OH553 Interview with Tracey Wills (Youth Education Service)
Interviewee: Tracey Wills
Interviewer: Christine Cox
Date: Thursday, 24 June 2014
CC: This is Chris Cox interviewing Tracey Wills on June the 24th 2014 at 10.20 and we're at the Youth Education Service at 14 Frederick Place as part of the YES oral history project. And what I'd like to ask you Tracey, if you could tell us how you first came into contact with YES and then kind of talk us through some of the work you've done for the organisation. [00:00:32] TW: Yes, hello. I think I became aware of YES in 1989. I'd just started on an Enterprise Allowance in Weston where I was able to train to be a tutor in Basic Skills and it was suggested to me that I do some voluntary work in Bristol. And through what was South Bristol College I got placed at a Basic Skills class with Chris Cox in Hartcliffe on a Monday morning and it was through that, and loving it, that I got invited up to YES to have a look what they were doing and started getting involved in different projects. And I think initially I volunteered, and then I started covering and then I got some work. I can't remember what my first paid role was ... CC: No, I can't. I'm not sure. [00:01:35] TW: Because it's a long time ago. I think the ones that stick in my mind the most have been the ones where I've gone out and set up projects from scratch. And I think that's something that I've absolutely loved about working with YES is the opportunity to go out meet different organisations, find out what they want and to start setting things up with them. Down to establishing which room you're going to be in, where your storage is going to be, is there going to be a computer, can you use the telephone? All those things and the ones that I remember doing that with um, very early on was Probation and that was quite new at the time, I remember. It was very much about being able to address what they thought the students needed. It was small groups, I remember creating a fact sheet and yes, working in various locations with Probation, and then moving on to Fairbridge which originally was at the Old Coach House in St Pauls. [00:02:49] And that was on a Thursday afternoon which was significant because on a Thursday they'd have their new recruits in and they'd be going off on adventures, on different outdoor activities, team building. And when I'd first meet them, and I'd been encouraged to talk to them about what we could offer in terms of literacy, they'd be very unsure, lacking in confidence, poor eye contact, but when they then came back the following week and you were re-introduced to them, you would notice such a difference and I think that's what ... that sort of thing was what was so good about that relationship. They recognised … Fairbridge recognised what these young people needed and we were able to be there at the right time to offer some groups. We'd have to be flexible, we'd have to move around the building, you'd have to grab your box of stuff and go wherever, but you were very much part of Fairbridge and they really they supported us and it was good. And it moved to Stokes Croft to a huge building, and again, I got to set up there with my banana box, which, because it was a Jamaican banana box the room got named after i:, the Jamaica room which I thought was hilarious. But every week I'd get the box out and work with whichever students there were, and, again it just meant you could meet the needs of individual students, obviously you were trying to get them through qualifications if possible though initially that was quite hard because qualifications like Wordpower took a long time to do. There weren't that many opportunities to get them through accreditation so it was more of a focus on individual learning plans and seeing where they wanted to go next really, and trying to build up their skills so that maybe they'd go on to college or employment but it really felt that you could work on an individual basis with students with so many complex needs and backgrounds, but that was a great project. I loved doing that. [00:05:38] CC: I also worked with ... Chris set up a project at Barnados. 114 Centre as it was known then, Shakti Imani now is it? CC: I don't know, it became that. I'm not sure if it still is. TW: Again another fascinating place because you got to work in this amazing building with this lovely walled garden and on a Friday morning the education room that was used for young people the rest of the week, who either weren't at school or needed to do additional work after school. Their room was free on a Friday so we got to go in there, and work with the local community on the whole. There were never huge numbers but I really felt that we were able to do some great things with some fabulous local students. CC: That was adults wasn't it? TW: Yes, yes, so Steve and Herma were just a joy to work with. Just being able to do... to give them the time to really develop and I think Steve got his first ever qualification in ICT. And bought a dictionary, and it became his book, that he just used to read, because he loved words and learning. And Herma had had a difficult time at college and just, um, loved the attention that she got to work on things in her time. She was very dyslexic. [00:07:16] So that again, I think that so many of these projects, they're all about how you work with the people in those organisations as well because you're coming into their space and you're asking for things as well. So it's always been about building up a relationship with the people who work in those buildings, and so I met some fabulous people, you know, managers, project worker, receptionists, um, caretakers, you know, just people who were all part of those organisations and