Volunteering on the Schools Plus’ Twinning Programme:
A Student Volunteer’s Perspective
Last year we launched our Twinning Programme, an extension of the Schools Plus Programme. This has opened up a new way for university students to volunteer, bringing a rich array of interests, skills and energy to the programme! It wouldn’t be the same without them. Find out more about what it means to volunteer on the Twinning Programme in the volunteer blog post below!
A bit about Twinning and Schools Plus
In January 2022, the Oxford Hub launched its Twinning Programme, an extension of the Schools Plus Programme. The twinning programme matches Oxford University colleges with a local primary school in East Oxford.
The Twinning Programme was set up to:
- support Colleges and primary schools to work together to close the attainment gap in Oxford city,
- provide extra-curricular and academic opportunities that local children might not otherwise have access to,
- and improve local children’s sense of belonging to Oxford city.
Schools Plus is Oxford Hub’s tutoring programme for children and young people in Oxfordshire. The programme aims to provide supplementary tutoring that can guide a pupil’s learning outside of the classroom. It matches pupils with university student/graduate volunteers, retired teachers and those with work-related subject knowledge and experience. Through regular tutoring sessions, the tutoring pairs work together to help pupils reach their full academic potential!
Find out how you can get involved with Schools Plus and the Twinning Programme here.
A Volunteers Reflections:
“I chose to volunteer on the Twinning programme as both a tutor and a coordinating officer in my college, as I enjoy tutoring and helping the community.
Having been taught by wonderful teachers who instilled in me a sense of curiosity and a strong desire to learn more about the world, I have always wanted to inspire children in the same way. Back in my hometown Singapore, I helmed a similar programme where my volunteers and I mentored children from underserved families. I found it a purposeful way to spend my time and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
After coming to Oxford, I learnt about the huge attainment gap locally, as well as the wonderful twinning programme organised by Oxford Hub that sought to narrow the aforementioned gap. Hence, I decided to continue my tutoring journey alongside some new faces in a new environment.
Having tutored for two terms, I am glad to share that the volunteer tutors and I all find the weekly sessions meaningful and fun. Tutoring children is an interesting experience — while some concepts may come instinctively to us by virtue of experience, it is much more difficult to break down the concepts into smaller, digestible pieces for the children to understand. Despite our initial struggles with this, my volunteers and I were lucky to have the helpful teachers from St Frideswide Primary School guide us, and it has been deeply satisfying to see the children improve over time.
Overall, I think I speak on behalf of all the volunteer tutors when I say that this programme has definitely been both fruitful and meaningful. It has provided us with a great opportunity to engage with the local community, as well as provide the children with the chance to interact with university students on a one-on-one basis and receive individual, tailored learning support.
I look forward to more volunteers joining this initiative in the coming academic year.” — Volunteer (tutor and coordinator)
