“I have found my experience as a Team Up tutor incredibly rewarding as I believe that I am able to make a valuable difference for disadvantaged pupils.”
I have recently finished my A levels and will be studying Medicine at university soon. I am the eldest of my siblings, so I have experience tutoring them with their subjects. My interests include reading non-fiction and documenting through the camera lens.
I am very passionate about the right to quality education for every pupil. I have found my experience as a Team Up tutor incredibly rewarding as I believe that I am able to make a valuable difference for disadvantaged pupils. Also, knowing that I could rely on the support of my programme manager throughout the experience gave me lots of reassurance. I am very happy to have come across this volunteering opportunity.
During my most recent programme, I worked with KS2 pupils tutoring English. Each pupil that I worked with was different and it was challenging at times to keep up with the pace of different pupils online. However, with each lesson, I saw improvement in my teaching abilities as well as pupils’ engagement in the lessons. Initially, pupils were reluctant to write but my encouragement of their ideas really helped them excel.
Every lesson allowed me to explore a different aspect of my students, whether that was the topics they struggled with or just their personalities. This made me always look forward to our sessions. During one of our sessions, I asked them to debate ‘the killing of lions’ and they came up with very interesting and unique ideas. I was truly impressed. I never had those ideas before, so I think I learned something as well.
Having regular support from my programme manager, through debriefs for example, where we discussed the things I struggled with was excellent as I was able to reflect and learn new techniques that I could implement in my next lesson. My programme manager was always available whenever I needed her, even during weekends, which showed how much she truly cared. It was also wonderful meeting other tutors, especially the more experienced ones, as I was able to learn from them too.
This has been a wonderful experience to develop my skills such as confidence, commitment, planning and organisation. Another perk of tutoring with Team up is getting SSAT leadership awards which gives a great boost to your CV as well.
I would definitely recommend this volunteering opportunity to anyone as it is incredibly rewarding and you will be making good use of your free time. Alongside tutoring you will be developing other skills such as adaptability and different teaching methods. You will always have support from your programme managers who are experienced teachers and happy to help. You feel part of the wonderful group of tutors. Above all, you develop as a person.
On behalf of the Team Up team and pupils, we say: Thank you Aman!