Parent Spotlight – The tutoring, mentoring, and enrichment workshops provided a holistic approach that I knew my son would benefit from!

by GT Scholars Parent Spotlight Scholar spotlight What's new?

In our latest scholar spotlight interview series, we had the chance to sit down with Jillian, a parent of one of our scholars, to find out what her experience on The Headstart Programme was. During this interview, Jillian shares more about how the tutoring sessions boosted her son’s confidence in Maths, and how it helped him to become more focused on his studies

Have you seen any improvement and growth in your son since he joined the programme?
I would definitely say yes! He is now more open to asking questions and focused on his studies. He also thought about his career options and has a plan on what he wants to study. He assumed that he wouldn’t have to think about a career at this age. Now he speaks more openly about what he wants to do and about going to university. I have definitely seen an improvement and growth in his thinking and his aspirations.

What impact has the tutoring sessions had on your son?
His confidence in Maths has improved. It wasn’t that he was struggling, but he needed that extra confidence to know that he can do it. His tutor helped him in problem-solving and how to work his way through in answering questions. My son is sometimes quite hard on himself because he wants to do well in Maths. His tutor helped him gain confidence and believed that he could do it.

What impact has the mentoring sessions had on your son?
His mentor, Elisabeth, was great. He was a bit resistant at first because, in school, the idea of having a mentor usually gives this perception that you are struggling and you need help. I explained to him that having a mentor is having somebody that can support you, listen to you and share your ideas. They are there to give you advice and support. He then was okay with it. Elisabeth gave us a lot of information about events she had heard about that my son could join. We found this helpful. She was a great mentor!

Was there a specific part of our programme that drew you to GT Scholars or the programme as a whole?
With any parent in terms of improving your child’s academic attainment is always important. It was the 3 model approach of the Bright Ambitions Programme that drew me to the programme. The tutoring, mentoring, and enrichment workshops provided a holistic approach that I knew my son would benefit from. I specifically looked at the enrichment programmes and thought that was a great element for my son to have access to.

As a parent, how did you find interacting with the tutors and mentors?
I had to work on the interaction with the tutor a bit more. Ideally, I would have liked to have a conversation with the tutor beforehand, to get to know them and lay the foundation. Afterwards, once the sessions began, everything began to run smoothly. Elisabeth was warm and welcoming. She was easy to talk to and built a supportive mentor-mentee relationship with my son.

Did you feel that GT Scholars were supportive throughout the term?
Yes, they are good in terms of supporting parents and keeping them informed. I was kept engaged and was offered ideas and tips on how to make the most of the sessions. The support that they give to the children and the parents is of a very high standard.

What has your experience been with the organisation as a whole?
I might be slightly biased, but I think the work that Temi is doing is exceptional. I believe that it’s deserving of a lot more accolade than it gets. With the work and the effort, and the drive that she has, you can see that this is what she stands for. I think that that’s a testament to the staff and the people involved in the organisation. My experience was really positive!

Would you recommend GT Scholars to other parents out there looking for a tutoring and mentoring programme?
I definitely would recommend The GT Scholars Programme. I often mention it to parents in conversation about the programme.

Do you have anything you’d like to add?
Keep doing what you’re doing, and I wish you all the best! I know it’s been a challenging year for us all, but keep doing what you’re doing. It really is needed.

GT Scholars is a not-for-profit social enterprise and registered charity. We run after-school and weekend programmes that help young people achieve their academic and career aspirations. Our programmes include tutoring, mentoring and enrichment sessions for young people aged 11-18. Contact us if you would like to know more about any of our programmes and courses.

Parent Spotlight – I was so proud of him when he decided to apply for the GT Scholars Youth Board!

by GT Scholars Parent Spotlight Scholar spotlight What's new?

We had the pleasure of interviewing a parent of one of the scholars on the Bright Ambitions Programme. Nicolina tells us more about her experience, why she wanted her son to join the programme, and the impact that the programme had on her son’s life.

How did you find out about GT Scholars?
I found out about GT Scholars when I received a message in one of my Whatsapp groups. The message was an advert about one of the career workshops days. This caught my attention and sounded like a good idea, so I opened the link, and I must say that I had to really persevere with getting a ticket for the event, but it was well worth it!

