FAQs
Do I need any qualifications?
No! But you will need to get a DBS check (don’t worry, the department will organise and pay for this). You don’t need any previous teaching experience, just an interest in working with secondary school students and making university seem more accessible to them.
Age groups
You can be assigned a secondary school class from year 7 to year 10.
If you have a preference, there will be a chance for you to let us know, and we will try to accommodate it.
Is it a society or a programme
Officially, Transformations is a programme run by the English department and is not part of the SU. However, we still have weekly socials and an exec team that runs the programme, so it does bear some resemblance to a society.
How many people will I work with
Each tutor is placed in a teaching team with approximately 5 other Warwick students, including an Exec member and Senior Tutor who have done the programme before and are responsible for leading the team, so don’t worry, you won’t be going at it alone!
But I don’t want to be a teacher long-term
Lots (perhaps the majority!) of our tutors don’t want to be teachers but take part in the programme because it is a fantastic way to develop skills that are valued across a plethora of different careers. By collaborating with others to plan, create and then successfully execute a series of workshops, you will cultivate your teamworking, time-management and communication skills. Along the way, you will also learn how to make complex ideas accessible and understandable, build confidence in your public speaking and leadership abilities, and enhance your adaptability and creativity, all while (hopefully!) connecting with and encouraging the next generation of English students. Needless to say, all of this would look incredible on a CV targeting any industry!
That said, if you do want to be a teacher, Transformations is a great way to get started, and many of our former tutors have gone on to have successful careers in education. Equally, our annual professionally published Anthology collection of pupils’ creative writing is edited and illustrated by tutors, offering those interested in pursuing a career in the publishing industry the chance to gain some sector-specific experience.
How long/weeks
Altogether, the programme runs for 15 weeks, 10 of which are spent teaching in school, with the other 5 being used for training and planning sessions throughout the year. Each week, you will spend one afternoon (and an extra 30-minute planning session during teaching weeks) working with us.
Commitment level
We recognise that your degree takes precedence, which is why Transformation is designed to fit seamlessly alongside your studies. The programme runs for 15 weeks during Terms 1 and 2, roughly from October to March, with 10 weeks being spent teaching in the classroom, and the other 5 being allocated to training and planning sessions. Whilst 15 weeks may sound like a rather daunting commitment, you are actually only ever expected to spend one afternoon a week, plus a 30-minute planning session with your team during teaching weeks, working with us.
Teaching and training sessions always take place after university hours, typically on a Wednesday, as we have an early academic finish, meaning they will never clash with your lectures and seminars. As mentioned, both session types will roughly fill an afternoon a week, with training sessions always taking place on campus and lasting roughly two hours, and classroom sessions in our partner schools being 45 minutes to an hour long, and requiring no more than 30 minutes of travel time. As we only run in Terms 1 and 2, the exam and summer deadline season are completely free for you to focus on your own degree work with no distractions.
As you can see, Transformations won’t take up too much of your week at all, and is a nice way to take some time out, develop some transferable employability skills and meet new people without distracting from your studies. However, if you do join us, we ask that you take the commitment seriously and try to attend as many training, classroom and planning sessions as possible.
How do I get involved?
For enquiries about the current academic year, please contact
How do we get to the schools?
Each team travels between campus and their allocated partner school in taxis supplied and paid for by the English Department. Students are not required to arrange or pay for their own travel to and from the school.
What do school pupils get out of it?
Transformations aims to allow school pupils to express themselves creatively beyond the bounds of the school curriculum. Alongside exploration of conventional prose and poetry, sessions often centre around non-traditional text forms, such as graphic novels, films, songs and video games. Students are encouraged to use this exploration to inspire experimentation with their own creative method, whether that be writing, art, performance or debate. Through our genre-led theming, pupils can examine concepts and ideas they may not have come across before in depth in a supportive, seminar-style setting. We hope that, because of these principles, pupils grow in confidence, meet new people outside their usual social group, and, most importantly, begin to see university as something attainable for them. Many of our pupils will be the first in their families to consider attending university, so answering questions and giving advice, demystifying student life and study, is essential to helping them on their journey.
How does the creative writing competition work?
Over the course of the programme, school pupils are encouraged to explore various forms of writing and creative themes within their given topic, a process that culminates in the creative writing competition, for which each pupil produces an entry that is later included in our professionally published competition Anthology. When judging the competition, each tutor team first evaluates their schools’ entries, choosing a school winner and two runners up. The school winner then progresses to the inter-school competition, with an overall top three chosen by the entire tutor cohort at our incredibly fun (and incredibly competitive!) marking event. The top three from each school are then invited onto campus for a tour, a special lecture by an academic, and a prize-giving ceremony. The competition and Campus Event are always highlights of the programme for pupils and tutors alike, allowing both to see and celebrate pupils’ progress and achievements over the course of the scheme.
How do I get involved in creating the Anthology?
All tutors are invited (but by no means required) to join the Anthology Team in Term 3, with opportunities available in editing and/or illustration. Aside from an initial meeting at the very beginning of the term, all work on the Anthology takes place after the English summer deadlines and exams have passed, so there’s no need to worry about it distracting from your studies. Editors and illustrators are organised into teams with experienced leaders who have worked on the Anthology before and are always available to support their teammates. Working on the Anthology is a really enjoyable way to extend your Transformations experience beyond the end of teaching, whilst also getting some great sector-specific publishing experience.