GCSE Results Day – celebrating our pupils’ successes

It has been a week since GCSE Results Day and we would like to reflect on the successes of our brilliant pupils and volunteers.

GCSE Results Day is an incredibly important date in Action Tutoring’s calendar and we were out and about in our partner schools to celebrate in the successes of our 2019 Year 11 pupils.

There were some really fantastic achievements we heard about on the day and wanted to share them here.  As a charity we focus on supporting pupils who, at the start of the year, are at risk of not achieving a grade 4 in these crucial exams…

Nilam, a pupil who attended one of our maths programmes in London, got a 5 in maths and said, “Action Tutoring really helped me. Now I can go to sixth form and do the A Levels I want”. Maya, who participated in one of our English programmes got a 6 and commented, “Thank you for teaching us everything and helping us to get our results. I would definitely recommend you to the girls in Year 10”.

We shared numerous posts on our social media throughout the day of the happy faces of our pupils after receiving their results. Our Programme Coordinator for Liverpool, Hannah, got some lovely photos of pupils in Liverpool who were incredibly happy with their grades.

We received some really positive feedback on how our fantastic volunteer tutors have supported them: “Both my tutors helped me a lot. In September I’m going to college to do Health and Social Care and I want to be a midwife.” Another pupil said, “I would like to thank you so much for helping me in maths. I’ve never felt more understood and listened to. Your methods really helped.”

We are thrilled with our pupils’ results this year and would like to thank all of our volunteer tutors for all their hard work in supporting our charity. The autumn term is fast approaching and we are looking forward to working with more pupils and volunteers in the coming months. We still have lots of spaces left to help out, so do get in touch if you’re interested.  We are also very excited to be launching in Nottingham this term and expanding our reach further.

If you would like to get involved, simply complete our short online application form to become a volunteer tutor with us today. Help young people achieve and reach their potential in English and maths.

Ensuring GCSE Results Day is a celebration for all

GCSE Results Day marks the culmination of a year’s worth of hard work and effort by both pupils and teachers. In recent times, schools have faced the added struggle keeping on top of curriculum changes and improving pupil grades against a tough funding climate, something we’ve heard about repeatedly from our partner schools across the country. Yet, this is a time when we really should not be compromising our support for these young people, particularly those who are facing socio-economic disadvantage.  

The recent Education Policy Institute (EPI) Education in England report showed that at secondary level, disadvantaged pupils are 18.1 months behind their peers by the time they finish in formal education.  In fact, the EPI report suggests if this pace continues, it will take 560 years before disadvantaged pupils and their peers are reaching similar outcomes – a staggering and deeply troubling figure. 

Sadly, today’s national GCSE results will no doubt be an illustration of what these statistics look like in reality, demonstrating the impact socio-economic disadvantage is having on the lives of thousands of young people across the country.  By missing out on the grade 4s, 5s and above, their futures will be a much tougher climb than their peers to access further education, employment or training. Yet, the results they receive today are not a reflection on their ability; they instead reflect the challenging circumstances these pupils are living with – without access to the same levels of support and opportunities as their peers.     

One example of these opportunities is private tutoring.  The Sutton Trust’s annual poll confirmed that 41% of pupils in London have had a tutor, and that nationally the figure remains high at 27%.  As a mother myself, I understand why so many parents will pay for tutoring: parents really do want the best for their children. If that means paying for a tutor to support them in their learning, that’s something that they will do if they have the means. But for the majority of disadvantaged young people that is simply not an option their parents can afford. 

At Action Tutoring we know how impactful tutoring can be, with strong evidence backing this up.  We are working now to provide tutoring support to disadvantaged pupils to ensure they are not being sent down the path that the research so sadly predicts.  Our aim is that they can leave school with the qualifications that will enable them to progress to further education, employment or training and avoid the cycle of becoming NEET.  The way we deliver our support is, in many ways, quite different to private tutoring: we work in partnership with schools and our tutors are all high quality volunteers – generously giving their time to make a difference to the lives of these young people. 

In 2017-18 our impact analysis showed the disadvantaged pupils we supported were able to match the national pass rate, after the equivalent of two terms of weekly tutoring, at GCSE level despite the extra hurdles they faced.  This is despite the pass-rate for disadvantaged pupils tending to fall 15-20% behind the overall national figures, in English Language and maths GCSEs respectively. We are eagerly waiting to hear how our pupils from this year have got on – we hope it’s a day of celebration for them all, and that we’ve have helped to place them on a firm footing alongside their peers. 