Have you seen any improvement and growth in your son since he joined the programme?
There has been a huge change in my son! Although Xavier has always been quite academic, he never really showed much interest in developing softer skills, presentation and teamwork skills etc. Xavier was also very reluctant to take part in anything much extracurricular. All of this changed after a couple of terms of mentoring with a lovely young lady who works in the City and now with an older gentleman who used to work in IT. Together with the various workshops that he has attended, he is a different person. Xavier can’t wait to do extracurricular activities and has indeed been successful in his application for the GT Scholars Youth Board. He’s incredibly focused on attaining experiences for his CV. From an academic perspective, he’s now even more diligent with his studies and thinks long term. Xavier is now decidedly focusing on universities to attend.

What impact has the tutoring session had on your son?
Xavier’s confidence has increased in mathematics. We had a few hiccups to be fair in respect of his self-motivation. After a few discussions about why he was undertaking the tutoring, he is now much more self-driven and totally self-motivated in respect of his learning and wider academic achievements. He had never undertaken any form of online tuition before GT Scholars, and it took a bit of persuading! However, after two terms with his tutor, he then went on to request additional tuition to take him forward over the summer holidays! He is now much more confident in online classes and willing to confidently articulate his opinions in groups. I totally support and respect his newfound attitude to his studies.

What impact has the mentoring sessions had on your son?
He’s a different person now and really embraced the fact that he needs experience and skills to be able to compete in an ever-competitive world. Achieving success in his academic studies is a given for him, but with the help of his mentors, he has learnt “how he learns” and how to structure his studies for long term success. He’s seriously thinking about getting a part-time job at 16 (or starting his own small business), and he’s really taken ownership of his life path. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes he needs a nudge to get something done, but he’s so much more mature minded in respect of his academic pathway through his GCSEs and into university together with his personal growth plan. He recognises and understands that he’s at an important junction of his life and the choices he makes now has the power to open doors and opportunities in life. He’s much more willing to try new things, and I was so proud of him when he decided to apply for the GT Scholars Youth Board. He survived a 3.5-hour group interview and was successful! He’d never even have applied a few years ago.

Was there a specific part of our programme that drew you to GT Scholars or the programme as a whole?
I am proud of my 15-year-old BME son who can say he’s been to the city and learnt about that world. He can say that he undertook public speaking and led workshops for adults and that he’s done programming at the Google HeadQuarters. He can also say that he participated in a Dragons Den exercise and that he’s now got an idea about his life path for the next 5 years and how he can get to a top university. Wow, I’m really proud and impressed with my son, and I was no way near that put together at his age…

As a parent, how did you find interacting with the tutors and mentors?
The tutors and mentors I have come across have been 110% dedicated to helping my son to be the best that he can be. I’m blown away by the amount that they can cover in one session and simply feel blessed to have had these caring, kind and dedicated people help me to raise my son. They are very special people. I can see that they are well supported by GT Scholars, well trained and are well selected to be mentors.

What has your experience been with the organisation as a whole?
My experience with GT Scholars has been fantastic. I think GT Scholars is one of the world’s best-kept secrets… Temi and her team are totally dedicated to the cause of nurturing our young people in terms of academic and personal growth. It is rare to find this in our society today. I’d like to give a big shout out to Marilyn in particular who looks after the programmes so well, and she’s lovely…

Would you recommend GT Scholars to other parents out there looking for a tutoring and mentoring programme?
I would definitely recommend GT Scholars!

Do you have anything you’d like to add?
Yes! Your teenage child will likely need some persuading to get started on any programme… Keep persuading and encouraging them because the rewards are worth it. Even though we do not qualify for the subsidised fees, the GT Scholars programmes have been worth every single penny and brilliant. Just do it!

Parent Spotlight – The mentoring programme helped my son to have a focus and direction in life!

by GT Scholars Parent Spotlight Parents Scholar spotlight What's new?

We had the pleasure of interviewing a parent of one of the scholars on the mentoring programme. Bola tells us more about her experience, why she wanted her son to join the mentoring programme, and the impact that the programme had on her son’s life.

