Back-to-School Students Celebrate Success

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Students were invited to give themselves a pat on the back at the recent Tutoring and Mentoring Award Ceremony. A celebration of the students' achievement, the ceremony recognised all the hard work that the tutors and mentors ploughed into the scheme. Vice Chancellor, Alasdair Smith, and Student Development Officer, Lilla Funge, were both there to congratulate everyone involved.

The University has been encouraging students sturdy enough to tackle the task to be tutors or mentors in local schools since 1994. Around 100 students took part in the scheme this year, with the vast majority acting as tutors. Each participant committed themselves to a 10 week placement, but as William Locke of the Teaching and Learning Development Unit points out, "Sometimes students get so much out of it they want to carry on after their placement. Students often take part in the scheme two years running as well."

Ann-Kristen Machens (middle) collecting her award from Lilla Funge (right)

Students who act as tutors spend some time each week in a classroom situation, assisting teachers and actively participating in lessons. Some are given a lot of responsibility, and, according to Lilla who organises the scheme, "Many relish the challenge the classroom situation presents. They gain confidence and develop important skills." Mentors also have an important part to play. They work with a small group of pupils who may be having problems at school. Acting as inspirational role-models, the mentors often see an upsurge in pupils' interest, attendance and motivation. As Lilla points out, this experience can be very rewarding.

Third year Psychology student Ann-Kristen Machens worked as a tutor in King's Manor School in Shoreham, coaching pupils for their German GCSE. She says "I found it very challenging because my first language is German, and many of the students could barely speak German at all. It was quite frustrating, but I found they improved quite quickly when they learnt in small groups. I think the large class sizes made people very nervous about speaking German in front of all their class-mates." Another tutor, Clare Comley, who was participating in the scheme for a second year, summed up the experience: "It's a brilliant scheme to take part in if you want to work with kids, but it's also great for finding out a lot about yourself."