This year we’ve supported over 2,400 pupils through a network of over 1,100 volunteer tutors across seven cities in England, at both primary and secondary level. Our impact and evidence base is ever growing: tutoring works and we’re proving that our model works too. 

At our Impact Report event earlier this year Rt Hon Nick Gibb MP, shared his support, “[Action Tutoring’s 2017-18 Impact Report] shows that it is possible to close the attainment gap and Action Tutoring has had huge success raising attainment. The pupils are proof that regardless of your circumstances, it is possible to get crucial English and maths qualifications. Action Tutoring offers a practical, structured solution. Action Tutoring’s vision is one that I fully endorse.” 

The attainment gap predictions do not have to be the reality.  We are changing the outcomes for these young people today and want to ensure that results day becomes a day of celebration for everyone. If you’re interested in supporting us on our mission, by volunteering with us as a tutor or in other ways do take a look at our website: www.actiontutoring.org.uk.  

About the author:

Susannah is the founder and CEO of Action Tutoring. Susannah was inspired to start the organisation following experiences working in the charity sector and as a private tutor, recognising the potential to make the benefits of tutoring available to those that might not otherwise afford it.

Susannah has worked in the charity sector since 2007 in roles including research and project management. She has a particular interest in using the potential of volunteers for social change.

Susannah graduated from the University of Cambridge, where she studied Theology at St John’s College. She holds a Masters from King’s College London in Politics, Theology and NGOs, where she wrote her dissertation on the interplay between state and third sector welfare provision. 

For more information about Action Tutoring or enquiries about further interviews please contact:

Fleur Nicholson

Marketing and Communications Manager

E: fleur@actiontutoring.org.uk

T: 0203 872 5894

Notes to editors 

Since 2012, the charity has continued to grow and now operates in eight cities and areas across England: Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, London, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Sussex.

In 2017-18 nearly 2,500 pupils were supported by over 1,100 volunteer tutors in 80 schools across the country. These pupils were able to match the national pass rate, after the equivalent of two terms of weekly tutoring, at GCSE level despite the extra hurdles they faced. Nationally only 44% of disadvantaged pupils are able to meet this benchmark.

In the same year 72% of primary pupils supported by Action Tutoring achieved national standards in their SATs.

Research carried out by the Education Endowment Foundation showed that pupils make up to five months additional progress, during an intensive tutoring programme.

The average cost of a private tutor in the UK is £30 per hour. Action Tutoring is able to deliver this to a disadvantaged pupil completely free of charge through the use of volunteer tutors. Donations, grants and school partnership contributions fund the cost of delivery and the Action Tutoring staff team.

There are almost 800,000 young people leaving school each year without the qualifications to go on to education, employment or training.  Individuals not in education, employment or training cost an average £56,000 to the UK economy each year.

You can read Action Tutoring’s latest Impact Report here: https://actiontutoring.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Action-Tutoring-Impact-Report-2017-18.pdf and further information is available at: www.actiontutoring.org.uk/our-impact/

Zayn’s thoughts on starting secondary school

This September, thousands of 11-year-olds across the UK will be making the exciting and nerve-racking jump to secondary school. In the coming weeks, they will flood into town with their families to pick out their new uniforms and update their pencil cases in preparation for the next milestone in their lives.

However, the transition to secondary school can be overwhelming. In fact, disadvantaged pupils are at risk of falling behind their more affluent peers by two months per year over the course of secondary school (Education Policy Institute, 2017).

Although the Year 6 pupils we have worked with at Action Tutoring have performed brilliantly in their SATs exams, I cannot help but wonder how they will settle into their new schools.

To gain more of an insight into how they might be feeling, I sat down with my nephew, Zayn (age 11), to ask him a few questions:

How do you feel about starting secondary school?

I’m feeling nervous but excited. When I started primary school I was the youngest but moved on to Year 6 and became the oldest. When I go to Year 7 I will be the youngest again… But I am kind of happy to get a sense of independence.

What do you feel nervous about?

The school is so big and it will be hard to find the different classes.

What has helped you to feel prepared for secondary school?

1)  Tutoring – my mum has signed me up for physics tutoring and I really enjoy it.

