Attached to this post is the Summative Assessment, I was happy with the feedback that I received. However, since my formative feedback I have made a conscious effort to interact with the families more; I thought this is something that I had worked on, but clearly my colleagues have not noticed a change.

Summative assessment

Student Log

Attached here is my student log of placement attendance; which is a log of every time that I have attended my placement. It has on it the hours that I did and the tasks/roles I undertook whilst on placement.

Today was not meant to be my last shift, however I got asked to come in 4 hours early which means I will of completed all 50 hours. Today was a CCV day which is a child centred visit. I got asked to start early so that we had time to set all of the activities up for the children. On CCV days prisoners are given more freedom; they are allowed to get up and walk around the room, get closer to their partners and play with their children.

I was nervous about today because I have not experienced a CCV day so I was unsure of what to expect, however, as soon as I started doing activities with the children my nerves disappeared and I had a really fun day!

Today we set up various games and arts/craft stations, the kids really enjoyed playing and making lots of mess! It was not bust today which means I got to spend most of the time playing rather than making lots of toasties.

The only bad experience I had today was cashing up I found it difficult and made mistakes; I felt that I made myself look stupid. This was a bad end to the day and I went home feeling the opposite to how I felt in the middle of the day- I went home feeling frustrated, sad and annoyed. On the train home I was overthinking the mistakes I made whilst cashing up and it made me feel even worse; but I kept thinking about the lady who I work with called Sam who is always so positive and full of praise for me, I keep wondering if she is just saying it to me to try and make me feel better about everything, or does she actually mean it?

Overall, I have had a lovely time at this placement and I am looking forward to my future at Choices Consultancy as a paid worker; I am keen to have more responsibility and to learn more about the services that we provide. My aim for my next shift is to ‘master’ cashing up because once I have managed that I feel that I will be more confident in my job role. Having a work placement module is a fantastic idea as it provides students with experience in a field that they may pursue a career in and it can also boost confidence levels. Before going to placement I had never got on a train before let alone getting one by myself; but since starting I get two trains each day with no issues. I also think that the placement has helped me to mature more as a person and even though it has been a struggle at times it has been a positive experience.

Today I felt ready and motivated to come to placement, even though I was tired due to working the previous night I was excited to go to placement. It felt good going in and knowing that in under a month I will be a paid employee of Choices Consultancy, however, I am having concerns on whether I am going to be able to manage two jobs and university. I understand that it will be really difficult as I will be working day shifts followed by night shifts all weekend, having time for 6 hours of sleep over a period of 3 days (Friday-Sunday), but I am going to give it a go and see what I can change to cope better.

Today was a good day, everything went to plan, I am now fully confident when using the till and I feel a lot more confident in cashing up. I had no feelings of anxiety today and I felt happy to be there. However, I did get a slight telling off from my colleague (Sam) because last time Carol said she would cash up and tidy the visit centre, but she did not clean up. Sam said to me that she thought she trained me well and she asked what happened and why I didn’t bother?

I said that it was not a case of not bothering, I explained that Carol said that she could do it and she said that I could go home early. This conversation put a bad spin on the day as I hate being told off, it immediately made me feel more anxious and like I just wanted to run away and hide. It certainly made me question whether I am the right person for the job…

I am the right person for the job, I guess everyone has good days and bad days and days where they could of thought more logically. Looking back I should of said to Carol that I would stay and help to tidy, if I was put in this situation again I would definitely do this. I am going to look at this as being a learning curve rather than a ‘telling off’. Hopefully I wont mess up again.

I received my mid-way formative assessment from Moira (my placement supervisor), I was over the moon with what she said about me it gave me a confidence boost. The feedback confirmed to me that I was doing a good job and that I have made such a good impression that she has offered me a job.  On Thursday 16th May 2019 she rang me offering me a paid job at Exeter prison, after previously having to decline a job at Dartmoor prison due to transport issues I was so excited to be able to accept. I officially start my contract on 7th June 2019, because I have to complete my 50 hours of placement before beginning the job. The things I need to improve on have been noted and I am going to make a conscious effort to try and improve on the areas mentioned in the documents attached.

Today was my first day back at placement after a week off, unexpectedly I did not feel as anxious as I thought I was going to; I think this is because I am coming back to familiar faces. It feels like I have been here for longer than 7 shifts which is good because it means that I have settled in well. I feel that I have made positive relationships with the people that work here, and I hope that they think about me in a positive way.

