School: Keysborough Seconday College (VIC)

Partner: Embrace Education

Keysborough Secondary College is a co-educational multi-campus school with an enrolment of around 1700 students. The school caters for students from Years 7 to 12 with a high proportion receiving Education Maintenance Allowance/Youth Allowance and 77 per cent of students from non-English speaking backgrounds. More than 34 different nationalities are represented among the students, which produces a culturally and linguistically diverse group of learners.

Embrace Education is a Monash University student initiative that provides free tutoring services to disadvantaged high school students in south-east Melbourne with a particular focus on VCE students in need of extra support. Keysborough Secondary College formed a partnership with Embrace to implement a program to deliver homework and academic assistance to students most in need.

Students from the university volunteer as tutors and mentors during and after school hours. Tutoring takes place in either a group setting or in a one-on-one teaching environment. The university students have only recently completed secondary school themselves so are able to provide educational guidance as well as an understanding of the challenges faced by the college students. There are three stages to the program implemented:

• The Homework Club Program operates weekly in four of the schools campuses. Tutors from the university provide interested students with after school homework assistance.
• The In-School Tutoring Program matches up a volunteer university student with a group of students from the school. The school library has been chosen as a comfortable, non-threatening environment in which to hold the group tutoring sessions.
• The Individual Tutoring Program sees students meeting with their tutors once a week for an hour or longer as required. Tutors and students also meet in local libraries near the students' homes. As the program has evolved, emphasis is placed on matching individual tutors with students according to their interests, gender and location.

Since participating in the homework club or the tutoring sessions, students have demonstrated significant improvement in language and learning skills. They are more organised with their work after interacting with an Embrace volunteer and display more confidence in their abilities. The core benefit has been the increase in student engagement with their education. Many refugee and migrant students in the school were intimidated by the concept of university but after spending time with the Embrace volunteers, the students have become open to the possibility of further education that previously seemed unattainable.

The Impact award funds will be used to employ a Program and Partnerships Officer on a part time basis. The Program Officer will liaise with Embrace Education volunteers and college staff to manage the three core programs. The college hopes to extend the reach of the program given the success experienced thus far.