Hello, my name is Bola, I’m Daniel’s mum and Daniel was a scholar on the GT Scholars programme. I found out about GT Scholars from a friend.

Why did you sign up to GT Scholars?
The reason why I wanted Daniel to go on a mentoring programme was that he got to the end of year 11, his GCSE was good and he’s grades were in between A-C’s. He seemed to have lost his focus and a sense of direction on what he wanted to do next. Daniel went to college and he was doing fairly alright, but I felt there was something missing. I was looking for a group that could cater to his needs and I was glad that I found GT Scholars. I wanted Daniel to have a focus and direction, and that is why I opted for the mentoring programme so that he would have someone to help him have a direction in life.

What was it like at the start of the programme?
Once Daniel got accepted to the mentoring programme, a mentor got allocated to him, and we had to go and meet Jason at his office. Daniel was very anxious, and I think refusal would be a strong word to use, but he asked me why he needed a mentor. He wasn’t happy at first, but he came along anyway, and I think that was one of the best things for Daniel.

What expectations did you have?
I was expecting a few things from the mentoring sessions. One of the things I think that I got from the mentoring sessions was for Daniel to relate to somebody outside of the family circle. His mentor was also able to arrange for him to go into another workplace so that he could see what other workplaces look like.

What was the joining process like?
Getting involved with GT Scholars, I think it was a successful relationship. When I submitted Daniel’s application, I received an email and a call from Marilyn. Every time I saw the number, I would know it’s Marilyn who’s calling me. I’ve received regular phone calls from her to hear how the relationship between Daniel and his mentor was going and to find out if there was anything they could do to support me.

What was your child’s mentor like?
The first time I met Jason, I could see Daniel related to him, and that made me feel more relaxed about the relationship. Sometimes you may have to go through a few mentors before finding the right one. I’ve had to manage some of the sessions. In the beginning, Daniel was not resistant to meeting with Jason, but he’s diary was quite full at the time. Sometimes I had to tell Daniel that he’s got a session with Jason and that he needs to make sure that the meeting holds because I believe that regular meetings would make the mentoring sessions work.

Why was mentoring valuable for your child?
For Daniel mentoring was not about improving academically, but to have someone to help him with direction and in deciding his next steps in life. I’ve noticed changes in Daniel, simple things like timekeeping, making sure he’s presentable and ensuring once he’s decided to do something, to keep to doing it, and completing the task rather than coming up with excuses.

Would you recommend GT Scholars to other parents?
I would recommend GT Scholars, and I have been advocating particularly for the appearance of young black boys, it is my passion because I don’t want any of our children to be part of the statistics. GT Scholars are doing a really good job, but not a lot of people know about them.

I’d like to say a big thank you to GT Scholars. Daniel started on the programme when he was 16, and I wish that I knew about it when he was younger. The mentoring programme that GT Scholars provides and the impact it had on my son is great. I know sometimes we can’t measure the impact of something, but I can see the impact of faith. I just want GT Scholars to continue to do good work.

In addition, I’d like to say a big thank you to Jason for just listening and being there for Daniel. I know sometimes it was a bit rocky with Daniel not always being responsive, but thank you for sticking with him, getting him through the programme, and getting him to have a focus in life.

An Interview with a Parent: ”The online maths tutoring sessions have definitely helped her excel in maths. ”

by Marilyn Parent Spotlight Scholar spotlight What's new?

We had the pleasure of interviewing a parent of one of the scholars on the Bright Ambitions Programme this term. It was great to hear about her experience with the programme and to find out if being on the programme made any positive impact on her daughter’s life.

How did you find out about GT Scholars?
We first got introduced to the programme when Laura’s religious (RE) teacher passed on information about a GT Scholars Workshop called the Career Insight: Pre Launch Event. Laura was very interested in going and shared the information with me. Just days before, my friend and I had a conversation about career choices and about the fact that most young people do not have enough in-depth information on different careers these days. After she attended the workshop she was fascinated by the different career choices available to her. This workshop was a real eye-opener for my daughter and after the workshop, she decided she was not completely set on pursuing a career as an architect and wanted to look more into a career in business. Since then, she’s been thinking about a career where she can combine her love for art and her interest in business.