Today was a busy day, food was coming out of the kitchen really slowly and a prisoner got out of their seat to come and complain; this is against the rules to the prison officers quickly jumped on this and ordered him to sit back down. At this point, his order was 3 from the bottom and I still had to do 6 orders before getting to his. This stressed me out a bit and made me panic, I am a massive overthinker so I was worried about whether he would say something or shout at me when I took his food over- fortunately when I took the food over he was well mannered and actually apologised for shouting. This made me feel slightly better, but I feel like it wouldn’t of even happened if I did my job quicker.

I was working with someone called Carol today, I was pre-warned about her being lazy and that she often comes out with “I am a volunteer, until I get paid I will do the bare minimum”. I do not agree with this attitude, but she has been there for 16 years and is a lot more experienced than I am so I thought I would take a back seat and just do what I am told. I found that she liked to complain a lot about the shortcomings of Choices Consultancy, she also did not hold the visitors, prisoners or prison officers in high regard.

At the end of the day she told me I could leave early and that she would cash up and do the cleaning, so I got to finish 30 minutes early which I was grateful for due to working the previous night; it meant that I could get the earlier train. Overall, today has been ok, but I would of preferred to work with someone else.

Today is the first Sunday I have worked here, I learnt that Sundays are normally the busiest day for visits here, I also worked with someone who I have not worked with yet- he is called Derek and he is the husband of Moira who is my boss so I was keen to make a good impression.

I felt a little on edge today due to the volume of people in and working with Derek, I wanted to ensure I did everything perfectly. Despite it being really busy, I managed to do everything to a good standard. I am still nervous about cashing up as I do not want to make a mistake; luckily today I watched Derek do it and although I am still not 100% sure on it all I am reasonably confident that I could do it by myself.

I am hoping that during my week off I can do practise run throughs in my head of cashing up because my aim is that when I come back I can cash up confidently and not make any mistakes. I feel that confidence is something that I definitely need to work on, as my self-concept is negative.

I felt really tired today due to getting in from work at 6am and then getting the 10am train to placement, but the training and knowledge that I am gaining from this placement should be worth it in the long run. For me motivation is something that I need to work on; my aim over the next week is to try and think of ways that I can motivate myself to feel positive about coming to work at the prison.

I am beginning to struggle balancing uni, my night job and this placement; I am finding that I am not putting as much effort into my university work as I should be because I am so tired from working consecutive night shifts followed by day shifts. It is difficult to split my time between all three whilst managing to get more than 2 hours sleep.

The lack of sleep is changing my mood, which then changes my attitude towards uni, which then affects my grades which impacts on my mood- it is a vicious cycle.

Today was the first shift where everything went to plan, all visitors turned up on time, and all food went out quickly and cooked well. Today I used the till more than usual, it is quite difficult because I am still not sure on the price of everything so I am quite slow; but I ensure that I give good customer service and try to be as quick and helpful as possible. Today my outlook was neither positive or negative because I was so tired I just did not really feel anything; I just wanted to concentrate on the task in hand.

After tomorrow I have a week off, I am looking forward to this because it will give me some more time to complete uni assignments that are due imminently, I am also hoping that I will be able to catch up on some sleep and have some ‘me time’.

This day started out with a lot of stress, my train was delayed by 30 minutes and I thought I was going to be late, even though this is out of my control it still upset me and stressed me out. I was really tired due to finishing a night shift at my job at 6am which made me more susceptible to these negative emotions. However, after my last shift at placement I set myself a target of thinking more positively, so I just thought this is out of my control, if I message my boss to keep her updated I cannot get in trouble.

I texted my boss and she replied with a reassuring message suggesting that I should not stress and just get a coffee whilst I am waiting. This made me feel validated and that I could relax and use this extra time to prepare myself for the day ahead.

After finally arriving in Exeter I had a good start to the day, all visitors arrived on time which meant that there was no last minute running around. When I started in the T bar in the afternoon the orders were coming in really quickly, but I felt ready and motivated to perform well. I felt like I thrived under the pressure today and all orders went out fast, I even had time to talk to my colleague today! I did not cash up on my own today which was also nice because it meant I could observe and learn the parts I am unsure about.

Overall today went quite well, when I was at home I received a phone call from my supervisor and she offered me a paid job at Dartmoor prison because I was doing so well. I was over the moon that my placement thought that I was doing such a good job, but unfortunately I had to decline the offer due to transport issues. Even though I declined, it has motivated me and made me have a bit more faith in my abilities.