were a key part in keeping it going. So that again, a great project but small numbers, which did continue for a while after I left didn't it? [00:08:13] TW: I came back from having a child or children, I can't remember which actually, one child I think, to do some work at Connexions in town with Jo . CC: Oh yes. The Wednesday mornings, yes. TW: Yes. And that was ... that was the dual teaching, so numeracy, literacy together with the big group of students and that was ... that was interesting. I mean, it was chaotic at times simply because of the students that were coming in. CC: So that was part of the Choices programme . TW: Yes, that's right. CC: They were young people who would have been in year 11 at school but hadn't been attending, but were the Wednesday mornings ... was that a kind of optional thing that people could do extra of? Because Choices mainly ran out of the Youth Clubs didn't it? TW: Yes, I don't know how optional it was for them. I don't know. I can't remember. And it changed over the time we were there, but yes, I remember working with quite a lot of students from Millponds Youth … the project that was going on there. So there were some students coming into that where English wasn't their first language, um, and some of them were actually quite motivated, and it was great to work with Jo as well and do some team teaching, really interesting stuff and some really comical students. And I think particularly because a lot of them were year 11s, so it was challenging but, yeah, it was a good place to be. So I remember doing that, and also doing things like cover at Hillfields when Tara, I can't remember, she broke her leg or something.... I remember trudging up there in the ice to do ... [00:10:10] CC: That was Choices again, wasn't it? TW: It was, wasn't it? So there was youth workers there, and it was a youth club badly in need of renovation. I remember, we worked in the art room and we had to check that the chairs were dry and didn't have paint all over them and things. And ... yes, it was quite an extraordinary building that one and obviously because there was a pool table outside the room some of them would rather be there than actually in the room, but again you got to ... It had been set up by Tara so they'd had initial assessment and just working with them to try and get them through accreditation really. Loads of problems with computers there not working. And that was frustrating, but there were enough resources, paper based, that you could work with them individually. The youth workers were great because they could see if somebody wasn't ready to settle. They'd take them off for a bit and bring them back. And again that was co-working in those respects actually. Just trying to meet the needs of the individuals and I think that's what I think you get at YES. You get the opportunity to work with the students and really try to see what they need and although it's not always possible to give them everything they need, because of time and resources, I think it's recognised as more important here. It's, yeah, from other work I've done in other places I think that's what .... it's innovative and it enables you to do things particularly with students. My most recent work, which I finished last year, was with TCV, and that was the dual teaching with Numeracy with Mel on a Tuesday morning up at YES. And I haven't done that much work at YES so I really liked being able to come up here, and so it meant seeing you Chris, and Jo and just feeling like I was more part of the team. Because I think sometimes when you do project work you're quite isolated and you don't see people so much. So I loved being up here and being able to work in the big room, that I do remember being a bowling alley, skittle alley... CC: Do you? TW: Because I remember going up stairs. Initially Liz … CC: Liz Chilton? CC: Yeah, she was ... when I first came. And there was just lots of bare rooms, well not bare, but you know floor boards and just tables and chairs and not much else and you taking me down here to see this room, and I have fallen many times in that gully as I've supported students, going round the tables, but I remember the makeover you had on this section and it's fabulous. [00:13:41] Working with TCV was brilliant, absolutely loved it. Loved the idea that we had a focus which was that they were doing a conservation course, doing lots of work outside working towards their own qualifications and that we could deliver the Functional Skills literacy and maths with that context. It did mean an awful lot of work in terms of preparation because you always tried to make things relevant, but also the fact we agreed on starter activities so every Tuesday morning the first part of the morning would be a starter that would sometimes go on probably too long. But the key thing was actually getting them settled and engaged, coming from all sorts of chaotic lives, and actually getting them to walk through the door, sit down, have a cup of tea and engage with the group and become ready for learning, was I think, what that did. And because there were two of us, plus the workers from TCV, we could divide up, and sometimes, even though we'd made a plan initially, we'd see a student come in and we could see how they were that day or we'd hear something about them and we'd know that what we'd planned for them just wasn't going to happen - it wasn't right. And so we'd flexibly move them round. Sometimes one of the workers, Alex or Steve, would take them off for a bit and then they'd be ready, and just being able to do things like that I think, was key to the success of that because you really were working at their pace. They weren't having to fit into something that they just had no hope of