Mikolaj Gunia, 14, used sign language to explain that being a barista in Kingspark School’s cafe makes him proud.
He’s one of a number of pupils learning skills for life beyond the Dundee school for children and young people with complex additional support needs.
Every Friday morning the Coffee Cart Diez Y Nueve team prepares for a line of customers at the door of classroom 19.
When we visited, Jack was greeting customers and Kyra was announcing the day’s specials. Kira and Reece took orders, using pictorial menus, while Rory was cashier.
Lexi served the snacks, and working as barista with Mikolaj was Abbie. Georgia was filling loyalty cards and Bradley was in charge of supplies.
Pupils’ thoughts on cafe work
Mikolaj uses a combination of British Sign Language and Makaton to communicate and told us: “I work in the Coffee Cart. I make coffee, do receipts and can be the cashier. My favourite job is cashier.”
When we asked him how he felt about the work, he answered: “I feel proud.”
Georgia Buchan, 13, told us that doing the various jobs, including taking payments, made her feel “great” and said: “It’s going to help me.”
As head barista Abbie Hadden, 14, was giving instructions on making coffee and said: “It feels like I’m the boss!”
The driving force behind the café is additional support needs teacher Sarah Cook.
She said: “At this age we really want to give each student opportunities to develop work-based skills in preparation for adult life.
“We can start building pathways for them so after they leave us they can have paid employment or meaningful volunteer opportunities, working in the community and contributing to society.”
How Kingspark cafe came about
The cafe grew from a small idea of doing snacks and started with a budget of £20. It recently received a donation of £1,000 from Scotmid.
Sarah said: “We started to add more responsibility, more people. We started inviting management in to eat in the café with us and the idea grew and grew.
“Now on a Friday morning there will be a line of customers out the door.
“When we say we are opening, everyone cheers, everyone is excited.
“All the students will work for the entire hour from 10am to 11am, which is a really high work endurance.
“The students are completely independent. We assist and help but the purpose is for them to be independent.”
They’ve… developed these skills to places we didn’t even think were possible for them.”
Teacher Sarah Cook
And the results have been astounding.
Sarah said: “They’ve taken this opportunity and they have grown and developed these skills to places we didn’t even think were possible for them.
“They’ve taken so much pride and ownership in what they are doing and it’s been really amazing to see how much they love it.
“We invited parents in to see them work and the students served them and made snacks for them. The parents got to see their son or daughter in a completely different light.”
Conversation