From Rotterdam to Bermondsey…on work experience!

My name is Loïs van Kooten and I am 16 years old.

I am living in a very small village in the Netherlands. My village is in the neighbourhood of Rotterdam.

I am still in high school and I am following bilingual education. That means that most of my lessons are in English instead of Dutch. Some of the main subjects I am following are Mathematics, Biology, Economics and English. In my spare time I play volleyball and I play the piano.

Because I am following bilingual education, I had to do an international work experience. My mom told me that a cousin of ours works at the Salmon Youth Centre. I have always been interested in children so I thought that a work experience at Salmon would be a good opportunity to find out what I thought about working with children.

Getting to Salmon

Since I entered the Salmon building, I really felt welcome. The staff here helped me with everything and were very nice to me.

I had to work from 2pm to 8pm. We started with admin and did some preparations for the clubs. I joined many different clubs. For example, girls and mixed club, cooking and crafts, wheelchair basketball, dance and art clubs, girls fitness and trampoline club.

In girls and mixed club, we did some games with the young people like pool, four in a row and Jenga. Some of the children danced and others were on the bouncy castle. In cooking and craft, we painted different things on carbon. I really liked that I joined many different clubs. Because of this, I met a lot of different young people.

A great opportunity

I have learned quite some things in my short stay here. It really helped me to improve my communications skills. Another thing I have learned is how to deal with all the different kind of young people.

I really liked my work experience here and I want to thank Salmon for this great opportunity they gave me.