Spurgeon’s College has a Learning Enhancement Department which focuses on enabling students with particular learning needs and difficulties to reach their full potential.
It is staffed by a part-time Learning Enhancement Co-ordinator, who works with teaching staff to provide support to those students who are identified as needing it most. The Co-ordinator is assisted by a small team of volunteers who work according to guidelines agreed by the College.
We are looking for additional volunteers to enable us to maintain and expand the service we can offer to students. Volunteers are not expected to be proof-readers, but to work with students in such a way that they can take ownership of their learning and understand how to manage their studies and present assignments effectively in written form. Support can be offered in a variety of ways, for example, through scheduled one-to-one tutorials, drop-in sessions or group workshops. We are particularly keen on hearing from people who can offer students guidance about how technology can help them with their written work.
We would welcome expressions of interest from anyone who is willing and able to give approximately two hours a week during the teaching semesters, which run from late September to mid-January and mid-February to late May. Ideally you would be able in future to come into college to meet students face-to-face, but for at least the first half of 2020-21 nearly all of our teaching is taking place online, so the media used would be email or Zoom.
We would be glad to hear from anyone who has any experience/training in
- working with students who have learning needs such as dyslexia
- teaching English as a foreign or additional language
- helping students whose mental or physical health affects their learning
- working with any students in an HE or FE context.
However, you do not need to have such experience/training to be able to offer real help to our students. All you need is a good grasp of the expectations of academic writing, willingness to spend time to understand an individual student’s needs, and the ability to relate to them in a practically supportive way.
Volunteers are invited to the meetings of the Learning Enhancement Committee which are held two or three times a year, and we encourage them to share in the development of our work in this way.
If you would be interested in exploring whether the role of Learning Enhancement Volunteer might be for you, please contact our Learning Enhancement Team for more information.
