Return to Teaching
Become an Academic MentorMore than ever, our children and young people need your skills and experience back in the classroom. As an Academic Mentor you’ll be supporting individuals or small groups of children that have been negatively impacted by the school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic to achieve their learning goals. If you are looking for an opportunity to return to the education sector, to positively impact young lives by supporting learners, consider working as an Academic Mentor in schools across England. |  |
 | Keeping you updatedAs an individual with previous teaching experience and teaching qualifications, you are best placed to have an immediate impact on students that require additional support to reach their grade boundaries or overcome learning challenges. We receive requests from schools across England to support them with hiring an Academic Mentor as we know that your skills, knowledge, and passion will be in demand. We can’t guarantee you a role as this is subject to school demand however, we can guarantee to keep you informed about all appropriate opportunities and to promote you as strong candidates to the schools we work with. |
FAQs
"My two years of working as an Academic Mentor have provided me with recent school experience and the references to return to the classroom as a Science Teacher."
I was introduced to the National Tutoring Programme via the Return to Teaching route. My Return to Teaching Advisor at the Department for Education advised me to apply for the Academic Mentor role. It was a good opportunity to return to the classroom, gain school experience and get references. I had previously worked in schools as a Trainee Teacher and briefly as a Supply Teacher after gaining the Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). Schools were able to bounce back from the pandemic, and Academic Mentors were able to help pupils reach their academic goals. It made a huge difference to pupils’ learning and helped reduce pressure on teachers. What I enjoyed most about being an Academic Mentor was being able to explain quite a complex concept in Science or Biology, particularly when you have a pupil who is of lower ability. I also enjoyed being a part of a team. Being an Academic Mentor is an exciting challenge and provides a good insight into how a school works. Commitment is an essential quality towards making an excellent Academic Mentor. During my time as an Academic Mentor I noticed just how much pupils enjoyed the extra tutoring sessions they were getting. Pupils were getting individual support, they ere keen and I even had several other students ask me if they could join my sessions too as their friends were making so much progress! The sessions I ran encouraged the students to be more independent learners and were popular with parents too who noticed the impact on their children. Keeping students engaged in the sessions is an essential aspect of tutoring, lower ability groups need to be taught in different ways from other sets. To keep engagement high, I broke down activities with reduced level of challenge, help sheets, more individual support and lots of praise to build their self-esteem. I allowed pupils select learning tasks and working partners. This helped me build a good relationship with students. The best lessons for me were when students were fully engaged with the lesson, asking for help, asking questions and answering my questions. I would recommend becoming an Academic Mentor to anyone who enjoys a challenge and wants to gain insight into how a school works. The recent school experience has helped me return to the classroom as a teacher. I was an Academic Mentor for two years before supply teaching, I am now hoping to get a permanent job in a school as a Science Teacher. |  |