School of Education news

The Assignment Support Team

The School of Education prides itself on the level of support that it offers students to help them achieve the best possible grades.

First introduced in 2015, The Assignment Support Team (AST) was initially a pilot scheme set up by student support and guidance tutor, Melanie Gill to support students in advance of the cuts made to the disabled students’ allowance and funding for one-to-one tuition. Mel recognised a need for this service to be available for all first year students and not just those with dyslexia and funding came from the learning and teaching scholarship fund and the School of Education to be able to pay student peer mentors.

Over the last two years the service has become very successful, which has resulted in the AST being able to extend help to students in their second year, and more recently third year and PGCE students.

The AST is run by a group of Education MA students, who offer 30 minute individual sessions in person, on the phone or by video call. The sessions focus on academic writing style, referencing, engagement with the literature, presentation skills as well as preparing for placement.

Each session is tailored to the individual needs of each student to improve study skills and confidence as well as help enhance final grades. Students are able to take advantage of two AST sessions each.

Our Education MA students also benefit from participating in the scheme. As well as receiving training for the role, they gain valuable experience that will help to improve their own self-esteem and confidence. Peer-supported learning is a great way to learn transferable skills for future roles in facilitation, mentoring, education and teaching careers.

One Education MA student has used their role as a peer mentor in the scheme as a base for their dissertation research into the impact it has on student learning.

Christina Camm • March 7, 2017


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