Hey everyone, welcome back to another monthly blog!

This month has been a fun and rewarding one – and included our All Staff Day, which was definitely a highlight! Let’s dive in!

One of the things that made this month great was being given more responsibilities. I was trusted with editing our team priorities video for All Staff Day – which, I’ll admit, was a bit tricky at first, but with support and guidance from my team, I got the hang of it! I spent a lot of time editing the videos, and it feels amazing to be developing my skills in this area. I’m really hoping to continue up-skilling and improving – video editing is starting to become something I genuinely enjoy.

Another exciting milestone is that I’ve officially started planning for my EPA (End-Point Assessment) – woohoo! I’ve begun pulling together my portfolio, and honestly, it feels like such a big achievement. I’m ahead of schedule, which is a great feeling, and I can’t wait to see all my hard work come together in one place. It’s definitely helping me reflect on how far I’ve come.

Now let’s talk about the All Staff Day – it was brilliant. The day was packed with engaging presentations from different teams, fun activities, and (of course) amazing food. One of my favourite parts was the Relationship Managers’ rap and dance – so creative and hilarious! I also really enjoyed the Customer Support Team’s bingo, and the superhero-themed presentations were a fun and insightful too.

I felt especially proud when the Security Team showcased a video I had edited for the Train the Tutor course on YouTube. Seeing my work featured in front of everyone was such a rewarding moment.

Lunch was another highlight – everyone brought in food, and the spread was truly incredible. It’s always a bonus when good food is involved!

We were also lucky enough to hear TED-X and Keynote speaker Jaz Ampaw-Farr speak during the day. Her talk was really inspiring – she spoke about how “you are only as powerful as the stories you tell.” It really made me think about how important it is to write your own story and be the version of you that you want others to talk about.

She encouraged us to:

• Be a Fear Fighter – challenge your inner critic

• Be a Resilience Ninja – build your own evidence pot

• Be a Positive Disrupter – cultivate your “10% braver” habit

Something that really stuck with me was her message to be “human first, professional second.” That hit home, because it’s so easy to beat ourselves up over mistakes – but at the end of the day, we’re all human, and that’s okay.

After her talk, we split into teams for some fun quizzes. My team didn’t win… any of them. But we did get a wooden spoon after each one with the label: “A special spoon for a special team.” Honestly, I thought it was a better prize than sweets – and hey, it’s the taking part that counts!

Lastly, working from home has been a bit smoother lately – I finally got a little desk set up, and it’s made a big difference to my productivity and comfort.

That’s it for this month – thanks for reading, and see you next time!