Olivia Jones Civic Award 2019/2020

Here are the highlights of year 6 Bovey Tracey Primary School student Olivia Jones on her 2019/2020 Torbay and Devon Civic Award.

Chosen Charity:

My chosen charity is Libraries Unlimited, and I am raising money for Bovey Tracey Library in particular. I have chosen them to make people aware that Devon Libraries are run by a charity and they need all the help, support and money they can get. I also chose them because I absolutely love to readand spend loads of time in there. I thought I would choose them as they deserve the help as they offer a great service to young and old without any recognition.

Their Promise

‘Whether in person, over the phone or online we are dedicated to giving each of our customers a unique and personal experience which follows these standards of customer service:

  • We’re welcoming
  • We listen
  • We will trust and respect you
  • We will help you to find what you need
  • We will offer diverse and inclusive events, services and facilities’

Active Hobbies:

Water Polo

My active hobby is water polo which I have been doing for 6 years.

We have had lots of matches and tournaments – last year we were third in the Devon League.  This year we were planning to travel to Taunton, Barnstaple, Plymouth and host a tournament at Newton Abbot but sadly since March it has been cancelled due to Covid-19.

There are many different categories for water polo – under 10s, under 11s, under 13s (which I am in), under 15s and under 17s.

The team that I play for is Newton Abbot Water Polo and I train at Newton Abbot Leisure Centre every week for 2 ½ hours on a Saturday.

I am doing trials for another water polo team, girls’ regional South West team.  To have a chance to go to the trials you must be picked especially. For the training I must go to Millfield School in Somerset. The training is only 7 times a year so I would play for both teams.

Swimming

My second active hobby is swimming which I have been doing since I was 3 months old.

When I was first learning to swim, I went to Rewlea in Ashburton, but as I got older, I found it too easy as the pool was only 12m long. I moved to Newton Abbot Swimming Club and began in stage 4. After a few weeks they moved me up into stage 5. Then I was moved into stage 6 around a month and a half later. I was then put into stage 7 and stayed in that group for a year. Now I am in the Junior Squad. This mean that I can represent my squad at galas. When I did a Ribbon Gala a while ago, I came third in breaststroke, and second in front crawl. My favourite strokes are breaststroke and butterfly. However, my best stroke is front crawl.

When I was a bit younger (I would say around 8) I won a trophy for being the best girl swimmer that month here is a picture of it:

Non Active Hobbies:

Cooking

My non-active hobby is cooking. Since starting to cook with my mum I have been able to eat a lot of varied food as my mum loves lots of different styles of food!! My mum had lots of recipe books for Christmas, so we have sat through them together and picked loads of recipes that we like the look of to cook together. One of my favourite things to cook is desserts.

Since being in lockdown I have done a lot of cooking with my mum resulting in some lovely food and fun times!!

I have been making cakes which I have been giving to our neighbours who are on their own, the bin men, the postman and the girls who work at the post office.

The Violin

My second non-active hobby is the violin which I have been playing for 4 years. Last year I took my Grade 1 exam and passed with a merit. The annoying thing is I was three marks away from a distinction!

At school I am in the school orchestra and the year 6 band and play the violin in both. This year I was planning to take my Grade 2 but unfortunately, I couldn’t due to the coronavirus.

Due to COVID-19 I am currently having my lessons over Skype which are working out well.  I am rehearsing for a piece for our school virtual summer concert which is really fun and interesting!!!

Active Citizenship in the Local Community

Library Volunteering (Diary of events)

Thursday 7th November 2019

Today I went into the library and started my volunteering for the first time, and it was amazing!! To start off with my mum and I had to sign lots of papers and talk through what I would have to do. After that I began. At first, I was stacking some books onto the shelves and I had to learn where to put all the different types of book (fiction, non-fiction, biographies, teen, information on our local area and the children’s). After I had placed all the returned books onto the shelves, I got a list of books that had been reserved from other libraries to find.

Thursday 14th November 2019

Today was my second session at the library and it was just as good as my first. When I first got there after school, I was stacking all the returned books (there must have been at least 50). Whilst I was shelving my books, my buddy from school came in and she asked me to help her find some different books. After that, I was doing something called ‘deadstock ‘ it means looking through a specific area of books and finding ones that haven’t been taken out in a while – you then trade them with other books from other libraries so you get a variety of different books every time you go there.  I was looking for ‘deadstock’ in the younger children’s area. My mum has now started to do volunteering as well because I have been talking so highly about it and we both like reading books a great deal – now I can show her and tell her about it!

Thursday 21st November 2019

Today after school I came into the library for my volunteering session, to start off with they gave me the task of looking through all of the younger children books to see if they needed new labels (they could either be stick on labels or labels that need to be stuck on by glue) I must have done at least 35! After that I was given sheets of paper with list of books that hadn’t been taken out of the library for I while and I had to find them. The title of the book was first and then the author and then what type of book it was e.g. junior fiction, non-fiction, biographies etc, if it was a non-fiction it would have the jewey number on the side and I would have to put them in number order.

