Volunteers’ Week 2016 has now sadly drawn to a close (sob!)
At The Access Project, we thoroughly enjoyed sharing inspiring stories about our #toptutors and bringing everyone together during 12 days of celebrations.
We are always overwhelmed by the levels of dedication and support our tutors show and wish we could celebrate each and every one of the (almost 900) tutors individually.
Be sure to read back through our Wall of Thanks on our blog to make sure you haven’t missed any #toptutor nominations from the past week and read on here for some other thank yous and shout outs in our students’ own words.
All our tutors are amazing and we appreciate you all!
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Additional #toptutor thanks
“My tutor should be recognised as a top tutor because he constantly gives me challenging questions and uses many real life examples to improve my understanding of the subject. At first I felt clueless about maths and everything about it was overwhelming but ever since I got him as a tutor, he has helped me in my understanding of it. My tutor goes above and beyond by putting in time to make up his own maths questions (relating to what I know from the specification) which he brings to me to figure out and they are usually very challenging, more challenging than the exam questions. Also I usually spend at least two hours with him instead of one every week and is always willing to reschedule if I cannot make the scheduled date.
I would like to thank you for being the wonderful tutor you are and volunteering all those hours to teach me maths. I appreciate your time, your patience and your ability to make the subject interesting instead of just numbers, signs and letters. Without you I wouldn’t have even looked at a trigonometry question without breaking into a cold sweat. Now I feel much more confident in tackling questions and have definitely surprised myself as at the start of year 12, I thought I would never understand anything and end up with a U grade. I am so lucky to have had you as a tutor and after you’ve tutored me, I hope you go on to tutor another student in maths and spread your enthusiasm for it.”
“I think my tutor has been fantastic this year. Having a biology tutor has allowed me to progress much faster than I would have if I had to do it alone. Also, I feel like my communication skills have improved since I’ve started. Working through past papers together with my tutor has also allowed me to understand complex issues much more easily. Moreover, she tries to stretch my knowledge whenever she can in order to give me a wider understanding of the subject. I would like to thank my tutor for all her support and encouragement all the way through. She seeks to give me advice on not only biology, but also on other subjects if she can. -Year 12 student at Clapton Girls’ Academy and tutored in biology.
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“My tutor, Harriet, has been an exceptional help when it comes to my maths AS Level. She has dedicated extra hours towards helping me, giving me extra work so I fully understand a specific topic I’m struggling with and laid out a plan of what we intend to cover prior to my exams. She uses different techniques in helping me understand topics I am confused with; as well as covering any questions I struggle with. However, a prominent thing I have noticed that many others have pointed out to me about is my neatness. The layout of my work has improved immensely as Harriet insisted I clarify my working so “the examiner can clearly see your working”. My organisational skills have improved and I believe it is a life lesson she has helped me to improve. She finds it weird how I write my algebraic x’s but I think that’s something that’ll require lots of time and effort to improve! I have really enjoyed our tutorials together and hope that I can achieve a high grade, due to the sincere help, dedication, effort and motivation from my star tutor, Harriet.”- Year 12 student at Clapton Girls’ Academy and tutored in maths.
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“I wanted to be tutored in French because I felt that I was strongly struggling in this subject, so much so that I was even considering dropping it. This was until I was introduced to my French tutor, who has helped me progress through the year. She started off assessing my weaknesses and has since helped me through activities and emails so much that I am now really confident with the subject – where I used to get U’s, I now get B’s! In addition to tutoring I have also received university advice from my Access Project coordinator, and this has helped me build a pathway for my future, I feel that The Access Project is of benefit to all and I am so glad to have taken part! – Year 12 student at Clapton Girls’ Academy and tutored in French.
