A REMARK by an 11-year-old girl in Possilpark – “ I’m goin’ to university as well ... by the way, what is that?” – sums up in many ways what our charity, the Volunteer Tutors Organisation, does: we aim to raise children’s attainment, improve their self-confidence and encourage their engagement with school. When children work with a trusted person who offers appropriate educational support, they flourish: their ambition increases and they get bigger and better ideas; in other words, they aim higher.
The girl quoted above was in one of our groups where we work with children living in KINSHIP Care arrangements. She was working with an assistant tutor, a sixth-year pupil who was heading to university. This put something on the child’s map that wasn’t there in the beginning.
We were very happy recently to receive funding from BBC Children in Need and from the Trades House of Glasgow to help continue our ongoing work and expand our work in the kinship care area. We aim to offer this support to four new groups this year.
We found that the kinship carers we work with were having difficulty managing their children’s homework due to the other difficulties children experience when they have had a disrupted start in life – and the fact that, for the carers, the methods used in school had changed considerably since their time. They didn’t feel confident about helping children with homework. We recruit sixth-year pupils whom we train as assistant tutors and these assistants are then placed with a child in a homework group, hopefully on a one-to-one basis. They are supervised at all times by VTO lead tutors who help them and also work with the children. The lead tutors keep the registers, learner logs and assessments and report back to VTO.
Our other work involves training and supporting volunteers to work as tutors on a one-to-one basis with a child in his or her own home, or where this is not possible for any reason, in a neutral venue such as a library. Our aim is to provide a service to some of the most economically disadvantaged children in the country that is exactly like a private tutor, except it is free to the people receiving the service. Everyone in our organisation must have an up-to-date PVG check. Our office is based in Maryhill, but we work Glasgow-wide and have serious ambitions to expand further afield. We work with children aged six to 16 years and cover a range of subjects, though most of our work is with youngsters who need help in literacy and numeracy.
Many families purchase a tutor’s services as a matter of course when their children have a problem in their school work, but the families we work with do not have the financial means to do this. We think that is wrong. The fact that people are poor should not still be the biggest factor in whether their children get extra support to enable them to be the best they can be. (The Joseph Rowntree Foundation reported that the income of parents is still the biggest factor in whether or not a child attains higher education.) We hope that by offering a free service to disadvantaged children, we can help them close their own attainment gap.
We urgently need volunteers for one-to-one home tuition across Glasgow, and those able to offer support as lead tutors. We don’t ask for particular qualifications: just a good education and the ability and commitment to impart that in a sympathetic way to a child.
We work closely with schools to get advice and help with each child we support. As well as having a board of directors that includes educationalists and other experienced professionals, we are able to share advice from other tutors who have the skills needed to mentor new Tutors if needed.
A range of people can help; for example, if you are retired we want to hear from you. Life experience, work experience and motivation are invaluable, and we need people who are available during the day from around 3 until 4.30pm for the homework groups, and tutors who can
volunteer in the early evenings. If you are in work, but want to do something positive and a bit different from the day job, or if you are a student and want experience working with children, we have a place for you. Get in touch, please by emailing admin@vtoscotland.org, or visit www.vto.btck.co.uk.
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