Tebarek is a student in Neuroscience. This year, she volunteered with Schools Plus at a local school in Easton to make a difference in the community. Every week on Wednesdays, she would go sit in class to support on a 1-1 basis a regular set of pupils with their reading.
I think Uni is a lot more than just studying and getting your degree. There’s a lot more you can do. My time at university is limited, so I want to accomplish as much as I can.
Tebarek, Schools Plus Volunteer
Why is 1-1 reading support important?
One of our school partner tell us that “From a learning perspective, not being able to read is a barrier to accessing everything. Through these volunteers coming and giving their time, it has definitely made a huge difference to the children’s progress and their attitudes towards reading. The volunteers bring additional capacity that we don’t have as a staff.”
Tebarek could see the positive impacts on children firsthand:
The children really benefited from the experience. When I first got there, they said they hadn’t had a chance to read, so they got to read more often.
The one-to-one aspect really helped: they got a lot more attention and we got to know each other better.
It was cute to see how they were all really enthusiastic about their books!
She also gained a lot from volunteering. For instance, she could put her degree into practice.
I could see the real life effects of teaching. With students who just started learning English at school, I used some of the skills from my degree, like identifying patterns in their speech, or pronunciation difficulties. It was fun to see the connection between my degree and volunteering, and it made me more interested in my degree.
Supporting the children gave her purpose and satisfaction.
Seeing their smiling faces, their enthusiasm to read, that was really rewarding.
It’s such an easy task, any student could go for an hour or two and help the kids, and it can have such an impact.
Volunteering helped her be more organised about her time:
I had to plan my uni work and part time jobs to make sure I’m not missing any [sessions]. It helped me plan everything much better.
She was able to gain employability skills for her CV:
Volunteering is not just helping the children: you also learn how to manage your time, how to interact with different staff members at school. It’s transferable skills that you can use later on in life.
Interested in volunteering? Explore our list of social action opportunities, look through the SU Volunteering Hub or sign up to the newsletter to get the latest updates!