L-R: Ellie Wonnacott, Aleks Drabek and Greta Bosch
Law Peer Tutor of the Year
Congratulations to Ellie Wonnacott and Aleks Drabek, who were recently awarded joint Law Peer Tutor of the Year for 2014/15.
The Law School Peer Tutor pilot scheme, launched in the academic year 2014/15 is an innovative mechanism allowing students to work in partnership with the Law School. The Law School Peer Tutor scheme supports new first year law students in their transition from School to University. The aims of the Law School Peer Tutor Scheme are:
- To enhance the existing personal tutoring support to students
- To help with integration and engagement by creating a network early on
- To help with confidence building
- To help first year students feel part of a community
- To support employability skills and personal development
- To offer additional learning support and advice
The peer tutor helps by being a role model, providing emotional and psychological support, signposting to support services, and offering a social dimension of learning (mutual, reciprocal, and complementary learning). Effectively, a mentor role was paired with a peer tutoring function. Each first year small learning group has an allocated peer tutor, who supports the functionality of the small learning group and also feeds back to the staff personal tutor on personal tutoring and pastoral points. In most cases, the peer tutor and students in the small learning group have been allocated the same staff personal tutor.
Ellie said of the experience: "I have to thank my virtual law firm for being patient and dedicated and making my first year as a peer tutor so enjoyable! I also became a senior peer tutor helping to improve the pilot scheme and I hope that our suggestions in our senior peer tutor meetings will materialise next year to offer a new batch of freshers an enjoyable first year experience. I would encourage any students who are looking to offer support to their peers, meet new people and to gain valuable leadership skills all of which can be used throughout university and future employment."
Aleks added: "The role was an extremely rewarding experience; seeing the progress students made, whether as a team or individually, helping them to identify problems and implement solutions was also an effective skills development. Through the role of the ‘facilitator’ I was able to develop my emotional intelligence; I am certain that the ability to observe people, seeing the interactions of different personalities and targeting problem areas has developed my skills and will therefore enhance my employability."
The Director of Education, Greta Bosch commented: “All our 2014/15 Peer Tutors formed a very special and valuable working partnership, one which extended its reach across the Law School. It was a real privilege to work with such dedicated and engaged students. The Peer Tutor of the Year winners made a significant, outstanding contribution to this effort, and it is wonderful to see this recognised. It is absolutely fantastic to welcome these award winners of our first Peer Tutor of the Year prize, and to celebrate the success of our peer tutor pilot.”
Date: 2 June 2015