Laughter and learning
Meet Caroline from Kingston who has volunteered with LEAH since 2017 and seen her learners through the pandemic and beyond.
Caroline is a former freelance television producer of many BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and Discovery factual entertainment programmes.After many years of working flat-out, when she reduced her hours, she decided she wanted to give back to her community
“I first spotted a flyer to teach with LEAH on a local neighbourhood notice board - and I thought that's something I would like to do!”
Caroline attended our training course which provides an essential foundation for everyone volunteering to teach with us. The course runs for 6 weeks and provides volunteers with an insight into the lives of the people they support, and the skills to best assist them to learn English.
“The course was fun and made me realise how important it was to teach concisely and accurately - with humour!”
Caroline is a natural communicator and felt that volunteering to teach would give her the opportunity to share her love of the English language with others. In return, her students have broadened her view of the world.
“Lessons need to be structured but when they go off-piste and the students offer up their own ideas, thoughts, comments, jokes, observations on British life - it can lead to a wonderful enriching entertaining debate that everyone learns from! One of the highlights for me was teaching a group class where there was laughter coming out of the room for the whole lesson.”
The joy of seeing learners succeeding in learning everyday English is the thing that drives Caroline to continue volunteering with LEAH and make a difference to people's lives.
"There's a huge buzz that you get when your student masters a difficult word - it's an important achievement for them, and a pat on the back for you!”
Want to give back to your community? Join the LEAH volunteer team and be part of something bigger.
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