Family Centre’s Homework Academy programme is aiming to attract volunteers to help students reach their academic goals.

The initiative, launched by the charity five years ago, offers extra assistance to Dellwood Middle School students and those in the Beyond Rugby scheme.

According to Family Centre’s senior community support worker, Darren Woods, January to March tends to be a slow period for volunteers.

He told The Royal Gazette: “The students who come to the Homework Academy are improving academically, their grades are improving and it helps them to get more out of peer socialisation — they are spending time with different people in their classrooms and making new friends within the school.

“The programme also provides a positive, structured environment for students to get their homework completed after school.

“Volunteers are critical to the success of the programme — without them the students can’t get the one-on-one support needed which will help to maximise their time spent with the Academy.”

Volunteer opportunities are available four days per week when the programme is running at Dellwood Middle School. In CedarBridge and Berkeley Institute there are opportunities two days a week. Volunteers can help out from 3.30pm to 5pm during the week.

The charity is looking for volunteers to work one-on-one with students, to support students as they review their homework and assist them with problems they can not solve by themselves.

Volunteers should be encouraging and promote productive peer learning.

Most importantly, they should be able to garner positive relationships with students while encouraging their efforts and nurturing creativity.

No formal qualifications are necessary to become a volunteer and training is provided for anyone interested. This includes practical behaviour management and orientation through the programme which has been designed to international standards.

For more information about the Homework Academy, contact Leila Wadson at leila@tfc.prevention.bm or by calling 232-1116.