Tom Natynczuk BA (Hons), Assistant Instructor.

My role as an assistant for My Big Adventure entails working with an outdoor instructor; together we conduct a day's activity with our student. It has been an inspirational experience and I would like to enhance my ability to make a difference. Coming from an academic background I would like to continue in that vein and train as a qualified teacher. The skills the instructors possess aren't purely outdoor tickets - being calm, relaxed, kind and unflappable are essential qualities. But many of our students have unacceptably bad literacy skills, and in my current position I feel inadequately equipped to tackle this to the best of my ability. With training I hope to hone and maximize my talent - which I have shown in my time at My Big Adventure. Many of my current charges are enthusiastic learners; it just takes quality time to allow them to express this aspect of their lives. They have a huge fear of failure and have suffered from knock-backs in mainstream education. I would like the experience of teaching in schools and also bring my experience and new learning back to the outdoor sector. The job has been inspiring and difficult - working at that end of the school spectrum, I am not in the best position to compare this with mainstream teaching but I would consider my experience to have been, at times, a baptism of fire. Disaffected children are a group that I want to teach in the future.