Anna Gs experience of volunteering for Tutorfair

Anna G's experience of volunteering for Tutorfair Anna G recently completed her volunteer placement at Pimlico Academy read on to find out what volunteering for Tutorfair  can do for you....... As a Tutorfair volunteer I was offered a great experience at the Pimlico Academy as a Teaching Assistant in French (Year 10) and Spanish (Year 7) over a  5 month period. It gave me the opportunity to get classroom experience and I would recommend this experience for anybody looking for a change of career in Education; it gives the opportunity to assess very efficiently if one belongs to a classroom or not. I was involved very quickly with students and could help them from day one. This experience gave me the opportunity to create a great relationship with the students as I was not their teacher but was there to help them and they totally get it from the beginning. I think most of them are very open from the start and although it took more time for some others to accept my help, I found that after a few weeks they were much easier to approach; this was very good life experience too! The Tutorfair volunteering programme gave    me an insight on how the school is organised and specifically, in my case, the Modern Foreign Language department. I told them I would like to be more active in the department and they were happy to offer different missions on top of Teaching Assistant, such as one-to-one tuition with GCSE students to prepare a specific exam or extra-support to a group of students during lunchtime etc. During the last month I was even teaching French to a group of six students on my own every week.   It helped me to make the most of my experience there. Overall I really think TutorFair offers a “win win situation” and has got a great concept which benefits the students, the schools and the volunteers. The school and students get extra help and the volunteers valuable teaching experience. Best Wishes, Anna x