"It is highly rewarding to be a part of young people's success and to hear reports from school of how they are advancing and often outperforming their peers."
A Kumon student profile
10 year old Myles started his Kumon journey in September 2006, shortly after arriving in England from the Philippines. Myles's parents wanted to supplement his school work with challenging after-school education so enrolled him at their local Kumon centre in East Dulwich.
Initially, Myles progressed through the worksheets with relative ease. Then he began to find some of the texts in the English programme more complex and struggled to answer questions. At this stage, Myles's parents found it difficult to mark his work, keep him motivated and look after their newly born son. Without the encouragement of his Instructor, Victoria Osei-Bonsu, and his parents' commitment to persevere, Myles's Kumon journey could well have ended prematurely.
Today, after completing the English programme and winning 12 gold awards, Myles's sense of accomplishment couldn't be stronger. The pursuit of excellence has characterised his Kumon journey and pushed Myles to work through these initial challenges.
Myles Ragay says: "When I first came to London from the Philippines, I didn't find school work difficult and my parents thought it would be good idea to take on something more challenging. The extra work helped keep me occupied and at the start I found the worksheets easy and enjoyed doing them. As I moved up through the levels the work became more difficult. I could still cope with the maths problems but found English harder to manage. This prompted me to work harder in English which has reversed my situation! As I approach the final stages of the programme, the English worksheets now take less time to complete and the maths tasks have become trickier. When I started to win gold awards, the success prompted me to put in extra effort to maintain consistently good results. I feel really excited about the prospect of completing English and it's reassuring that my hard work has paid off."
Victoria Osei-Bonsu says: "Nurturing Myles has been a pleasure; he is a naturally kind, young boy who is very studious and focused. Academically, Myles is intelligent and self-motivated and this has helped him progress through the programme. As Myles and his family are from the Philippines, he has encountered some language difficulties and his parents have found some of the worksheets hard to mark.
As Myles nears completion, it's comforting to look back at the hurdles he has overcome. Hopefully he will be walking onto the stage with other Kumon completers in November."
Myles says "At school I have always completed worksheets designed for the year above. In Year 3 for example, I was allowed to do Year 4 work as it was more suited to my level. In the following years I was also a step ahead of my peers. This will help when I start secondary school next year and Kumon has prepared me well for that challenge. Working hard at Kumon and completing tasks above my age level has increased my confidence and made me organised in setting and achieving goals in school work and in my personal life."