FAQ

SAIL tutors need to be friendly, patient, reliable, flexible and willing to understand their students' needs and unusual circumstances.

Where is the program held?
What do the tutors do?
Who are the SAIL students?
How good is the English of SAIL students?
How much education have SAIL students had?
Will I receive guidance as a volunteer tutor?
Are there any teaching materials available at SAIL?
How big are the groups at SAIL?
What language do the SAIL students speak?
As a volunteer, will I have to come every week?
Do I have to be 18 years old to volunteer?

Where is the program held?
SAIL tutoring is run in and around seven community halls. The addresses and maps can be found here.

Many of the attendees are members of the congregation at the adjoining churches but SAIL tutoring is strictly secular and the focus is firmly on learning English. Please note that because the tutoring is held on premises belonging to the church, all tutors and students are covered by church insurance.

What do the tutors do?
SAIL tutoring is informal. Tutors work one-on-one or with small groups of students helping them with a variety of activities designed to improve their reading, writing, spelling, pronunciation, comprehension, conversation, concentration, and confidence. The SAIL Program supports a community with special needs, and by catering to the individual student, as opposed to fitting them into a set of guidelines.

All materials are provided on Saturdays and through the website - games, worksheets, flashcards, stationery and an extensive array of books. Tutors are encouraged to pick and choose from SAIL’s resources as they see fit.

It must be emphasized that SAIL tutors do not teach English - they consolidate what student SAILors (the SAIL term for a SAIL participant) learn elsewhere.

After the induction tour, tutors who drive are asked also to volunteer their car seats to collect SAILors on their way to SAIL each week. This is a pivotal part of operation for the SAIL Program. It also offers volunteers the chance to develop relationships with more members of the Sudanese community. For some, this is the highlight of the SAILing experience.

Who are the students?
The students who come to be tutored on Saturday mornings are refugees from Sudan. The community halls are a convenient location for them because it is close to where they all live and it is often familiar. All the students have come to Australia from refugee camps, in Kenya or Uganda, or in Egypt.

Many Sudanese SAILors have been in Australia for as little time as a few days (students have come to SAIL 24 hours after arriving in the country!), while others have been here for years. The students generally come from large families; 5, 6 or 7 children are not uncommon in one family.

Many SAIL students live only with their mother, because their father has been killed either by the war in Sudan, or by disease. Other children are the product of rape, which is commonly used as a weapon of terror. For a two page, crash course on being “Sudanese sensitive”, click here.

How good is the English of SAIL students?
Most SAIL students will have had an education through primary school in Cairo, or in the refugee camps in Kenya or Uganda. This education will usually have been poorly resourced. Secondary schooling is far less common for males and very rare for females in the Sudanese community.

The levels of English are greatly varied, and depend on many factors, including how long they have been in Australia, whether or not they had any English lessons before coming here and how much (if any) English their parents speak. There are children as young as three, or five, who are bilingual, while some adults are illiterate, not only in English but in their first language as well.

How much education have the students had?
On arrival, SAIL students attend specialised English language schools (the government allows all immigrants and refugees 2 terms at these schools, although refugees are often granted longer on humanitarian grounds). Most will have finished their time there and will probably attend mainstream schools.

SAIL Senior students are given 510 hours of free English tuition through the government-funded service provider. Many will not take up these lessons for logistical reasons such as transport and child care, both of which are provided at the SAIL Program.

Will I receive guidance?
For the first two weeks, you will be placed with another tutor, so that you can observe the way SAIL works. When you are ready, you'll be given you own student.

The Co-ordinators are present every week at every campus. Their role is to provide suggestions and examples of activities and techniques to use, and to point you toward the right materials. Exactly how much of the tutoring sessions you plan yourself is up to you: you may want to start off using worksheets and games a coordinator provides, and then gradually plan your own. There is plenty more information on this question provided in the induction tour and the information packs that follow it.

Are there any teaching materials available?
The SAIL program has a library of over 4,000 books at every campus. They contain fiction, non-fiction, picture stories, readers, encyclopedias,  teacher/tutor reference sections and materials about Sudan. New tutors are encouraged to spend some time exploring the campus library in order to become familiar with what is available.

In addition, SAIL has games, flashcards, puzzles, pictures and stationery. Tutors are also free to purchase things for the program, providing they are useful and reasonably priced, costs will be reimbursed to the tutor.

How big are the groups?
Group size depends on the individual needs of the students. It would be very unusual to have a group of more than two children on your own, but sometimes two tutors work together with three or four students.

New arrivals in the SAIL Senior Program can work in small groups or join the specialist beginners tutors.

SAIL Junior (0-5 year olds) is fluid. Junior room helpers will generally with the child that holds onto them for the longest.

SAIL Xtend groups are between10 - 15 students each.

What language do the students speak?
There is no such thing as 'Sudanese' as a language. Many of the students speak a colloquial version of Arabic known as Juba Arabic, which is the 'official' language in Sudan. Others speak languages local to their home region. By some estimates, Sudan has over 915 tribal languages. The Dinka, Nuer and Bare languages are spoken by many of our students. Some also speak Swahili, where they have spent time in Kenya or Uganda before coming to Australia.

As a volunteer, will I have to come every week?
There is no expectation that volunteer tutors will attend SAIL every single week of the year. The Co-ordinators appreciate that SAIL volunteers tend to lead busy and diverse lives and that unexpected events draw them away on the odd SAIL day. However, it is imperative that, as soon as you know that you cannot attend a given Saturday that, you let the campus co-ordinators this via an online facility called the Can’t Come E-sheet. Reasons for absence are never sought but forewarning is.

Do I have to be 18 years old to volunteer?
No, volunteers 16 years or over are welcome to join the SAIL Junior Program, the kitchen or library teams at any campus.