Friday 22nd November 2019

Today I didn’t come in to do my volunteering, but I came in to help decorate the library for Christmas. Some of the decorations I had made by myself.

Thursday 28th November 2019

Today I came in for my fourth volunteering session and it was just as good as all the others. To start off with I was told to shelve all the returned books and put them on their correct shelves. After I had done that, I was given a list of books in the style of a receipt. It said the author, then the title, then type of book (junior fiction, teen, biographies etc) and if it was a junior or adult non-fiction then it would say the jewey number, it would then say the barcode number. Once I had done that, I was given the laminated tickets which had names on and were put into books if they had been reservedand had to wipe off all the names on them.

Thursday 6th December 2019

Today it was my fifth session at the library, and it was great. At first, I was looking through the junior non-fiction and checking to see if they were in order of their jewey number that took me around 15 minutes as there were quite a lot of them out of order. After that, I went through all the beginner books and made sure that they were all in the right groups. Finally, I was walking round the library – tidying all the public areas of tables and chairs and all the books that had not been put back on the shelves tidy or in order.

Thursday 13th December 2019

Today was my last volunteering session at the library but it was still just as good as my other sessions.  To begin with I was looking through all the adult fiction books and checking there weren’t any doubles and that they were all in alphabetical order. After that, I was wiping clean the laminated reserved tickets again. Once they were all clean I was asked to look through all the younger children books to see when they were last taken out of the library – if they were still in this year but before August they would have to be taken out, but if they were in August or September and so on they would stay.

Lunch Bunch

Whilst I was at school, I was asked to do Lunch Bunch.   Lunch Bunch helps feed the elderly people who are lonely or on their own.  At 12:30 a group of 10 of us go over to the Baptist Church and help.  We go in, put on our aprons and wash our hands.  There is a person who organises this event that goes to each table and asks them what they would like to eat – we then go to that table and ask the lady what has been ordered – they can either have roast chicken, gammon or beef with peas, roast potatoes, kale and mashed swede and carrot.  We carry the plates of food to each person.  There are seconds if any of them would like!  For pudding they can have chocolate cake, lemon drizzle cake and blackberry crumble all served with a choice of custard, ice cream or both followed by tea or coffee if they wish.  Once they have finished there is entertainment – us!!!  The 10 of us sing.

Active Citizenship within school

In school I do many things:

  • I am a buddy
  • I have a job called ‘a meal mate’
  • I mentor a girl on the violin
  • Peer Mediating
  • I am a learning buddy
  • Multiple musical groups

A buddy means that all the year 6s, that applied, can look after one (maybe two) of the reception children that join our school.  We guide them and look after them throughout theirfirst year at school,so they settle in hopefully without any problems.  My buddy’s name is Ereena and was so incredibly shy when I first met her in September but gradually opened up and came out of her shell.  I was really upset when lockdown happened as I wouldn’t be able to see her but I have been in contact with her sister over lockdown who sends me videos and messages from Ereena so I’ve been able to keep in contact with her.

A ‘meal mate’ is someone who goes in with the years 3 and 4 and sits at their table at lunchand makes sure that they are using manners and being sensible.

Last year I was a ‘peer mediator’ this meant that on a Friday lunchtime I would wear a coloured green bib and walk around the playground with my peer mediator partner(my best friend) and make sure that everyone is happy, no one is left out and there are no arguments. If there were any arguments, we would have what was called ‘a peer mediation’ and try to sort out the problem.

A ‘learning buddy’ means that I go into the reception and year one classrooms to help children with their work.  Every week we talk to the teachers and they give us names of who they’d like us to help.

On a Monday lunch time and most Thursdays (as I do lunch bunch) I mentor a girl called Josie on the violin.

Throughout my typical school week I do quite a few musical groups; on Monday’s I do Year 6 Band, on Tuesday’s I do Musical Theatre, on Wednesday’s I take part in the School Orchestra, on Thursday’s I am in a special singing group called Singing Ensemble which I was specially invited to by our music teachers and on Friday’s I go to the Senior School Choir and I have my violin lessons.

Adventure Training

In year 5 I went to Heatree Residential Centre on Dartmoor.

It was my first time away from home, but it was such good fun! I went there on Monday and came back on a Wednesday.

During my stay I did an obstacle course, mountain biking and bush craft. The first activity I did was the obstacle course and it was very muddy. At the end of the obstacle there was a bog that we had to go through, but then there was a big tube that we went down and we landed in the river.

On my second day at Heatree I went mountain biking! Back then I wasn’t very confident on a bike, but I am now very confident.

On my final day I did bush craft and I made a den, went foresting and tried some different food. In the evenings we all ate in the big hall.

On the first night I had chicken burgers, and on the second I had chicken pie. For desserts there was apple crumble on the first night and chocolate cake on the last. In the morning there was a choice of cereal, toast and yogurt. Heatree was amazing and I would love to go there again!

The Torbay & Devon Civic Award does not allow the downloading of images from our website. To request a image please contact the relevant school who will get in touch with us.