Corps Members
“I chose to join City Year London because I have always been passionate about teaching and making a difference to young children’s lives.”
Zainab Shahid, Barclays Capital team
Read more about the Social Media and Communications Committee
Starfish Story: Joey Carey
A student I am currently supporting in maths has been predicted very low grades. He is generally very quiet in lessons, lacking confidence to participate. From observing him on several occasions in subjects across the whole curriculum I feel he often gets left behind and is overlooked. Read More »
Starfish Story: Latisha Royer
I am currently delivering 1:1 science revision lessons to a Year 9 pupil who is on an isolation programme. This boy is isolated from all other pupils, has had his video games in his home confiscated by the school and has a specialist timetable of 1:1 lessons to catch up on work he has fallen behind on. He also has quite a volatile temper and very little respect for teachers. Read More »
Starfish Story: Lianne Raymond
My starfish story is about a Year 8 boy who I am mentoring. He was initially described to me as “extremely disruptive” during lessons and that he often didn’t complete class work or hand in homework. Upon introducing myself, he was very reluctant to even look me in the eyes, let alone talk to me. Once he saw that I was there to be supportive and not to put him down he gradually opened up to me and would allow me to sit next to him. He even asked for me when I wasn’t around, and was happy to admit he had a mentor. Read More »
Blog: Jessica Swan
As soon as I entered the City Year office I found myself in a welcoming and open environment. Throughout Basic Training Academy (BTA), everyone was willing to share so much about themselves. We’d all just met and yet we were still willing to collaborate in creating short cheesy dramatic pieces or ‘skits’ to show our peers. We were all really willing to throw ourselves into the various training activities, as well as City Year as a whole. Almost immediately, the ice was broken and relationships began to form. I’ve never experienced anything like it in my working life. Read More »
Blog: My Life With City Year So Far
by Valarie Osei-Kuffour
I have been with City Year London for two weeks now as part of the Success team at Gladesmore Community School in Tottenham and I can truly say it has been fantastic. Actually one of the first things that struck me when I arrived at the school was how polite the students were. On my first day in class they were coming up to me and saying things like: ”Good morning Miss”, “Are you new Miss?”, ”Do you need any help Miss?”. I couldn’t believe how polite the students were! Read More »
Starfish Story: Amy Williams
A girl in my numeracy class was struggling with a lot of the work because she had trouble with the basics of counting. She couldn’t count backwards. She confused teens with tens, for example ‘fifteen’ and ‘fifty’. She also found it difficult to write numbers in the hundreds. Read More »
Starfish Story: Cyril Ofori
My starfish story is about a young boy who I am supporting in Year 2. Initially it was almost impossible for me to get him to even write the date within a 30 minute writing lesson because he felt it was not cool to be in school. He would often say: “My brother was expelled from school so I don’t want to be in school”. With constant encouragement and support with his learning I was able to help him gain an interest in writing and learning in general. Since he has come back in the New Year, he has come in with a new attitude and has completed all his work. He now seems very eager to learn!
‘I am from’ Poems
Here are some short poems written by our corps members, taking inspiration from moments or things that contributed to making them who they are.
We are very proud of the range of experiences and the diversity of all our volunteers, which is why we would like to share these poems with you all.
Starfish Story: Zainab Shahid
When I first joined St. Anne’s Primary School, I was allocated to a Year 4 class. The teacher brought to my attention two girls who were underachieving considerably in their maths class. I was requested to focus on these two girls in order to raise their level to the national average. Read More »
Starfish Story: Oki Kayode
5 January, 2012
A boy in my Year 9 class was consistently getting bad grades in science. In his last assessment he only achieved a level 4b. According to the government, pupils should be achieving level 5s in all subjects by Year 9. He was underachieving greatly which meant all hope of him doing triple science at GCSE was disappearing. As a result of this, his science teacher asked me to mentor him because she has seen how capable he is. Read More »
Starfish Story: Alice Nachir
My focus child, who ALWAYS wrote the short date during literacy lessons, has finally started to write the long date without being reminded by me. Also, in the past she always wrote the letter ‘r’, wherever it may be, in UPPER CASE. Thankfully, however, my constant reminding has paid off and I don’t need to remind her as often now. Many of these little changes are happening every week and they all add up as a general improvement in overall work. I feel proud that my reminders and nagging have turned into progress for this child.
Starfish Story: Sharon Panesar
5 January 2012
My Year 6 literacy focus child had a bad attitude and she was often rude to the teachers. At first I didn’t understand why, but after sitting with her I realised it was because she couldn’t read or spell simple words like ‘suggested’. I told her to start reading other things, for example magazines (if she didn’t want to read a book). I told her to write down any words she didn’t understand so that we could go through them everyday after literacy. I have noticed already that her attitude towards me has changed dramatically and she is a much more pleasant child. I am now looking forward to the next few months working hard with her so she can achieve brilliant results in her SAT’s in June!
Starfish Story: SATs at St Anne’s RC Primary School
By Zoe de Haes, 7 December 2011
As a Corps Member I proudly served on the Barclays Capital team, at St Anne’s RC Primary School in Tower Hamlets.
I provided classroom support to a year six English group, which comprised of 13 children, all of whom had learning, behavioural, social and emotional difficulties and started the year at levels 1 – 3. There were always four or five adults in the group, making the ratio of adults to children around 1:3. During the year, I worked with most children on one occasion or another but I did have a ‘focus child’. Read More »
Blog: My life with City Year London
By Harriet Batambuze, 28 November 2011
I have only been at City Year for a few months and I can honestly say that it is the best job I have ever had. I am working with a great team of people at Sebright Primary School in Hackney.
When I first started I was so nervous and had various questions running through my head as the 1st day of school was fast approaching - What if the kids didn’t like me? Will I be able to do numeracy without the aid of my Blackberry and how am I going to get up at 6am every day?
Luckily my worrying was for nothing, and all these fears disappeared the moment we met the kids. They were excited the instant they spotted our bright red City Year jackets and couldn’t wait to get to know all of us. My only worry now was if I would remember all their names. (Thankfully I have) Read More »
Blog: Changing the world one child at a time
By Mike Proctor, 14 November 2011
Creativity can be crushed by teachers, parents and critics . “You’re not smart enough” or “Do something else with your life”, they will say. It’s sad because some of the brightest and talented minds never reach their full potential because their creativity is not given the chance to shine. The truth is that everyone is talented, everyone is original and everyone has something to say if they are given the confidence and opportunity to say it. My job is to inspire young minds and let their creativity bloom! I use the term “job” loosely; its more like my personal mission for change – to change the imbalance of society, to change the negative portrayal of young people in the media and to change myself into the person I want to be. Read More »
