A Holistic Approach to Tutoring, at Rook Street
- Guest Author
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
Reem and Noah, two of Rook Street Tutors’ co-founders, talk about their whole-person approach to tutoring, and what it is that young people might really need from a tutor.
Reem: What does being a tutor mean to you?
Noah: Being a tutor is a role which I have become very proud of. It's a role where I get to meet someone where they are, with what they have, and from that position, find a way towards growth. That process is truly, actually meaningful. It feels of something, and delivers. Tutoring has been a big and deep part of my life for the last 5, 6 years.
Reem: What is Rook Street?
Noah: Rook street is a tutoring platform. That means it is a space currently fitted with 4 wonderful tutors, who share a commitment to a kind of holistic learning - holding beliefs about how important learning can be in a young person's overall experience, and feelings of success in life.
On a technical level, Rook street is a space that's set up to actually provide for those aspects of holistic tutoring. So we have mentors and regular mentoring sessions. We have a worry box that provides a safe space that makes a complementarity, there to hold things that don't make it, or don't quite fit into tutoring sessions. We try hard at providing for the parts of holistic learning. And from the inside and outside it feels concrete and thought-through.
There is a balance in the kind of holistic we are interested in at Rook St which crops up in sessions and relationships. It’s between keying the session to the student in real time – and being considerate and aware, always, so that we are seeing the whole young person. Rook Street also has a central element that addresses the real and feelings parts of pressure, as with studying for exams, and the exam clinics and writing clinics are set up for that.
Reem: Okay, so can you say more about what holistic stands for in this sort of space (Rook Street)?
Noah: Most basically, holistic is about a whole person and in this case, a whole young person. Now Rook Street is a tutoring platform, so we meet these young people in their lives as students. Which is not to separate them as students from being human beings, but to see that priority, to see that pertinence or relevance of education in their lives.
And our holistic approach then comes from realising an approach which is sincere about students’ emotional lives- their lives outside the classroom. Now, the way it turns out, time and again, this is actually the most straightforward, way of progress. We want to see students come out of sessions with more of their own curiosity, more of their own smile- more of their own sense of themselves. And that is also what allows someone to sit down, with an exam in front of them, and think. So holistic just ends up being about really connecting students with their learning selves, allowing them to get to know themselves in the present and future tense, and succeeding.
Reem: What has made Rook Street feel necessary as a project?
I would only swap out necessary for true. Rook street has felt true, in all the parts that are not just instrumental. That means engaging the curious parts of ourselves in the way that can be seen by students, which resonates. So “curiosity,” which can sound abstract, becomes real and palpable. It has example, and sharing, and practise. And it turns out so helpful/productive in young people’s academic lives, which is good in that more instrumental way.
So that truth comes out crucially in the kind of platform we can offer to young people. Then platform has the sense of a place where young people can grow from, another real beginning point.
Find out more about Rook Street Tutors
For pupils from 12 years to 18 years