fitting into. It's not about just giving in to them and letting them do what they want, but it was just recognising that they had to be ready to learn and you could do that very gently I think here. And positively. And it [the session] went from two and a half hours, sadly, to two hours, which was a bit of a squeeze getting everything done, but and it was term time only because of budget restraints. But it still, it still worked, because we were able to communicate with everyone and make our own decisions. Nothing was imposed on us as far as how we did it. We just had to try and get them through their qualifications. Um… , and on the whole we did, probably not... you know, if we'd had longer with them we could have moved them on to the next level of qualification but it was very much about making sure they had something before they left. And for a lot of them, that was their first qualification and you were focussed on what they were going to do next, and hoped that they'd had a positive experience, and you would see a difference in students the way they communicated with people – um - their confidence. And I think that's, that's what a project where YES works with another organisation can really offer actually, bespoke courses that are quite special. CC: I think that's great, that's really good. Yeah. And was there anything else on your kind of list that you wanted to talk about. TW: No, to be honest Bristol Housing Foyer, I didn't do that much of it, and it was ... but again it was going out to an organisation wasn't it? [00:17:27] It's funny because when I talk about YES to people, I find myself using a cliché of 'old fashioned basic skills' but there's nothing old fashioned about it. I think it's just that it’s, I just think you allow people to have the freedom to work in the way they need to and the pace is different and it's just such a contrast to working with twenty students on a college course I suppose. It's different. [00:18:14] CC: That's wonderful, thank you very much.
Notes: YES: Youth Education Service Enterprise Allowance:a government-funded scheme for unemployed people South Bristol College, Marksbury Road, Bedminster, Bristol, which subsequently became a City of Bristol College centre Fairbridge: a UK charity that supports young people aged 13 to 25 Wordpower [and Numberpower]: City & Guilds, innovative basic skills accreditation Barnados 114 Centre: a family centre in a central Bristol suburb learners Connexions: information, advice, guidance and support service for young people aged 13 to 19 (and up to 25 for young people with learning difficulties and disabilities), and offering young people support in finding employment. Jo: YES Numeracy tutor Choices programme:a Connexions programme for Year 11 young people who were not in formal education Mel: YES numeracy tutor TCV (formerly the Conservation Volunteers): YES provided English and Maths input in TCV’s Entry to Employment programme
CC: This is Chris Cox interviewing Tracey Wills on June the 24th 2014 at 10.20 and we're at the Youth Education Service at 14 Frederick Place as part of the YES oral history project. And what I'd like to ask you Tracey, if you could tell us how you first came into contact with YES and then kind of talk us through some of the work you've done for the organisation. [00:00:32] TW: Yes, hello. I think I became aware of YES in 1989. I'd just started on an Enterprise Allowance in Weston where I was able to train to be a tutor in Basic Skills and it was suggested to me that I do some voluntary work in Bristol. And through what was South Bristol College I got placed at a Basic Skills class with Chris Cox in Hartcliffe on a Monday morning and it was through that, and loving it, that I got invited up to YES to have a look what they were doing and started getting involved in different projects. And I think initially I volunteered, and then I started covering and then I got some work. I can't remember what my first paid role was ... CC: No, I can't. I'm not sure. [00:01:35] TW: Because it's a long time ago. I think the ones that stick in my mind the most have been the ones where I've gone out and set up projects from scratch. And I think that's something that I've absolutely loved about working with YES is the opportunity to go out meet different organisations, find out what they want and to start setting things up with them. Down to establishing which room you're going to be in, where your storage is going to be, is there going to be a computer, can you use the telephone? All those things and the ones that I remember doing that with um, very early on was Probation and that was quite new at the time, I remember. It was very much about being able to address what they thought the students needed. It was small groups, I remember creating a fact sheet and yes, working in various locations with Probation, and then moving on to Fairbridge which originally was at the Old Coach House in St Pauls. [00:02:49] And that was on a Thursday afternoon which was significant because on a Thursday they'd have their new recruits in and they'd be going off on adventures, on different outdoor activities, team building. And when I'd first meet them, and I'd been encouraged to talk to them about what we could offer in terms of literacy, they'd be very unsure, lacking in confidence, poor eye contact, but when they then came back the following week and you were re-introduced to them, you would notice such a difference and I think that's what ... that sort of thing was what was so good about that relationship. They recognised … Fairbridge recognised what these young people needed and we were able to be there at the right time to offer some groups. We'd have to be flexible, we'd have to move around the