The Power of
Giving Back

Avalon Hasluck, Year 10 student at St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls

The first time I heard about Teach Learn Grow (TLG) was when our Head of Community Service, Ms Dallimore spoke to the Year 10s in our Year time.

She explained that St Hilda’s had been invited to teach students maths at East Manjimup Primary. Expressions of interest would be sought and we were invited to apply by sharing our experience with young people and the reasons why we would like to be involved.

I felt like it would be an interesting opportunity, and a chance to return to the Yeagarup Campus. Community Service hours are important at St Hilda’s and this presented a great way to build my service hours quickly while also getting away from the city and spending time with friends.

We took a bus to Pemberton and arrived mid-afternoon. The TLG Team Leaders, Yasi and Naomi presented us all with TLG t-shirts and gave us an overview of what the week would hold. Each of us were allocated two or three students and we found out a little bit about their academic progress and their social and emotional development. We had completed training at a weekend workshop held the week before we left, so we knew how to deal with challenging situations but were still curious and excited for the week ahead.

We all settled into the dormitories on that first night and prepared our first lesson plans and ice-breakers for our students.

We all woke early to a damp Pemberton morning. We met the Principal who showed us around the school and we were then allocated our times for tutoring. He also talked us through the other tasks we were expected to help with such as cleaning the sheds, assisting the EAs in the classroom, and playing with the children at lunchtime.

Later that morning, we met our students. We split off and tested their maths capabilities and then we did ice-breaker exercises that we had practiced in preparation. My students were in Year 1 and 4. The younger one was very outgoing and quite excitable. She was always willing to give things a go, even though she struggled a little with some of the concepts. She loved it when I played hopscotch with her and liked to hold my hand. I had brought some scratch and sniff stickers and she loved working hard to receive one.

The Year 4 student was shy but very smart. He certainly tested my knowledge of maths. He told me that he wanted to be a coder or a film director and was quite mature for his age. Teaching him maths was not so easy, given he was working far beyond his years.

I found the week incredibly rewarding. Seeing the students’ response to the attention I gave them made me realise how important one-on-one interaction with students is for their self-esteem and motivation. We formed strong bonds and happy memories.

I also realised how much pressure teachers are under. As a person who really loves art, I volunteered to finish a mural for one of the teachers. She was so grateful for the assistance, saying that it would have taken her hours to complete it – hours she really didn’t have in her busy life.

TLG is a local organisation that provides free one-on-one tutoring and mentoring for children in regional communities throughout Australia. They partner with schools like St Hilda’s and universities to encourage young people to volunteer their time to help children in regional areas where their access to education is more limited.

St Hilda’s has been partnering with TLG for many years and it was great to see one of our past students as a mentor for our trip to Pemberton and Manjimup.
The TLG camp was an unforgettable experience that has helped me understand the power of giving back to the community.

Published in Messenger August 2024