Have you seen any positive change in your daughter since she joined the Bright Ambitions programme?
I’ve definitely seen a lot of improvement in her maths. It’s great because I cannot help her that much with maths since it’s not one of my strong areas. It was important for her to fill in the gaps on areas that she’s been struggling with. Maths is an important subject for my daughter because she’ll definitely need it for the career paths she’s interested in. Since having her regular online tutoring and mentoring sessions she’s become more confident. She recently completed her exams and we are very pleased with the results. My daughter has moved up an entire set in Maths and she is also one of the top two students of her class!

Do you feel that it was worth enrolling Laura to the Bright Ambitions programme?
I would say yes, it was definitely worth it. The online maths tutoring sessions have definitely helped her excel in maths and the mentoring sessions have helped build her confidence and made her more open-minded.

As a parent, how did you find interacting with the tutors and mentors?
I am very pleased with Derek, he is a very nice guy and he’s absolutely wonderful as a tutor. Our mentor, Rachel is also a wonderful lady and my daughter gets on well with her. She really guided her on finding her own career path and keeping her options open.

What do you like about the fact that tutoring is done online?
What I like most about online tutoring is the convenience of it. It eliminates the stress of having to travel to a location for every tutoring session and my daughter can enjoy her tutoring sessions in the comfort of our home. The fact that there is a dedicated tutor that works with her to reach her goals is also great.

Would you recommend GT Scholars to other parents out there looking for a tutoring and mentoring programme?
Yes, I would because I think it works out and is worth it in the end. The results are great!

An Interview with a Parent: “I’ve definitely seen a marked improvement in my child’s grades at school”

by GT Scholars Parent Spotlight Parents Scholar spotlight What's new?

As part of the scholar spotlight series, we interviewed a parent of one of the scholars on the Bright Ambitions programme. Please watch the video clip above for the full interview.

Hi, so I am Alfredo, Tatiana’s daddy. We live in Wandsworth and she’s a scholar on the programme.

How did you find about about GT Scholars?
So we first found out about GT Scholars through a local Croydon newspaper. We’ve got links to Croydon, we still sort of had access to those. We noticed it and we were looking, at that time, for getting some tutoring for her anyway.

And at that time we also went into the Centrale Shopping Centre in Croydon and there was some advertisement for GT Scholars there, we sort of saw leaflets and that kind of gave us a bit more information about it, so that was our first introduction to GT Scholars.

Why did you choose GT Scholars?
Well at that time we were looking for tuition and we wanted something sort of a little bit different from just the mainstream tuition you can get from anywhere, just a normal class, English or maths class.

We quite like the kind of holistic approach that we found which GT Scholars seemed to offer, particularly the fact that they offered the mentoring side of it which we felt would help with the development of her character and not just lessons and stuff.

What has your child gained from the programme?
Firstly, I think Tatiana has gained many things from the programme I believe, and she’s actually also enjoyed the process which is fundamental. With regards to her actual levels at school, her grades, those have improved. We have definitely seen a marked improvement, particularly with maths where she struggled a little, to begin with, and we’re not quite there yet, but we have definitely seen a marked improvement. So much so that she even excelled in a competition we didn’t know she had entered in. She’s in the French system and managed to get top third globally within this maths competition, so we’re really proud of her for that one.

It’s more, I would say, for the overall developmental side of it, of her character and personality. I think she’s gained from the mentoring aspect of the programme. The core skills, organisation skills, time management, that side of it, has enabled her to get a bit more focus on her studying which was perhaps lacking before. So we have found there’s been useful guidance in that respect.

Would you recommend GT Scholars to other parents?
I would thoroughly recommend GT Scholars to any other parents who are thinking of getting into this sort of activity. I feel it gives you a little bit more than just the tuition that is found just about anywhere. The enrichment or the overall developmental side of it has been superb and I found the extracurricular activities have been useful. I didn’t feel we were just going in there for her to study. There’s been loads of other events she’s gone to which have given her a broad outlook of other things. So I would definitely recommend GT Scholars.

