Volunteers excel on DofE Award

Two pupils in the senior school have been recognised for their outstanding DofE contributions, both exceeding their expected hours in order to complete their volunteering module and continue to put in volunteering hours.

Tom and Fred are both working towards their Bronze award and are also both volunteering at St Agnes AFC.

Initially Tom started his volunteering with helping coaches at various mainstream youth team training sessions and was asked if he would like the opportunity and challenge of supporting the St Agnes AFC Dis-Ability Squad. He eagerly rose to the challenge and started attending the disability coaching session and in particular working with Fin (a St Agnes player) supporting his goalkeeping.

When sessions stopped due to lockdown, Tom continued to want to support Fin and created two homemade greeting cards which were sent to Fin. The front was made up of a collage of cut out and stuck together football players and pictures and inside he wrote a ‘keeping in touch’ type of letter talking about looking forward to seeing Fin at training, discussing football and what Tom himself was doing to keep busy during lock down.

Mandy Kimmins, Chair of St Agnes AFC, explained: “These cards made a massive difference to Fin. They were brilliantly created, hand-designed and written with thought. Fin was delighted, felt supported and thought about and even his mum commented what a lot of time, thought and effort went into the cards.”

Volunteering further, Tom got involved in the St Agnes AFC Dis-Ability Squad ‘100-mile lockdown challenge fundraiser’ and completed miles towards the squad’s 100-mile total, while also raising £40 in sponsorship towards the £500 target which was exceeded to £700.

Mandy added: “Tom is an outstanding young man and throughout this volunteering process has shown himself to be reliable, mature, caring, thoughtful and willing to support and learn! Tom has absolutely gone the extra mile with this and has made a significant difference to a player with special needs who is a similar age to him, not many lads of his age would have this empathy and impact.”

Meanwhile Fred worked with youth coaches across several age groups proving to be great with youngsters, willing to help, get involved and support the coaches and players at each session he attended.

“Fred is reliable, timely and always polite and considerate! Well done Fred and thank you for your considerable contribution”, said Mandy.

Fred has expressed an interest in supporting the St Agnes AFC Dis-Ability squad and prior to lockdown had started attending and contributing to youth sessions, working with youngsters with a variety of issues with thought and communicating well.

Mandy commented: “Last Saturday Fred did some fabulous work with an adult who has learning and physical restrictions and Fred communicated really well, helping him with the skills and drills to get involved within the game at the end of the session. Many adult coaches would struggle to be able to work with players with disabilities.

“To sum up you have two excellent young advocates for your school and for the DofE scheme. They have both shown they want to use their volunteering to its best effect and make a really positive contribution. We have hosted and supported many young volunteers over the years all doing their best and making a difference but as the coach they worked with on Saturday commented these two are exceptional!”

Earlier in the year, Truro School was recognised as the leading school in the South West for DofE activity.