BRIDGE PROGRAMME
Admission into the TTM! Flagship programme is based on an evaluation of the students’ English language competency, and their ability to understand our teaching materials.

However, this screens out a large number of students who do not have the requisite competency but are deeply committed to improving their English language skills.

In keeping with the TTM! philosophy of helping as many aspirants as we can, we introduced a one-year Bridge Programme to impart English language comprehension and speaking skills to eager, first-generation English learners, who do not qualify for TTM!’s Flagship programme. The objective of this programme is to enhance their abilities so they can qualify for admission to the TTM! Flagship programme.

Like our Flagship programme, the Bridge programme is not limited to teaching English alone. It seeks to inculcate strong values and expand our mentees’ exposure to the world at large.

The TTM! Bridge programme has a distinct syllabus and learning materials that have been developed in-house.

The biggest asset of the Bridge programme is its mentor pool. Our mentors are extremely patient and hard-working. They are constantly experimenting with and adopting new, effective methods of teaching to keep the mentees engaged, curious and committed to the programme. Mentors start communicating with mentees in “Hinglish” (a mix of Hindi and English) to teach. Gradually, our mentors get them to the point where they can understand and respond in English.

Working with these mentees over WhatsApp is not easy. They are often shy, withdrawn and afraid of being judged. Hence, the encouragement and hand-holding by our mentors is critical.

However, our mentees keep the programme going! Once we make them comfortable, they are eager and willing learners. It is heartening to see the outcome. The recent yearly assessment has shown a 100% success rate among the mentees who have remained in the programme for the year.

The Bridge programme is the only group that has mentees from across different TTM! partner institutions.

Following are a couple of examples of our mentors reflecting on the impact of this programme:
• “The Bridge experience pushed me to be creative in teaching; it helped me clarify my concepts and add variety to my teaching methods. Each one of us can make a difference and together we can bring about a change.”
• “My mentee was sceptical, scared, hesitant, unsure and insecure. He was scared to make a mistake and be judged. Through our sessions, he has imbibed a sense of discipline, punctuality and commitment. It has been heartening to see him come out of his shell.”

CBSE GRADE 9 AND 11 ENGLISH TUTORING
As an offshoot of our TTM! Flagship mentoring programme, we started group classes for students of classes 9 and 10 covering the CBSE English Language and Literature syllabus. These classes were specially designed for students who found the CBSE syllabus extremely challenging. The main objective is to tutor them so that they can comprehend the lessons and complete the exercises associated with the lessons in the syllabus. This will enable them to pass the Class 10 Board exams with at least 60% marks.
For tutoring, study materials were developed in-house; each chapter was summarized, audio-visual aids were provided to contextualize them, a vocabulary list was developed, and all the questions were answered.
These group classes are thrown open to students of our partner institutions who are not our mentees; this enables us to reach out to a larger number of students. We have seen that students derive enormous benefits from these classes; most of them score over 80% in their class 10 Board exams.

CAREER WORKSHOPS
The Career Workshops started with the idea of giving our mentees in-depth exposure to the career choices open to them. Workshops completed so far are:

1. Lawyer
2. Teacher
3. Doctor
4. Architect
5. Chartered Accountant
6. Graphic Designer
7. Indian Navy
8. Indian Army
9. Air Force
10. Civil Services
11. Tour Guide

Positive feedback from our mentees has been very encouraging. Speakers have been extremely knowledgeable about their careers, and have handled their audiences like “life coaches.”

Our guest speakers were very approachable and willing to answer queries even after the sessions concluded. We sincerely hope that these workshops will help our enthusiastic mentees to choose the right career path.

On popular demand, we will be restarting the Career Workshops in 2024.

MAGICAL BUS
The Magical Bus programme is designed to expand the horizons of our students’ knowledge and imagination by introducing them to the world outside their narrow boundaries, to new cultures, people, places and habitats.

Vibrant videos are collated by our Magical Bus team. These are beamed into classrooms of our participating institutions, by enthusiastic, high-energy anchors who encourage the students to share their learnings, their reactions and questions. This interaction helps stimulate their interest, expand their vocabulary and boost their confidence in speaking the English language.

Each session starts with a short story that contains a moral, thus strengthening their value systems. We currently offer weekly sessions per class for students at our partner institutions.

ADDITIONAL WORKSHOPS
• Study Skills
• Grammar
• Origami