katy, I felt a lot more confident … Katy showed me where I was going to stay, the computer I was going to work with and the tasks I needed to do during the day. She answered all the questions I was confused about, made everything so clear this made me feel so comfortable. 

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Later I met Moira, she helped me through the photocopies, and also gave me some tasks to do as; feedback on some booklets for pupils. When I finished all the tasks, we started to get ready for the [End of Year] picnic … The picnic was so fun. I met new people and we played a lot of different games. It was a really hot and fun day.

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Tuesday 1st July - MOOD 😀 

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On my second day … Moira gave me a few options for tasks I could choose during the day, the ones I would like to do. One of them was an online meeting with some of the Jacari members, where we talked about fundraising and highlights of the week. It was a great pleasure to meet these important people who are behind such an important project.

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After the meeting I had a little walk to have some fresh air. When I came back I started to do some editing for Jacari’s instagram page. I learned how to do edits on Canva, it’s always nice to learn new things, then I wanted to get a bit off of screens so I picked another task to do which was organizing the books and label it with a Jacari sticker, and I also helped organise and put all the things from the picnic the day before in place.

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When I finished I had a great break. I sat on the grass at the green park and had some food. When I came there was less work to do so I did some reflections about my day and I talked to Moira about my day, it was a great end of day.

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Wednesday 2nd July - MOOD 😀 

On my third day … Katy gave me some resources to organise. I organised some boxes and games inside of them, and I also labeled some tote bags for gifts … I organised some papers and pens inside of the cabinet, and I stuck some Jacari stickers on the library books … I enjoyed my day because I really like to organise …

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Thursday 3rd July - MOOD 😀 

On day four I was quite tired from learning new skills every day and also doing different activities. I was very lucky to have my workmates, who made my day so much lighter and easier, always letting me know that I could go out and have a walk and take a break whenever I wanted.

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The first task I did … was to check if the games for the pupils had all the necessary pieces. When I finished I joined in a meeting with Matt, one of Jacari's trustees. After the meeting I started to sort some boxes, but I did not finish it all because we had another meeting with SRASPS which means ‘Supporting Refugee and Asylum Seeking Pupils in Schools’ (Bristol City Council) ...

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Friday 4th July, MOOD 😢

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On day five, I was really tired from the whole week, but I still tried to work really hard on my last day. I was also feeling really sad because it was my last day and I didn't want to leave. I had such a good time with my workmates and also learning new things was so good. When I got there in the morning Katy gave me some tasks to finish, and did a business card and printed it for Moira who went on holiday.

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When I finished it Katy came and asked me some questions about my work and how I felt during my work experience. As we finished the interview she gave me a certificate and a thank you card … 

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I want to thank you for my placement. It was a great time, I loved my experience with such good and kind people.