2)  My school had an assembly where secondary school teachers came in and told us about what it will be like and how to stay calm.

3)  I spent a day at my new school and that helped me.

Zayn says goodbye to his friends after 7 years at Primary School

If you had three wishes for secondary school, what would they be?

1)  Stick with my friends who are coming to the same school as me.

2)  Try more subjects like history and get better at them.

3)  To play for the school football team so that I can play against different teams

… Oh and I don’t want to get detention because it is going to be long!

 Zayn (centre) and family enjoying the summer holidays

Through our volunteer tutoring we have an amazing opportunity to help pupils feel heard and supported by being mindful of what it feels like to be in their shoes. We can share our own experiences, build their confidence and encourage them to try their best to develop!

In praise of podcasts: five things I learnt about education from podcasts

Rewind to the late 2000s. I’d received a really cool mp3 player for Christmas, shaped like a jelly bean but made out of glimmering pearl-like plastic. It provided perfect entertainment for commuting. Until one day it squirmed its way out of my hand, executing a perfect somersault, and plummeted directly through the gap between the train and the platform edge. Panicked, I listened to it clunk against the rails, followed swiftly by warning tones that the doors were about to close and so jumped off the train impulsively, a little lost without the entertainment I’d been relying upon!

Thankfully I’ve not repeated this escapade with my current entertainment device – old habits die hard though, and I’ve still picked a similar glimmering white colour scheme from the many options available. Anyway, what was the reason for me sharing this whistle-stop tour of recent audio technology? For many of us, all sorts of tasks (commuting included), are now accompanied by our own choice of entertainment, plugged straight into our ears. Instead of noughties pop my companion is often a podcast and there are plenty on education that are both interesting and informative. Here are five things I learnt about education from podcasts:

• Homework and class sizes appear to influence pupils’ outcomes less than we think.

from BBC The Educators – John Hattie

This podcast interviews a number of big thinkers in education, and is well worth a listen. This particular episode with John Hattie includes some information about his meta-analysis of education research and how it can help us understand what might, and might not, make a difference to pupil outcomes. As I learnt at a recent event, there is a tension in meta-analytical work between the quantity and quality of studies to include – although more studies might initially seem better, this isn’t necessarily the case if they are not equally high-quality and ‘translatable’ to new and differing contexts. All the same, the work of the Education Endowment Foundation also shows that homework and class sizes might not be as significant as we might think.

• It usually takes examiners 18 months to craft an exam paper! 

From Inside exams – 1. Talking my language

It would be easy to ignore what routes test papers go through before they arrive on exam desks in the summer term. This podcast walks us through some of the processes involved in creating, reviewing and checking exam papers. A great way to learn more about exams, direct from the examinations boards themselves.

1. How wide the gap is between pupils’ everyday talk and the academic vocabulary they need to succeed in school, as well as how to bridge this gap. From Mr Barton podcast – Alex Quigley: Closing the vocabulary gap

Everyone is a teacher of language and this is a really interesting topic for both maths and English tutors – as well as any prospective teachers of other subjects. Alex Quigley is a former English teacher and now works at the Education Endowment Foundation.

• Why number lines make more sense vertically than horizontally, and how the language of ‘opposites’ can be useful in teaching negative numbers

From Mr Barton podcast – Bernie Westacott

Mr Barton is basically education podcast royalty. He’s interviewed many influential figures for the podcast, which is regularly listened to and discussed by the most maths-phobic teachers. You know when Mr Barton likes something because he says, “that’s flippin’ brilliant” and he says that a lot in this podcast, which is available to listen to as well as to watch. It gives some great context to what pupils will have experienced early on in primary school as well as great tips for teaching negative numbers. I’m a big fan of vertical number lines since watching this. Why? They link to real-life examples (think thermometers and lifts) and the higher up a number is, the bigger it is. With a horizontal line, you lose these clear links and in their place it all becomes more ambiguous for pupils.

• Why it’s desirable that pupils find things difficult, and the importance of ‘wait time’ after we ask questions. 

