Madeehah’s story: how my City Year UK experience shaped who I am today

Madeehah, who volunteered with City Year UK in 2018-19, writes about her transformative City Year journey. Madeehah reflects on her time spent as a City Year Mentor, demonstrating how working with young people in schools opened her perspective to social issues and shaped who she is today. 

Admittedly, my childhood was very sheltered and privileged. Looking back now, I acknowledge that I had a very limited awareness of global issues unless they had a direct impact on me. So, when I decided to apply for City Year UK on a fluke after struggling with my A-Levels, I had no idea what to expect. When people asked me about my plans, I would respond, “They send people into schools.” But now, I tell people that my year of service with City Year UK was so much more and has really shaped who I am today.

I served in 2018-19 at a primary school in Salford, Greater Manchester. Before my year of service, I was a naïve 18-year-old who was unsure about my next steps and was struggling with my confidence after a pretty difficult time in sixth form. But in this role, I was thrown into the deep end, and it was a blessing in disguise. I was placed in Year 5, supporting three teachers across two classrooms, and I felt as though I’d found my place. The class teachers trusted me, allowing me to work independently with small groups and supporting students one-on-one. As a result, I developed meaningful relationships with a lot of my students, and, in doing so, I realised how blind I was to prevalent social issues. 

One student in particular made me realise how many challenges people can face in private. In the initial weeks of the school year, it became obvious to the class teacher and me that this student struggled with managing his emotions. Unfortunately, he was often triggered by his peers and small inconveniences; the result was that he would disengage from lessons and fall behind. I was unsure how best to support this student, which highlights how different my own educational experiences were. When I was in school, such a student would just be shouted at or excluded, and it often worked, but it didn’t in this instance. Whilst using trial and error to find appropriate behaviour management techniques, we learnt that this student commuted from Liverpool to Manchester daily and was often rushed or late. Thinking of the wider consequences, this meant that he was regularly tried, missed breakfast and was frustrated if he accidentally left something at home. 

At this point, I realised just how much the student was going through due to circumstances that weren’t under his control. So, I changed my approach. The aim now was to just be there for him. If he arrived at school late and hungry? Get him some breakfast. If he struggled with not lashing out in class? Go for a walk and complete the classwork with him one-on-one. Slowly but surely, we started to notice positive changes—he extracted himself from difficult situations and sought staff support if needed. At one point, the class teacher and I were keeping track of how many weeks he had avoided having his name written on the sad side on the class whiteboard (the prominent behaviour management strategy at the school). 

This positive change culminated in a particularly rewarding incident. The class teacher was absent one afternoon, so I was supporting the Higher Level Teaching Assistant, who had not spent as much time with this student. During our humanities lesson, the student came up to us and asked if he could complete his work with me one-on-one, as he felt that some of his peers were winding him up and he was worried that he would react badly. Already, the staff member and I were impressed by his maturity. We found a quiet space to work together, and within 30 minutes, he independently completed his work without any issues. He also demonstrated interest in his future for the first time, asking me about how university works and what steps he would need to take to get into certain careers. It was such a pleasure to see him so motivated and behaving more maturely when a few months earlier, he spent most of his lessons in exclusion. Furthermore, it was lovely to see the joy on his face when we showed his completed work to the staff member and she praised him in front of his peers and used him as a positive example.

To this day, I still think about this student and wonder how he’s doing. When online learning was introduced in the COVID-19 pandemic a year later, I hoped he was dealing with the change in routine well. This year, he’ll be sitting his GCSEs and I find myself thinking about what his next steps will be. I also wonder if he knows how he impacted my life. Thanks to the time I spent with him and the other students, I left my year of service as a more confident and empathetic individual, still unsure of my next steps but excited nonetheless. I started university with a vested interest in using my psychology degree to support individuals society often disregards. I also volunteered with a local organisation, providing advice and information to vulnerable people in my area. Now, I’ll be starting my first post-university job in a few days, focusing on improving the health behaviours of varied clientele often let down by traditional services, all thanks to my time at City Year UK.