Peer Tutoring / School Support
Building student support systems through peer tutoring
Leadership / Education
The story
Peer tutoring started with one classmate who was quietly falling behind but did not want to ask questions in class. I began helping after school, then realised the same thing was happening to a lot of students. With a few friends, I helped turn that informal support into a structured school programme.
Why I built it
The problem was not just academic. It was social. Students often understand better when another student explains the idea, but they also need a way to ask for help without feeling embarrassed.
What I built
We built a system around matching, scheduling, teacher-recommended tutors, safeguarding expectations, and feedback. That structure made peer support feel normal rather than like a last resort.
What I did
- Co-founded and helped launch the tutoring programme structure
- Coordinated tutor schedules and student matching
- Provided tutoring in mathematics and sciences
- Worked with teachers and safeguarding staff to formalise expectations
- Tracked participation and gathered feedback for improvement
How I built it
Build flow
Student needs assessment -> tutor matching -> scheduled sessions -> feedback loop -> programme refinement.
How it works
Students request support for specific subjects, are matched with trained peer tutors by subject and availability, and attend regular sessions with coordinator check-ins. Feedback is used to adjust matches, solve attendance problems, and keep the system trusted by both students and teachers.
What was hard
- Balancing tutor availability with student demand
- Handling cancellations, attendance variation, and tutor-student mismatches
- Maintaining quality and consistency across sessions
- Encouraging participation without mandatory enforcement
Demos and build notes
Results & impact
- ✓ Established ongoing peer tutoring programme with roughly 20 tutors supporting about 60 students
- ✓ Positive student feedback on accessibility of support
- ✓ Helped make asking for academic help feel more normal and less like a last resort
- ✓ Demonstrated leadership and service to school community
What I'd tell past me
- Good leadership mostly means building something that still works when you're not the one running it
- The hardest part was never the tutoring - it was making it feel normal to ask for help in the first place
If I keep going
- Train up junior coordinators so the programme outlasts me leaving