It’s Time To Talk

At Greene’s College Oxford, education begins with a conversation. Grant Connor, Academic Director, explains the importance of understanding the student’s personal narrative.

Grant Connor

In my role as Academic Director I have the opportunity to hear the personal narratives of our students first-hand. In a quite literal sense, each student’s journey at Greene’s begins with them telling us their story about their pathway through education. I believe that our role as educators is not to force this journey to follow the shape of predetermined paths, but rather to listen and respond to the voice of the student as they chart their own course.

The importance of understanding a student’s personal narrative is perhaps clearest when talking to students who are debating retaking an A-level. The vital first step, we have found, is always to articulate what has brought a student to their current position and to learn what they need in the year ahead. 

It is through this that the Greene’s tutorial method of learning reveals its greatest strength: because of our commitment to individual, paired and shared tuition (with a maximum group size of three students), we are able to work with our students to produce a truly individualised programme of study that takes note of their personal learning style and their academic priorities. Greene’s has also fostered a long tradition of connecting students with a Personal Tutor to act as their mentor, their ‘compass’ along the way.

The results of the personalised focus of a Greene’s education speak for themselves: since 2020, 92% of the retake grades received by Greene’s students have improved by two grades or more compared to the grades with which they joined the college. What is more, we are immensely proud that, in the past academic year, Greene’s has helped students to secure offers from four of the five G5 institutions in the UK and 22 of the 24 Russell Group universities.