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St Aloysius RC Primary School, Camden, partnered with Faithfull & Gould

Background to the scheme

Age of students - 8 to 11 year olds (each volunteer works with 2 students)

Sessions - Weekly for 30 minutes

Length of partnership - 3 years

Impact of the scheme

  • Class teachers report that students are more confident and contribute more in discussion
  • Student progress data shows that students have reached their targets and some have exceeded them
  • Students enjoy the interaction and are more open to learning
  • Students gain confidence and learn to correct mistakes without feeling under pressure
  • Students feel special being part of the scheme

Comments from volunteers include:

"I thoroughly enjoy the volunteer work and am genuinely disappointed when I have to miss a session due to work pressures."

"Working as a Number Partners volunteer really makes a positive difference to my Tuesdays.  The nature of working with the children requires me to move away from my usual environment and 'think outside the box' to help the children with their maths whilst chatting and encouraging them to work through the problems.  It is a very rewarding experience, not only from the point of view of them looking forward to your visit, but to seeing them improve and fire back answers to you which each week gets quicker and quicker so that you challenge yourself to come up with harder questions."

Comments from students include:

"It's good it helps us get better. Before I was struggling a bit. I feel more confident in numeracy."  Year 5 pupil

"I'm learning. I want it to continue because before I was rubbish and now I'm getting better and better at division."  Year 5 pupil