“At the beginning of the year I had very little self-belief and confidence in biology which is now changed. I feel much more confident in answering questions and doing exams. She has helped me throughout the whole year by filling in the gaps in my knowledge and giving me exam practice. Most importantly, she has helped to improve my grade. At the beginning of the year I was achieving E grades. After I started tutoring with Chloe, I managed to get a very high B, a mark off an A for my first mock exam for biology in December 2015. Furthermore, she takes out more than an hour in her week to help me. We have 2 hour tutorials which have been very helpful as I’ve been able to cover most of the A2 content as well as AS biology content for my retakes. I appreciate this a lot because biology is my weakness so getting extra help 2 hours a week from Chloe has helped me stay on track with my work. She has helped me to find my weaknesses and helped me deal with them. At the beginning of the year we planned how we were going to fit in AS and A2 content. Usually we go through content and she tests me on the content. In these tutorials, Chloe would teach me the parts which I did not understand. She would then ask me questions according to what I learnt and then we would answer past exam questions so I can reinforce the information learnt. All the tutorials were tailored to my needs and weakness. Also, when I received tests back from school, Chloe would go through it with me and explain what I’ve done wrong and how to improve. I found that very useful because it ensured I learnt the information as well as being able to apply it to questions. I now feel very confident with biology and I genuinely feel that I have improved in biology hugely all thanks to Chloe.
I am very grateful all the support and help I’ve received this whole academic year. If I pass biology at the end of this year, the credits would go to Chloe for ensuring I understood the specification and being able to apply my knowledge to exams. Most importantly, I appreciate that she has taken out more time each week to help me. These 2 hours a week have been so useful and I genuinely feel very confident in biology due to your help! Thank you so much!” – Mohsina, year 13 at Clapton and tutored in biology by Chloe.
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“My tutor has been very supportive, patient and motivating during times when I felt like giving up.”
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“I would like to nominate my tutor as a star tutor. He has been very helpful in going over all the areas in which I needed help in. He has been very supportive, patient and motivating during times when I felt like giving up.
He has given me much advice on areas where I am most lacking (such as with exam technique) and answered all of my questions when he was able to. We communicate often between tutorials and I tell him what I would like to go over with him and let him know of any other areas of the subject I am struggling with. My tutor is always well prepared for the tutorials by doing his own reading and research, and always comes to the session with materials he can use (be it past exam papers we can answer together, diagrams or a list of questions).
My confidence in the subject has increased, and thanks to my tutor, I am even starting to enjoy the subject more than I used to. I must admit, it is a really great feeling when you know the answer to most questions in class and when your teacher praises you- and all thanks to my tutor. I am very grateful about the time and effort he puts in making sure that I have fully understood the material before I leave the session.” – Louisa, Year 12 student at Clapton Girls’ Academy and tutored in biology.
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“I’m glad to have joined the Access Project this year for A2 History. My tutor’s commitment towards helping me with my coursework and exam has really helped me develop my essay skills. By printing exam questions in preparation for our sessions I feel more than prepared and confident to take my history exam and appreciate all the time my tutor has dedicated to help further my education.”
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“Tutoring has boosted my confidence in maths immensely and I am finding it easier to answer even the quite challenging questions. Both my grades and understanding of the subject have increased dramatically, as at first I was getting Cs in my maths tests and now I am getting As and sometimes Bs!
I have found the tutorials especially helpful because it is easier to communicate and learn one-to-one. You get to have immediate feedback on questions and you get to ask even more questions compared to a normal classroom. My top reason for nominating my tutor is that he is a volunteer and has given up his own time to help me and tutor me. My tutorials start at 4pm and end at 5pm. Quite frequently our sessions run for longer than this so we can finish off more questions. The only thing I would like to say to my tutor is a very big thank you! He has helped me tons into achieving top grades and sacrificed his own time to do so!” – Eirini, Year 12 student at Clapton Girls’ Academy and tutored in maths.
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“I would like to nominate my tutor because he has helped me immensely in improving my understanding on historical events which has allowed me to become more confident during my history lessons at school.
The highly useful essay writing techniques he has taught me has enabled me to write well-structured essays which I have also been able to use whilst writing essays for my other subjects. He has gone above and beyond to help me, despite his busy work schedule he met up with me several times in a week for long hours in order to help me with my coursework. I would like to say a MASSIVE thank you to my tutor and I appreciate all of his help, kindness and dedication, I enjoy his tutorials so much and will be very sad when it comes to an end.”
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“I would like to nominate my tutor for a special mention as he has really helped me pick up my grades and improve in my English lessons, even though it’s not too long period of time, I have noticed huge improvements in my own work and I hope it continues.”
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“Big shout out to my tutors, they have really helped me so much and I’m grateful for the hours of their own time to help me.”
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