A day in the life of a Gapper: Laurence
Lawrence (front, centre) has some fun during the training week with other gappers
Laurence is spending the UK part of his CAFOD Step into the gap year at Cardinal Newman Catholic School in East Sussex. Here's a glimpse of the kind of experience you might expect on this gap year partnership.
The mobile phone lights up and spouts out its dreaded, annoying alarm of doom at seven in the morning. First thoughts revolve around why I needed to watch that additional hour of aFormula 1season review DVD at ten the previous evening. Thankfully I never have time to sulk in order to leave the house by 7.30 for a thirty minute walk to Cardinal Newman Catholic School. Just enough time to shower, brush teeth, eat breakfast and suit up for a new day in placement!
The day normally starts proper with Morning Prayer at eight, a nice, refreshing and calming antidote to a rushed wake up. The end of Morning Prayer gives me twenty minutes in which to plan the day, which is always a good idea in order to give some structure to my work. Today I have quite a busy schedule, with pupil activities, meetings, phone calls and brainstorming to get through. So in a way this planning stage is the most crucial part! Thankfully my colleague and school chaplain Dominic Dring is on hand to help me prioritise, and he has been indispensable so far in helping me settle in, in a supportive and comfortable environment.
Before the day starts, I attend a Year 8 form mass in the chapel which ends at the beginning of first period at nine.
From the start of the day until first break I work with Dominic in the chapel. We first take part in an exploration of mass with a Year 7 form in preparation for their first mass in school as a form group. Then a group of Year 12 volunteers arrive for a workshop on their upcoming Primary School Mission to St. Mary’s School, Portslade. Since the Mission will contain an element of social justice I spend some time getting to know several sixth-formers and talking about their expectations.
Break time at eleven is spent grabbing tea and sharing tales of half term with fellow staff members. Then at half past eleven I sit down with Dominic for our fortnightly meeting on my role as a CAFOD intern and how I am finding things. We discuss the formation of assembly plans to be delivered to year groups the following week. Dominic also comes up with the idea of a ‘termly charitable action’ for each year group during the course of the year. I then create an assembly plan in preparation for a series of social-justice themed assemblies later in the term. The meeting lasts until lunchtime at one.
Lunchtime is a great time to both grab a bite to eat (obviously!) and to talk to both staff and young people in the more informal setting of the canteen.
After lunch I spend a lot of time making various phone calls. I call Deirdre at the Arundel & Brighton Diocesan CAFOD office for advice on a Sixth Form event and information regarding CAFOD’s Hunger for Change campaign conference in London over the weekend. I also phone another organisation, Chestnut Tree House (a palliative centre for children near Arundel) to arrange a Year 10 outreach afternoon. Web-surfing is next on the list, in order to compile possible charity ‘actions’ for the year groups as suggested by Dominic in the morning. I look through the sites of the charities A21, Jubilee Action, and the Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group.
At 4.15 I have a meeting with Mrs Cole, the Yr 13 year head, regarding a plug for a CAFOD themed group next Monday. I head off at five to go back to my host family for the evening. It’s an amazing living set up, with great people to talk to when I need it and a private room if I need the space. Since it’s Monday night, I don’t go out to Hove or Brighton in the evening. I spend the evening chatting to fellow friends and students living with me before reading my book and watching part of a DVD in my room.
It’s been a long, but productive and enjoyable day as a CAFOD gapper!
