Faced with a global pandemic, Emily keeps calm and carries on. Service Learning is an important element of our IB career-related programme (IBCP) in the sixth form which could have been hit hard by the coronavirus measures.
Under normal circumstances students liaise with members of the local community and undertake unpaid and voluntary activities that help the community and also have a learning benefit for the student. That's not even a possibility at the moment but thanks to the swift action and advice of her teachers IBCP student Emily Vaccaro has devised a plan.

I am using my time at home usefully to continue with my service learning project. My original project was working with children at Bromstone Primary School and focusing on their mental health. Myself and the members of my team would spend time with the children after school doing things such as reading, lego, drawing and playing outside etc. As I have been unable to continue with this project because of the closure of the schools due to the pandemic, I have been utilizing my time to find other ways that I could complete my service learning project.

I have now moved on to helping my three foster siblings continue with their educational studies at home as they are no longer able to attend school. I am going about this by planning their schooling week in advance, preparing worksheets that they can use and by planning to teach them in areas that they are struggling in. We have been focusing on the main subjects such as Maths and English but we have also included other areas too. These other areas have included P.E, where we have been participating in Joe Wicks’ daily international P.E lessons and home economics where we have practiced baking and decorating cakes. It has been good because I feel as though we are all still being active and productive rather than wasting our time at home doing nothing.

There have been several challenges that I have had to overcome. One of the main challenges that we have had to overcome during this period is that each of my siblings are at different schooling levels, meaning they are all at different points in their education levels. It has been a challenge having to tailor each lesson to fit each child's individual needs. Furthermore, as the children are all siblings it has been quite a struggle getting them to keep focus without bickering with one another. However, I do feel as though it is important that we keep up with our school work as routine is very important to the children. My siblings say that ‘they enjoy homeschooling because they enjoy doing the activities set to them and that it keeps them active’. They also say that ‘they are feeling positive because they are learning practical skills as well as educational skills’.

I feel as though I have developed my IB learner profile in terms of becoming more inquisitive, I am more productive with my time at home and put it to good use instead of wasting it by doing nothing. Furthermore, I feel as though my communication and leadership skills have developed further. I plan on carrying this on for the foreseeable future until things return to normal. If anybody else is planning on doing this as part of their service learning, I would recommend them to plan as preparation is key. I find preparing a week in advance really useful. Moreover, finding activities that you think your siblings will enjoy partaking in is essential as the children will take to them more easily and will concentrate better. The last recommendation I can make is to have a routine and a designated learning space. Below is a copy of a weekly timetable that I created - you will see that the children only work until midday as any longer after this, they begin to lose all concentration. Only working until midday also gives me time to focus on my own studies and allows me to complete my own work so that I stay up to date with my lessons and do not fall behind.

	Monday	Tuesday- (Logan’s Birthday)	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
9:00am-9:45am	Maths- Logan- General maths quiz Rose- Multiplication and division test Colette- Number and maths puzzles test	Maths- All- Colour by number maths birthday cake picture (addition and subtraction)	Maths- Logan- Number and place value test Rose- Continuing with division test Colette- Mental maths Quiz and probability sheet	Maths- Logan- Division worksheet Rose- Fractions practice Colette- Mental maths Quiz	Maths- All- Easter colour by number worksheet
9:45am-10:30am	English- Logan- Sentence practice and story writing Rose- Handwriting and sentences practice Colette- Learn and revise days of the week (go through on whiteboard to help)	English/Art All- Birthday questions sheet and birthday word search All- Birthday cake design colouring in sheet	English- All- Creative writing task	English- Logan- Wembley colouring in and factfile Rose- Wembley colouring in and factfile Colette- Days of the week worksheets	English- Logan- Design your own football commentary and Cristiano Ronaldo descriptive writing Rose- Tongue twisters handwriting and sentence practice Colette- Tongue twisters handwriting and sentence practice
10:30am -11:30am	Art- All- Colouring in sheet	Home Economics- All- Baking and decorating cupcakes	Art- All- Easter card making and decorating	Topic- Research project - Logan - Research and make a poster about the history of LFC Rose- Animal fact file Colette - Animal fact file	Topic- All- Create a fact file all  about themselves, including  drawing a picture of themselves
11:30-midday	P.E- Joe Wicks P.E class	P.E - Joe Wicks P.E class	P.E- Joe Wicks P.E class	P.E- Joe Wicks P.E class	P.E- Joe Wicks P.E class
12:30-1pm	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
1:00pm onwards	Free-time	Free-time	Free-time	Free-time	Free-time