Kids have been home from school for almost two months and questions regarding if and when they may return to class are constantly on the minds of parents. While provinces like Quebec have already laid out their plans for returning kids to their classrooms, Ontario’s government is taking a more cautious approach, making those who are eagerly awaiting a return to school even more nervous as summer break inches closer.
To ensure that everyone was able to continue their education during the closures, the Ford government launched online learning for students which involves live and pre-recorded lessons lead by teachers. This enabled lessons to move forward so students could continue their school year from home.
For the kids learning from home who may need an additional level of support, local post-secondary students have teamed up to start the Silver Stone Tutoring Company, a business offering free tutoring sessions to students each week. The business co-founded by Rose Silivestru and Scott Blommaert – which has been up and running for about seven days – was created after they were inspired to do more for others while they had more free time on their hands.
“A lot of the people that I know in university and a lot of my friends, we are either doing online school – which leaves us with a lot more free time than we otherwise would have had as university students – or we lost our co-op jobs – so we have way more free time than we were expecting to have this semester,” said Silivestru. “We wanted to feel useful and do something that we felt like would make a difference to someone else.”
Silver Stone offers one hour of free tutoring each week to students up to Grade 12, and covers subjects including French, English, chemistry and math. Silivestru says students currently taking part in tutoring offered by Silver Stone are only able to get one hour each week because they want to ensure there’s enough time for every student that may want to take part. If more time is needed, she says they can show parents and students a wide array of additional supports throughout the area.
“We are trying to offer a free service to help as many people as possible, so accepting money and taking away some of that time from people who don’t have the financial resources would kind of destroy the purpose of this,” said Silivestru.
Silivestru has been tutoring people for about five years now, but she says this endeavour is new to her because she is not only working with students to help improve their education, but also booking sessions for other members of her team and hiring people to join the business.
To date, there are three tutors who dedicate between six and 15 hours of their time each week to tutoring others who may need it and Silivestru says she’s planning on hiring more tutors to add time slots on the weekend for students who may need the help.
During this time teachers have had to make a lot of changes and adapt to new forms of teaching. Silivestru says they are doing very well considering everything going on and her business is there to help give them assistance in addition to the students who may need that additional helping hand.
For everyone out there right now who may be struggling, Silivestru says she wants them to know they’re here to help.
There’s academic help out there for people who genuinely need it and we’re here to help so send us an email and we’ll be happy to book a session for you.
For more information or to book a session with Silver Stone, visit The Silver Stone Tutoring website and email silver.stone.tutoring@gmail.com.
