Exams success for NUSA Secondary School supported by student volunteers from English Studies

Student volunteers from the School of English Studies have been helping pupils at a local secondary school and were delighted to hear that the part they have played as mentors, classroom assistants, coaches and student ambassadors has helped with their GCSE exam success in 2011.

Alan Dewar, Vice Principal of the Nottingham University Samworth Academy and Honorary Lecturer in the School of English Studies said:

"Staff and students at NUSA are delighted with their much improved examination results at GCSE. The “headline” figure is 44% A*-C including English and Maths. This more than doubles previous scores, moves the Academy up the league tables and – most importantly – represents for NUSA students a huge improvement on their statistically-most-likely performance. In other words, they played a blinder. This is the icing on the cake; an objective proof in the public sphere of the changes which are much more deep-seated than the statistics can adequately represent. Undergraduates participating in the Literacy Project have played their part in this success: their presence in the Academy is a signal of profound cultural change and of a set of creative relationships as well as being an immediate assist to the individual NUSA students who benefit from their support. Thanks to all."

Professor Di Birch, from the School of Law, is the Academy Project Director and works in partnership with NUSA and The University of Nottingham to support the work at NUSA.  Professor Birch added that

"NUSA could have wished for no better friend throughout its early years than the School of English Studies. Staff and students have created a model for collaboration with 'our' academy that can be employed by other interested disciplines within the university. And the relationships that have developed will stay with NUSA pupils and their undergraduate mentors for always. Thanks to all involved - as Alan says, it really has made a difference." 

Information about student volunteering at NUSA and local primary schools in Nottingham