Our Teacher/Tutor of the Year Aspiration Award recognises educators who have gone over and above to support their learners. This could be anything from supporting a learner facing difficult circumstances, to helping learners to overcome obstacles and surpass expectations, or delivering innovative and high-quality teaching that helps learners to achieve their career goals. This year’s highly commended award was presented to Dr Javeria Anwar who has gone above and beyond for her learners.
Dr Javeria Anwar is not your typical tutor. Growing up in Pakistan, Javeria achieved a degree in dentistry from Karachi University, however she became frustrated at the lack of opportunities that were available to her. In 2018 she made the brave decision to uproot her life and move to the UK. Javeria realised that her passion was in teaching and began working as a distance learning tutor at Oxbridge in September 2020. Since then, she has provided outstanding support and guidance to a range of maths and science qualifications whilst improving the confidence and results of many learners.
Academic Manager, Hannah Marriott, commented: “We work with many students who have been let down by traditional schooling, and their confidence is low. When they’ve felt like giving up, Javeria has been there for them. She regularly gives up hours of her free time to create extra tailored resources and is known to set an alarm to wake up early to speak with learners living in different time zone. When other tutors are struggling, she takes on some of their workload to ease the burden.”
Javeria’s Oxbridge students have said that she gave them the confidence to believe in themselves. As one of her recent students, Lottie May Chainey, recently commented, “Before, I had no confidence that I would pass my exam, but now, I really believe in myself - and that’s all thanks to Javeria.”
In addition to Javeria’s role at Oxbridge, she also works as a private tutor working with students from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, often choosing to work with recent immigrants to the UK. In addition, Javeria completed her Diversity and Inclusion training with ACAS in March 2020 to better understand the challenges these students are faced with. Javeria also provides free English classes to disadvantaged learners and to those who are struggling financially. “The kindest people I knew growing up were teachers”, Javeria explained, “And that’s the number one rule I live by: be kind. Through teaching, we can create a better tomorrow”.
Javeria has a remarkable range of specialities, currently tutoring NCFE CACHE Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Nutrition and Health, NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care, and is currently authoring the NCFE CACHE Level 2 Certificate in Understanding the Safe Handling of Medicines course. Javeria continues to expand her qualifications and experiences including authoring another NCFE course in clinical administration soon and will be starting her PGCE course later this year.
Javeria reflects on the challenges of the last year: “The past year has of course brought plenty of challenges due to Covid, and we’ve all been forced to adapt to new and unfamiliar circumstances. Students have found this especially difficult, so it’s been more important than ever that we as tutors are there to help them to adjust, and to offer extra support and guidance. I’m really pleased to have played a role in helping them make life easier for them, however small that was.”
“My approach to tutoring is to make sure I’m always there when my students need me. Because Oxbridge is a distance learning college, this can be difficult, but I don’t let it stop me. Overall, I love helping support my students exceed mine and their own expectations every step of the way.”
