As a part of Service Session at Fountainhead School, our school invited a few kids from other schools. These were government schools who could not afford to provide their students with enough activities. For that reason, we invited these underprivileged children to our school and participated with them in a few activities. We decided the activity that we wanted to teach these kids. I volunteered to teach football to these kids. I was made the group leader for that particular batch. We planned out 6 sessions, 3 consecutive weekends, for them. We made the plans for each session and then executed it with them. I was with other people in a group of around 10 people and thus we divided the work amongst us.

The learning outcomes that I met were:

L3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience:

I, along with my group, started off with planning this CAS experience. As I was the group leader I took the initiative to start planning this activity. We sat together in our free slots and then decided upon the things that we thought were valid for a 6 session plan. We started off by planning the first weekend which included the first 2 sessions. Here we basically aimed to provide the kids with basic knowledge of football and start off with some basic drills. For the next weekend, we grouped them by dividing them according to their ability to perform a particular drill. Then we taught them according to their pace so that everyone could learn something. For the last 2 sessions, we introduced them to playing the game. We divided them into teams and planned out matches. We motivated them along the way and tried to make sure everyone was learning something out of this.

L4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experience: 

We showed commitment towards the activity by proactively planning it out beforehand. We utilised our free slots in working after this project and made sure we came up with an effective plan. We not only planned the activity with commitment, however, we also executed it with commitment. We taught them with full enthusiasm and answered the questions with the best possible answers. We made sure everyone was understanding everything along the way.  We also showed perseverance as there were difficulties that we faced along the way. We did not have free slots together so we couldn’t plan the activity together. So instead we decided to plan it at home as well at a time when everyone could be online. We had arguments over whether the planning process was correct or not. There were a lot of different perspectives and so it took a lot of time to convince everyone with the plan. While executing it, we faced difficulties in the location as it was the rainy season and so we had to keep on changing our locations from outdoor to indoor which limited the activity choices. Some of the students could not grasp the drills at once and so we had to patiently help them master it. Even after all these obstacles, we did not give up and that lead to us being successful.

L5 Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively:

To successfully execute our plan, we had to master the skills of working together. We had to communicate effectively. As we could not work together at the same time, we had to keep a track of what was going on and that was only possible if we communicated well. We had to make sure everyone was understanding the plan as we moved forward. Another skill that we needed was helping each other. Sometimes it happened that it wasn’t possible for some of us to work at a particular time, so the other would do it for us at that time and then we could help them in their work later. We had to show this maturity in order to work together. We also tried to coordinate with each other. Everyone would know what their group member was doing and keep a track of it. We would also proactively remind each other of any dues or any other work that had to be done. Using all these skills, we benefitted ourselves by working collaboratively. We were able to complete our planning on time and we also were able to manage the large group of children easily. We gave ourselves some kids each and then took the responsibility to execute the plan that we planned earlier. By doing all of this we were successful in executing this activity.

L7: Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions: 

With an activity like this, our actions played an important part. The children were underprivileged and came from a different surrounding than us. Our decision could have insulted them and made them feel lower than us. We tried our best to not let that happen. We made sure we treated them as our friends. We did not pinpoint their mistakes and did not make fun of the things that they did differently than us. We had to choose proper words to use in front of them, we also had to choose the better body language so that they felt confident and comforted. We had to do what was ethical. We had to treat them fairly and that is what was ethical. Because of using these ethics to teach them, we were able to bring out the better of them as they felt confident. This helped us and them as well and it was a win-win for the both of us.

By fulfilling these learning outcomes, we were able to have a better CAS experience and we were able to bring a little change in the society. We felt proud of the activity and were happy to be able to get this opportunity.