Civil Service Local in Bristol, have just started a new relationship with Action Tutoring and provided 2 volunteers to help A level students in Maths and English.
Action Tutoring, an education charity helping disadvantaged young people to improve their English and maths skills.
Jenny Smith from DWP talks about her experience.
Volunteering with Action Tutoring was a wonderfully rewarding experience which has seen me make an impact on the pupils and them leave a lasting impression on me!
I heard about the opportunity through the volunteer coordinator at work and couldn’t say no to an opportunity to see the difference between teaching English as a second language and tutoring native English pupils, as I had taught English abroad in Spain for just over year before joining the Civil Service. I am now using the three volunteering days Civil Servants are given each year to volunteer with Action Tutoring.
Seeing the great progress made by the pupils in such short amounts of time is instantaneously rewarding. My favourite experience while tutoring was seeing the enthusiasm my pupils had when tackling a large written exercise. I set them a challenge to write a newspaper article about the Great Fire of London. They immediately got into the role and mindset of a journalist in 1666 and the end result was fantastically imaginative. They even wanted to read it out loud to the other tutoring groups!
If this sounds interesting to you then my advice is to give it a try! The pupils will often lead the way and as long as you are flexible to their needs and personalities, you cannot go wrong. You don’t need to put any pressure on yourself or the pupils and once you form relationships with them tutoring becomes easy.
If you would like to find out more please get in touch with Sally.smith@cabinetoffice.gov.uk (Citizen Engagement Manager)
Or visit the www.actiontutoring.org.uk
Please note the following before applying:
- The minimum commitment is an hour a week (not including preparation time) across the course of a term. Only submit an application if you are confident that you will be able to make this commitment.
- We generally require our tutors to either be educated to degree level, or to be studying for a degree and to have an A or B grade at A Level (or equivalent) in the subject they wish to tutor.
- Successful applicants are required to undertake full training provided by Action Tutoring. You will not be able to tutor until you have completed this training.
- Action Tutoring supports young people facing socio-economic disadvantage, who are often experiencing challenging situations outside of the classroom. We are looking for tutors who will remain empathetic and understanding to this group and support them to build their confidence and academic abilities.
- All successful applicants will be required to complete an enhanced DBS criminal record check. Our policy on the recruitment of ex-offenders can be found here. Action Tutoring complies fully with the relevant Code of Practice and undertakes to treat all applicants for positions fairly.
- Our programmes run over the course of the school terms. We do not work in schools during the summer holidays.