The newly formed Clydeview Academy Ambassador Team has been taking part in a range of team building activities. This is an account of the training from the Mental Health lead of our Health and Wellbeing Ambassador group:
Hi, my name’s Ziyad Alshaibi, and I’m a sixth-year pupil who’s currently in the Clydeview Ambassador program. It’s a brand-new program for the school and is run by Mrs Murty.
The program was made to encourage and help senior pupils take on leadership roles and develop skills through specific training programmes – such as Mentors in Violence Protection (MVP), Live n Learn resilience training, and more – that will aim to ensure that younger pupils feel comfortable and have as much support as they need during their time at Clydeview.
The roles of the chosen Ambassadors will be comprised of:
- Bullying Ambassadors
- Literacy Ambassadors
- Health and Wellbeing Ambassadors
- Positive Peer/Buddy Ambassadors
- Attendance Ambassadors
My experience so far within the Ambassador program has been really fun. It pushed me out of my comfort zone as I had to work with people I don’t often communicate with and to have them then guide me – non-verbally – through an obstacle course whilst I was blindfolded was nerve-wracking. The discussion beforehand was key to success regarding the challenge: it built our communicational skills and opened our minds up to more creative ways to manoeuvre around the problem. We had to set up a system of communication and rely on the fact that each team member would remember which signal meant what. My teammates were accountable for my safety and wellbeing, so I had to trust in them completely, otherwise, I could’ve hurt myself. Relying on one another to accomplish a task allowed us to settle in and get a lot more comfortable with each other quickly.
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I hope my experience within the program encourages upcoming seniors to take part as it was meaningful: it gives you a chance to develop qualities that’ll help you grow as a person, the opportunity to build relationships with new people, and skills that you’ll carry on into future endeavours.
I am grateful for the team that made the experience worthwhile and looking forward to getting to know all of you as a Health and Wellbeing Ambassador.