From Evidence based education – Robert & Elizabeth Bjork 

The Bjorks are incredibly knowledgeable and influential researchers on learning and memory. This is the sort of podcast that really makes you think about how complex learning is, and helps question the assumptions we’ve picked up along the way. It’s worth a listen to understand that when pupils find tasks hard, it might not actually be having a negative impact on their learning. For a quick written summary, I’d recommend this article. ‘Wait time’ is all about how much silence we leave, after asking a pupil a question. Often, it’s tempting to break the silence and either answer the question ourselves or rephrase it. Both approaches might result in pupils not having the time they need to think deeply about the question and formulate a response. Plus, we are tacitly telling them they don’t always need to think about the questions we pose – as we might answer them ourselves! If you want to know more about their research you can also listen to their interview on Mr Barton’s podcast and their YouTube channel.

More education podcasts I’ve enjoyed:

BBC more or less – delves deep into statistics (often sent in by the audience) and provides great examples of mathematical ‘answers’ that aren’t always simple and can be controversial or used as a starting point for debate.

TES – the education podcast – TES news is great for what’s going on in schools, and TES ‘pod-agogy’ (yes, I love that pun!) for teaching tips.

The Dysadvantage podcast – experiences of people with dyslexia: exploring how they cope with the challenges it poses and the advantages they feel it brings.

TED Talks education – more global and wide-ranging in topics, great if you want a broader view of education beyond tutoring and the UK system.

The NCETM Maths podcast – aimed at maths teachers, but there are some great episodes on the maths mastery approach and interviews with maths teachers.

Trialled and tested – a collaboration between the Education Endowment Foundation and Evidence Based Education, discussing key pieces of education research.

What I’m listening to next: Researcher Daniel Willingham’s keynote at a recent ResearchED. Willingham’s book ‘Why don’t students like school’ has been a big influence on me. The quote ‘memory is the residue of thought’ is a really pertinent one for anyone in education, so I’m looking forward to hearing what Willingham has to say.

The Power of Yet: How discovering Growth Mindset had an impact not only on my teaching but on my path to self-care

When I first started teacher training, Carol Dweck’s research on Growth Mindset formed a central part of the training I received. I was so inspired by everything she said, especially by this quote:

“Instead of luxuriating in the power of yet, they were gripped in the tyranny of now.” (Carol Dweck, 2014)

I realised I definitely had a growth mindset professionally. I knew I was on a learning curve to becoming a teacher and I wanted to embed Growth Mindset strategies into my teaching practice. I can confidently say that I was able to do that. There was nothing more rewarding than, after a few months, hearing my pupils use these phrases with each other:

“I’ve tried really hard today.”

“I can see you’ve put in a lot of effort.”

“Wow, you didn’t give up with this tricky sound, well done!”

In my classroom and in my teaching practice, I had embedded a culture of continuous learning, growth and positivity, and I could see this in the way my pupils were starting to use my growth mindset language in their everyday life. However, in my personal life, everything was spiralling out of control.

Whilst struggling with missing my family, having no work-life balance and challenges with my mental health, I realised I was gripped in the tyranny of now, barely coping with the anxiety that was swallowing me up. I could see no way out. It was around that time that I started watching the Netflix series, Queer Eye, and was really struck by what one of the main stars of the show, Jonathan Van Ness, said:

“To me, self-care isn’t really shallow. Showing up for yourself, putting on a little moisturizer, can inspire so many different parts of your life.” (Jonathan Van Ness)

I realised I was not showing up for myself. I was not eating well, not exercising, not sleeping well, not taking time to myself, not taking care of my skin…So, after watching the episode, I bought myself a face moisturiser and a face wash. I knew that my wellbeing was not going to improve magically, and I needed to put in the effort and I could take self-care one step at a time. It might seem silly to some that a little bit of moisturiser would have such an impact on my wellbeing, but it wasn’t the moisturiser itself, it was what it represented: my first step in buying something to take care of myself. As people say, the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.

One year on, recent steps I’ve taken to improve my wellbeing are: I joined an exercise class, I included more vegetables in my diet, I socialised more with friends…

The road to loving and taking care of yourself is long and I am not there yet, but I am luxuriating in this ‘power of yet’ and am miles further than I was this time last year, and I feel great.

Now, as Programme Coordinator at Action Tutoring, I aim to always include Growth Mindset training within the first few weeks of my programmes, hopefully inspiring tutors to use Growth Mindset techniques in their tutoring, just as Carol Dweck inspired me. This will not only have a profound impact on the pupils, but perhaps on the tutors as well.