Volunteer tutor Hadiza is a first year Medicine student at the University of Oxford and applied to volunteer with Jacari in January 2024. We matched her to Maria*, a 15-year-old Year 9 student at a secondary school in East Oxford. Maria arrived in the UK from Thailand in December 2023 and started school new to English.

1. What have you enjoyed most about your Jacari lessons?
My favourite thing about Jacari is finding out new things about Maria each week – I didn’t expect to have so much in common with her and it’s meant that I’ve really enjoyed finding out more about our shared interests and how I can incorporate those into the lessons I plan for her. We do have a lot of jokes together and it’s nice to have a laugh with her too!
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2. Can you describe your friendship with your Jacari tutee and their family?
Maria and I get along quite well, we know a lot of the same sort of internet references and the songs she picks for our lessons remind me of what I used to listen to when I was her age! Since we normally do lessons in the family kitchen her mum is there too and she’s also lovely, she’s very thankful for what I do and sometimes she even gets involved with some of the activities I do with Maria.
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3. Did you notice an improvement in your pupil’s English throughout the course of your tutoring? If yes, what was it like at the start, and now?
At the start of our sessions Maria was really hesitant to speak and would always turn to her mum to try and explain things to her in Thai. She’d also struggle to incorporate words she’d learnt into sentences. She would know the meaning but not how to use it in context. Now she’s really improved in all areas of English, we’ve started to focus more on comprehension work, and she can tackle reading longer texts aloud and then answering questions about them too. She’s also developed a more intuitive sense of the language and even if she doesn’t know the exact meaning of a word she can think of similar things she knows and how to possibly incorporate that into a sentence.
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4. Did you notice an improvement in your pupil’s confidence throughout the course of your tutoring? If yes, what was it like at the start, and now?
Maria has definitely gained a lot more confidence, not only is she more comfortable to make mistakes she is quick to correct herself and readjust issues she might make when reading unfamiliar words. It’s nice to see her attempt things even if she’s not completely sure about them – and a lot her guesses with pronunciation are actually spot on!
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5. Has volunteering with Jacari contributed to and shaped your university experience in any way? If yes, how so?
It’s become a well-known thing amongst my friends that I do Jacari every Sunday and it’s just become another part of my weekend routine like anything else I’d do. Since I do sessions at home with Maria, it has been really flexible for timings (sometimes the bus is late!) and I never feel like I’m missing out on anything at the weekend either.
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6. Has your involvement with Jacari changed your perception of or engagement with the city of Oxford beyond the university sphere? If yes, how so?
I know that a lot of my friends within my college haven’t been outside the city centre or have never had to get a bus to go anywhere – it has been nice to see more of Oxford and it feels a bit more normal than all the fancy buildings of all the colleges too. I think I’m lucky with where Maria lives, since she’s not too far away from supermarkets, it’s given me a cheaper place to do my shopping which is always handy. It’s also nice to be in an area like Temple Cowley because it reminds me a little bit of what my area back home is like.

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7. What impact has volunteering with Jacari had for you?
Jacari has definitely been a positive thing for me, I enjoy the responsibility that I have each week and it’s nice to know that I’m making an impact in another student’s life. I have worked as a tutor before, and Jacari has been different in that it’s a lot freer with what I can teach – the main thing I focus on is teaching her the skills and basics that she’ll need to understand the content that she sees in her day-to-day life. It has taught me the importance of being a clear communicator through making sure that she understands the new grammar concepts and contexts of new words. Overall Jacari has helped boost my own confidence, it’s been a journey finding out what works well and it’s reassuring to know that I do have the skills to build a meaningful connection and do something productive too.

*pupil's name has been changed for confidentiality

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