building, you'd have to grab your box of stuff and go wherever, but you were very much part of Fairbridge and they really they supported us and it was good. And it moved to Stokes Croft to a huge building, and again, I got to set up there with my banana box, which, because it was a Jamaican banana box the room got named after i:, the Jamaica room which I thought was hilarious. But every week I'd get the box out and work with whichever students there were, and, again it just meant you could meet the needs of individual students, obviously you were trying to get them through qualifications if possible though initially that was quite hard because qualifications like Wordpower took a long time to do. There weren't that many opportunities to get them through accreditation so it was more of a focus on individual learning plans and seeing where they wanted to go next really, and trying to build up their skills so that maybe they'd go on to college or employment but it really felt that you could work on an individual basis with students with so many complex needs and backgrounds, but that was a great project. I loved doing that. [00:05:38] CC: I also worked with ... Chris set up a project at Barnados. 114 Centre as it was known then, Shakti Imani now is it? CC: I don't know, it became that. I'm not sure if it still is. TW: Again another fascinating place because you got to work in this amazing building with this lovely walled garden and on a Friday morning the education room that was used for young people the rest of the week, who either weren't at school or needed to do additional work after school. Their room was free on a Friday so we got to go in there, and work with the local community on the whole. There were never huge numbers but I really felt that we were able to do some great things with some fabulous local students. CC: That was adults wasn't it? TW: Yes, yes, so Steve and Herma were just a joy to work with. Just being able to do... to give them the time to really develop and I think Steve got his first ever qualification in ICT. And bought a dictionary, and it became his book, that he just used to read, because he loved words and learning. And Herma had had a difficult time at college and just, um, loved the attention that she got to work on things in her time. She was very dyslexic. [00:07:16] So that again, I think that so many of these projects, they're all about how you work with the people in those organisations as well because you're coming into their space and you're asking for things as well. So it's always been about building up a relationship with the people who work in those buildings, and so I met some fabulous people, you know, managers, project worker, receptionists, um, caretakers, you know, just people who were all part of those organisations and were a key part in keeping it going. So that again, a great project but small numbers, which did continue for a while after I left didn't it? [00:08:13] TW: I came back from having a child or children, I can't remember which actually, one child I think, to do some work at Connexions in town with Jo . CC: Oh yes. The Wednesday mornings, yes. TW: Yes. And that was ... that was the dual teaching, so numeracy, literacy together with the big group of students and that was ... that was interesting. I mean, it was chaotic at times simply because of the students that were coming in. CC: So that was part of the Choices programme . TW: Yes, that's right. CC: They were young people who would have been in year 11 at school but hadn't been attending, but were the Wednesday mornings ... was that a kind of optional thing that people could do extra of? Because Choices mainly ran out of the Youth Clubs didn't it? TW: Yes, I don't know how optional it was for them. I don't know. I can't remember. And it changed over the time we were there, but yes, I remember working with quite a lot of students from Millponds Youth … the project that was going on there. So there were some students coming into that where English wasn't their first language, um, and some of them were actually quite motivated, and it was great to work with Jo as well and do some team teaching, really interesting stuff and some really comical students. And I think particularly because a lot of them were year 11s, so it was challenging but, yeah, it was a good place to be. So I remember doing that, and also doing things like cover at Hillfields when Tara, I can't remember, she broke her leg or something.... I remember trudging up there in the ice to do ... [00:10:10] CC: That was Choices again, wasn't it? TW: It was, wasn't it? So there was youth workers there, and it was a youth club badly in need of renovation. I remember, we worked in the art room and we had to check that the chairs were dry and didn't have paint all over them and things. And ... yes, it was quite an extraordinary building that one and obviously because there was a pool table outside the room some of them would rather be there than actually in the room, but again you got to ... It had been set up by Tara so they'd had initial assessment and just working with them to try and get them through accreditation really. Loads of problems with computers there not working. And that was frustrating, but there were enough resources, paper based, that you could work with them individually. The youth workers were great because they could see if somebody wasn't ready to settle. They'd take them off for a bit and bring them back. And again that was co-working in those respects actually. Just trying to meet the needs of the individuals and I think that's what I think you get at YES. You get the opportunity to work with the students and really try to see what they need and although it's not always possible