An Interview with a Parent: “I find that the GT Scholars approach supports the parents and the child as well”

by GT Scholars Parent Spotlight Parents What's new?

As part of the scholar spotlight series, we interviewed a parent of one of the scholars on the Bright Ambitions programme. Please listen to the audio clip above for the full interview. You can also find the transcript below.

How did you find out about GT Scholars?
We found out about GT Scholars because we were looking for originally a tutoring programme for my daughter. We saw GT Scholars advertised, I asked around, no one had heard about it and on a day trip to Croydon, we saw some signs and some posters. It looked fabulous. I went to contact the Head of the programme, had a long discussion about it, just to discover their ethos and their mindset about tutoring and enhancing children’s capabilities, and I really liked the programme. We went for an interview, it was a nice interview and not only did they interview us, we interviewed them actually and we were quite pleased and that is how we started. And that was about 4 years ago we have come up to.

Why did you choose GT Scholars over any other programmes that you could have gone for?
I looked around quite widely and I decided to go with GT Scholars for a few main reasons. Firstly I like the ethos. It has a holistic approach to developing a child, not just focused on the academic grades, just building confidence and resilience. And also, I was quite concerned about the mental challenges and the mental aspects of learning today. The way GT Scholars approach learning and developing is quite a nice approach and it’s an approach I really welcomed.

What difference have you seen in your daughter after she joined the programme?
The impact of the programme I’ve seen on my child is that prior to the programme, I think stress was beginning to manifest itself in just delivering grades, grades, grades, and obviously I as a parent was trying to tell my child that it’s just not about the grades even though the grades are really important, it’s about developing everything. Obviously, the children of today don’t really want to listen to just the parents only.

During the programme, basically, you just hear the same messages that each parent is trying to instil in their child coming from a variety of different voices. So you have the tutor saying the same thing, you have the mentor, you the enrichment, they say the same thing and actually slowly but surely, it started to sink in.

How it manifested itself or the impact it gave on my child was that I could see confidence building. Slowly but surely she was actually replaying the same messages that she was hearing from all of these various areas back to me. Her grades were improving, slowly but surely she was looking forward to her sessions, where I at the beginning definitely saw fear but now it was, it was sort of excitement. And she looked forward to the enrichment days because I always went with her, I hung around outside, I attended some enrichment days. And towards the end, she was hoping, actually, that I didn’t sit in with her. That was also a positive sign.

What has your experience been with the organisation as a whole?
So I feel as a parent I also get support from the GT Scholars programme. There’s the official feedback sessions you have at the end of the term, which you can, a member of the GT Scholars will phone you and have a discussion with you or you can write your feedback in. I think that’s really worthwhile and that just gives you the sort of official line to see whether your child is progressing.

In between that, you also have administrative help from the GT Scholars team, actually probably every fortnight I hear from a member of the GT Scholars team, who will ask you how the program is going, is there anything you need to do, what are you looking for, have your goals been achieved or have they been met, would you like to attend the next term, again what your goals, so I feel that it’s more of a family, again, a holistic approach to developing my child which I am really supportive of. I wouldn’t like to attend a tutoring programme where they just took my money and said right we’ve given you, we’ve taught your child academically, thank you very much, get on with it. I find that the GT Scholars approach supports the parents and the child as well.

What would you say to a parent thinking of signing up for a GT Scholars programme?
To a parent who is thinking of signing up to GT Scholars, I would say, please just do it. It’s really beneficial. The mentoring, tutoring, the support you get is second to none and you’re not going to get that anywhere else. I have researched extensively. It helps your child‘s development at any stage. Near exams, you can focus on the exams itself. Pre-exams you can just help develop your child. It’s beneficial, you have nothing to lose really by joining GT Scholars programme.

Do you have any final thoughts that you would like to include?
I’ve looked into tutoring, all of the aspects of tutoring, tutoring itself is really expensive, mentoring is expensive, enrichment days, are for me, extortionately expensive. GT Scholars is a much more cost-effective way of developing your child and that’s why I would thoroughly recommend the programme.

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