The Federal Voluntary Service has existed in Germany for around ten years.
Not that long have "Bufdis" been in use at the school in Valley.
While the congregation advertises the position for the coming school year, the current helper reports on how her service is going and what she gets out of it.
Valley
- Elisabeth Hechenthaler didn't have much to do with children until September last year.
When she graduated from secondary school, the 16-year-old did not plan to orientate herself in the direction of education.
Nevertheless - or rather: precisely because of this - she decided on the Federal Volunteer Service (BuFDi) at the Valley Primary School.
She has not regretted it.
“At that time I wasn't quite sure about the apprenticeship,” says Hechenthaler, “and I didn't want to start anything and then quit.” At the time, she heard a lecture about the voluntary social year (FSJ) at school.
“It's something like the Bufdi.” At the same time, she found it appealing to do “something completely different” before the apprenticeship.
"Just to see if I can imagine something like that."
Elisabeth Hechenthaler is not the first Bufdi at the Valley School.
“The community has been advertising the position for several years,” reports Rector Anja Rettich, who is very happy about this support from the community.
The tasks of the "Bufdis", as they are affectionately known, are very varied and range from supervision at the bus stop to support for the teachers in class and the care of individual students through to the afternoon care.
"Because of Corona, Elisabeth is currently our girl for everything," says Rettich appreciatively.
"It is really worth gold for us because we can also use it in emergency care."
The corona pandemic and the associated restrictions and requirements have made the BuFDi job at the Valley School even more complex.
Hechenthaler gets along well with that.
The necessity of having to adapt flexibly to new situations over and over again promotes personal responsibility and social skills, she says.
In the past few months she has also supported the caretaker, supervised school classes who did the tasks prepared by the teachers and, above all, took care of the emergency care.
She has developed a much closer relationship with the children there than would otherwise have been the case, because everyone is divided into fixed groups.
“We grew together a lot more as a result,” says the 16-year-old.
She also got to know some teachers very personally.
Hechenthaler starts a new job in September.
She begins training as a social security clerk.
Something completely different that she is really looking forward to.
Today, however, Hechenthaler can also imagine doing something with children, maybe even as a teacher.
“The year as Bufdi gives me a lot of security for that,” she says.
“I was able to gain a lot of experience.” She would recommend the FSJ or the BuFDi immediately.
"You can find out really well what suits you, and a year gives a lot more insight than just doing an internship."
The BuFDi position at the Valley School will be filled from September.
The municipal council has approved the funds for this.
Rector Radich welcomes interested parties and promises a very varied field of work, in which personal strengths could also be taken into account.
"We once had a boy who was in the DLRG, and of course he helped with swimming lessons."
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