Students volunteer for Schools Without Walls
Posted on Monday 15 May 2006
Students from Farnborough Sixth Form College, who have been working as mentors in local primary and
Students from Farnborough Sixth Form College, who have been working as mentors in local primary and secondary schools, received certificates from Professor Bernard Weiss, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Surrey, in an Awards Ceremony held at the University of Surrey recently.
The students received the awards as part of the Schools without Walls programme initiated by the University of Surrey. The programme was originally designed to enable University of Surrey students to mentor children in schools in the area. Recently, however, it has been extended under the auspices of Aim Higher, funded by the Connexions service, and it has become an increasingly popular choice for sixth form college students wanting to enrich their academic studies with new challenges.
The sixth form students were trained in October to assist classroom teachers and they developed skills in one to one tuition, small group work and general classroom assistance.
Tutor Matt Smith has been responsible for the development at the College. He said, “The Schools without Walls mentoring scheme has been an invaluable experience for our students, many of whom are considering going into teaching or a similar caring profession in the future”.
One of the student mentors, Martin Smith, 17, of Fleet, enjoyed his placement at Tavistock School. He said, “I learnt so much from being placed at Tavistock School. At first, it was difficult to be assertive and get my ideas across but by the time I finished, I was much more confident, especially when I was dealing with the whole range of children in the class”.
27 students from The Sixth Form College Farnborough received certificates recognising their achievements in the scheme, a record number also achieving recognition at NVQ level 3.
