On Saturday 2nd December, the Kumon Bradley Stoke Centre held a very special end-of-year ceremony to celebrate the achievement of current students and alumni from the last 20 years. Around 150 students, parents and supporters came to the Olympus Theatre at the WISE Campus in Stoke Gifford to be part of the celebrations.
Students received awards for reaching an advanced level of study in maths and English relative to their age. The roll-call for the awards totalled more than 100 names; one parent said: “It was really quite spectacular to see so many children achieve awards. My son was over the moon to receive an award and we as parents are incredibly proud. I loved how it felt so grand and I could see a lot of preparation had gone into making it a success.”
Sarah Nutchey, the Instructor at the Kumon Bradley Stoke Centre, began her Kumon career in 1998 with around 12 students, and over the last 20 years has nurtured more than 1,400 students through the maths and English programmes. Some of the original students from the centre sent messages to share how Kumon has helped them with their ongoing study and Sam Head, now 22, said: “I joined the maths Kumon programme while I was in Year 5 as although I was good at understanding maths at school, my arithmetic and times tables were slowing me down. Through the regular daily practice and encouragement, I soon began to enjoy being able to calculate quickly and stayed at Kumon to level I. When I started my AS-level maths at college, I completed our one-hour assessment test in 15 minutes, which is definitely down to Kumon for working quickly and accurately. In due course, I achieved A*BB at A-levels and went on to gain a 2:1 in computer games programming at Staffordshire University. I now work in my chosen field of computer games programming, which involves the use of 3D maths and physics.”
Rachel Knowles, now 27, said: “I started Kumon in Year 7 and continued through secondary school. It improved my maths skills greatly as I went from bottom set to one of the top sets for GCSE. As well as helping me achieve my school grades, it has helped me during my career. I am now a sales manager and still using the techniques I learnt from Kumon. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their skills.”
James Smith, who completed the Kumon English programme when he was in Year 7 at school, said his favourite parts of the English programme were the later sections, which involved word derivatives and gave him exposure to a wide variety of books which he might otherwise not have read. He added: “The Kumon English programme improved my reading comprehension considerably.”
At the end of the ceremony, everyone enjoyed a piece of cake and students proudly took their certificates and medals home.
If you would like further information about the Kumon programmes, please visit www.kumon.co.uk or contact Sarah Nutchey, the Instructor at the Kumon Bradley Stoke Centre on 01454 610389 or email bradleystoke@kumoncentre.co.uk
This article originally appeared in the January 2019 issue of the Bradley Stoke Journal magazine (on page 33). The magazine is delivered FREE, EVERY MONTH (except August), to ALL 8,700 homes in Bradley Stoke. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.
