Work Experience
I’ve had a fascination with the brain for a long time – what people think,
why they act the way they do and what issues have arisen due to their
situation.
Helping other people fix problems in their life is exactly what I want to
do as a job and so I got in contact with some Doctors to query about work
experience in the field of psychology. It was a lengthy process to find
a placement due to psychology or anywhere to do with mental health
being so private but, luckily, a placement was found and I was called in
for an interview to discuss what would be happening and all the rules
that I must follow to ensure safety and that the code of confidentiality
is not broken.
The placement is working at a lodge with alcoholics and people who
suffer from mild mental issues. The time of the placement is yet to be
discussed, but I look forward to whatever lies ahead and will use the
information that I learn to extend my knowledge further in this career
path.
Jack Cornish
year 12
Page 27
post-Sixth Form
What are they doing now?
We have caught up with an ex-KEVICC, Alice Giorgi, who
studied Spanish and German A Levels here last year and
is going to study these languages at Bath University in
September. Alice has had a year out working in Germany
and Spain and got in touch to tell us about working at a
Spanish school.
I amworking as an assistant at school in Lleida, Cataluña
which caters for children from kindergarten age up to
16. I’ve been taking conversation classes with groups of
about 6 students from both the primary and secondary
age groups, and helping teachers in the kindergarten
and lower primary classes as a general classroom
assistant. I have also been preparing activities especially
for the Cambridge Exams, which are English exams that
students who are learning English take. There are about
100 students that I see on a weekly basis.
It has been really interesting living in Cataluña during
what is a very exciting time politically, as some Catalans
want independence from the rest of Spain. I am staying
with a very nice host family who look after me really
well and organise trips at the weekend; as we are near to
Barcelona, there is lots to do. However, I have found the
work quite challenging and there have been times when
I have been left in sole charge of a class of 20 students!
Also, being in Cataluña, everyone speaks Catalan rather
than Castillian, which is the language we were taught at
school, so I have had to learn some Catalan.
A big thank you to Alice for sharing her year out
experiences with us – we hope this inspires you to use
your languages in order to travel, live and work abroad in
the future! Please see members of the MFL team if you
would like any further information about opportunities
to work abroad.
Sixth Form
Former student Ruby Ritter writes:
KEVICC was where my passion for languages and my
life as a modern foreign languages student started. I
remember my first German lesson like it was yesterday,
writing the basics, such as 'hello' and 'how are you?' with
one of the most passionate teachers I have ever met. I
remember I was told I had to take Spanish in year 8 and
feeling absolutely gutted that I couldn’t do just the one
language. Little did I know, Spanish would become just
as important to me as German. Not only did learning
in the classroom show me just how much I loved
languages, but so did the trips to Madrid and Berlin with
my classmates. It was my first real experience of the
beautiful cultures; the Spanish summer and the German
Christmas. Then it was shortly back to reality, trying to
roll the “r” in Spanish or pronounce the “ch” properly in
German.
Before I knew it, GCSEs were over and I was sitting in
year 12 German and Spanish trying to master the
subjunctives. It was only after year 12 that I realised I
could hold a real conversation with my classmates and
my teachers in the languages. It felt great to finally
know those years of learning languages had paid off. So
if there’s one message I could give to students right now,
who are at the point where learning the subjunctives or
mastering the Spanish past tense is making you want
to give up, it would be to just try your hardest because I
promise you, one day, you’ll look back on any struggles
and be grateful you persevered through them to the day
you could hold a conversation for more than five minutes
in the language.
I’m currently at university studying Combined Modern
Languages. I spent the last semester in Alcalá de
Henares, Spain and I am now in Erfurt, Germany. I have
been studying at the universities in both cities, which
has been an unforgettable experience. It was great to
finally be able to live like the Spanish and Germans,
as well as to open my mind up to the other cultures of
the world among the international community! The
most rewarding part of this experience has been finally
understanding the majority of what people say without
having to take a second to translate it in my head and
being able to reply there and then.