to give them everything they need, because of time and resources, I think it's recognised as more important here. It's, yeah, from other work I've done in other places I think that's what .... it's innovative and it enables you to do things particularly with students. My most recent work, which I finished last year, was with TCV, and that was the dual teaching with Numeracy with Mel on a Tuesday morning up at YES. And I haven't done that much work at YES so I really liked being able to come up here, and so it meant seeing you Chris, and Jo and just feeling like I was more part of the team. Because I think sometimes when you do project work you're quite isolated and you don't see people so much. So I loved being up here and being able to work in the big room, that I do remember being a bowling alley, skittle alley... CC: Do you? TW: Because I remember going up stairs. Initially Liz … CC: Liz Chilton? CC: Yeah, she was ... when I first came. And there was just lots of bare rooms, well not bare, but you know floor boards and just tables and chairs and not much else and you taking me down here to see this room, and I have fallen many times in that gully as I've supported students, going round the tables, but I remember the makeover you had on this section and it's fabulous. [00:13:41] Working with TCV was brilliant, absolutely loved it. Loved the idea that we had a focus which was that they were doing a conservation course, doing lots of work outside working towards their own qualifications and that we could deliver the Functional Skills literacy and maths with that context. It did mean an awful lot of work in terms of preparation because you always tried to make things relevant, but also the fact we agreed on starter activities so every Tuesday morning the first part of the morning would be a starter that would sometimes go on probably too long. But the key thing was actually getting them settled and engaged, coming from all sorts of chaotic lives, and actually getting them to walk through the door, sit down, have a cup of tea and engage with the group and become ready for learning, was I think, what that did. And because there were two of us, plus the workers from TCV, we could divide up, and sometimes, even though we'd made a plan initially, we'd see a student come in and we could see how they were that day or we'd hear something about them and we'd know that what we'd planned for them just wasn't going to happen - it wasn't right. And so we'd flexibly move them round. Sometimes one of the workers, Alex or Steve, would take them off for a bit and then they'd be ready, and just being able to do things like that I think, was key to the success of that because you really were working at their pace. They weren't having to fit into something that they just had no hope of fitting into. It's not about just giving in to them and letting them do what they want, but it was just recognising that they had to be ready to learn and you could do that very gently I think here. And positively. And it [the session] went from two and a half hours, sadly, to two hours, which was a bit of a squeeze getting everything done, but and it was term time only because of budget restraints. But it still, it still worked, because we were able to communicate with everyone and make our own decisions. Nothing was imposed on us as far as how we did it. We just had to try and get them through their qualifications. Um… , and on the whole we did, probably not... you know, if we'd had longer with them we could have moved them on to the next level of qualification but it was very much about making sure they had something before they left. And for a lot of them, that was their first qualification and you were focussed on what they were going to do next, and hoped that they'd had a positive experience, and you would see a difference in students the way they communicated with people – um - their confidence. And I think that's, that's what a project where YES works with another organisation can really offer actually, bespoke courses that are quite special. CC: I think that's great, that's really good. Yeah. And was there anything else on your kind of list that you wanted to talk about. TW: No, to be honest Bristol Housing Foyer, I didn't do that much of it, and it was ... but again it was going out to an organisation wasn't it? [00:17:27] It's funny because when I talk about YES to people, I find myself using a cliché of 'old fashioned basic skills' but there's nothing old fashioned about it. I think it's just that it’s, I just think you allow people to have the freedom to work in the way they need to and the pace is different and it's just such a contrast to working with twenty students on a college course I suppose. It's different. [00:18:14] CC: That's wonderful, thank you very much.
Notes: YES: Youth Education Service Enterprise Allowance:a government-funded scheme for unemployed people South Bristol College, Marksbury Road, Bedminster, Bristol, which subsequently became a City of Bristol College centre Fairbridge: a UK charity that supports young people aged 13 to 25 Wordpower [and Numberpower]: City & Guilds, innovative basic skills accreditation Barnados 114 Centre: a family centre in a central Bristol suburb learners Connexions: information, advice, guidance and support service for young people aged 13 to 19 (and up to 25 for young people with learning difficulties and disabilities), and offering young people support in finding employment. Jo: YES Numeracy tutor Choices programme:a Connexions programme for Year 11 young people who were not in formal education Mel: YES numeracy tutor TCV (formerly the Conservation Volunteers): YES provided English and Maths input in TCV’s Entry to Employment programme
