The good, the bad and the Intervention.
When our learners first hear they have been given an extra half an hour of Maths or English each week, especially those who are given both, the exasperated sighs almost drown out the grunts of them dragging themselves out of their seats to follow me to the classroom. I always get the usual, “really?” or “do I have too?” or my favourite so far has definitely been “I suppose I could spare some time for that.”
Intervention sessions are in place to give extra support to learners who are preparing to sit their Maths and English exams, with the aim to support their learning, the hidden agenda behind the intervention sessions is to unlock their own belief in their abilities.
There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the look of disbelief on a learners face when they finally understand formulas in Maths, or the excitement when they come to show you a piece of writing they are particularly proud of in English. But how do we get from sighs and grunt, to this?
Every learner has their own unique set of skills, abilities and learning styles. No intervention session is the same from one learner to the next. Using that knowledge, we tackle each idiom, each formula and each hurdle together, using different techniques until they get to that level of confidence that creates a positive learning attitude.
Once that attitude has been established, the results naturally follow. I’m not talking about the pass mark on the exam paper, I’m talking about the budding seeds of self-belief. It starts really tiny, then week by week, the roots ground themselves so deep into the foundations, instead of being greeted with sighs, I get “Do you have me for intervention today?” The sighs usually follow when I tell them it’s not until the following day.
Once the leaners have found that belief and they’re skipping into the classroom, confidently able to identify their next target, their next problem and their next steps, we create a learner who has found the desire, the confidence and the courage to attempt something that only weeks ago would’ve sacred them.
There is no point in denying that there are hurdles, that’s a given. After all it is, the good, the bad and the intervention!