A Day in the life of a Gapper: Iona
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CAFOD gap year student Iona looks at a field of cashew plants, provided to vulnerable communities through CAFOD partners.
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CAFOD gap year student, Iona, giving a football to children in Sierra Leone
Iona is spending the UK part of her gap year at St Mary's in Blackpool. Find out more about what she gets up to...
Honestly, there isn’t really a ‘normal’ day in our school, which is part of the brilliance of this placement. But there are a couple of daily staples within the excitement and variety. For example, regular tea breaks speckle our day, with the premise that whoever breaks first in needing a brew resignedly gets to their feet, asks the dreaded question ‘Who wants a brew....?’ to the instantaneous chorus of ‘YES PLEASE!’. And since we are working in the largest chaplaincy team in the country, this means at least 5 different brews needed. Break times also herald a consistent stream of students coming into the office simply to chill out, enjoy our wonderful company, buy our Fairtrade Chocolate, and generally steal chairs, sit on the floor and get in people’s way; all good fun.
To give you a flavour though, I’ll pick a particular day and describe its basic outline to you as an example.
On Thursday, we begin the morning by leading a form group in morning prayer, based on the Gospel of the week. This can range from somewhat daunting (in 6th form), to really good fun with the keen year 7’s. I then assist in a Rainbows group session for a lesson. This is a group for students who have suffered bereavement of any kind, and is hugely valuable and very humbling. Break time may well consist of heading out into the bustling corridors and playground armed with our box of Fairtrade goodies to sell to students. This is also a great way of getting out there and getting to know the young people.
The next lesson could consist of Mass prep where some of the chaplaincy team take on a class for 100 minutes and prepare them for the Mass they will then have at lunchtime. This can range from Lectio on the Gospel reading, to teaching them songs, to discussing the themes of the Gospel, to writing bidding prayers or creating artwork or drama. Mass will then happen at lunchtime for the class Mass with Father David, a local parish priest. Both Sarah (my fellow gapper here) and I are musical and so lead the music for these masses, guitaring and singing enthusiastically to make up for the sometimes less than audible singing of the students. After lunch, the gapers spend the afternoon in a local primary school, working with classes there normally on collective worship and RE.
By the end of the day, I am ready to go home. However, St. Mary’s is a fantastic place to work, with a team that is great fun and hugely supportive of their gappers.
