Fuelling futures, month by month: how Payroll Giving powers Action Tutoring

Every February, charities, Payroll Giving agencies, professional funding organisations, and companies come together to raise awareness of Payroll Giving.

Payroll Giving (sometimes known as Give as You Earn) is an easy and tax-efficient way of making regular donations to your favourite charities straight from your gross pay. There are many benefits to this form of giving, and at Action Tutoring, we advocate it as an efficient and effortless way to support our mission and help us tackle the attainment gap head-on. Read on to learn about Payroll Giving and how you can set it up in three simple steps!

Impactful giving

Supporting Action Tutoring through payroll giving allows us to continue our vital work across the country, supporting over 5,700 pupils to achieve their dreams. We believe that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds do not lack the drive or ambition, but the resources to help them succeed academically. A steady donation stream coming in monthly allows us to plan ahead with this vital work, and a seemingly small monthly contribution can add up to make a real difference in a child’s life.  

At a glance: Where your money goes

• £5 a month could provide a high quality workbook to one of our pupils, each month.
  
• £10 a month could provide a DBS check for a volunteer tutor, each month.

Convenience and ease

Donating to Action Tutoring by a Payroll Giving Scheme is super easy and convenient! Donations are taken straight from your gross salary (before your tax is deducted) which provides you with immediate tax relief on your donations. 

Depending on your individual tax situation, you could receive tax relief on each one of your donations. Take the example of a high tax rate such as 40% to begin: on a £20 pledge you could reclaim £8 from your tax bill, effectively reducing your net contribution to £12. With Payroll Giving, regardless of whether your tax situation is higher (45% allows £9 tax relief from £20) or lower (20% allows £4 tax relief from £20), your donation will go further at less of a cost to you.

Set up Payroll Giving today!

You can set up payroll giving by following these three easy steps.

1. Check your employer is signed up to a Payroll Giving Agency, like the Charities Aid Foundation.
2. Ask your payroll team to set you up on payroll giving. It’s as simple as ticking a box on your payroll system!
3. Choose Action Tutoring as your charity of choice and set the amount you want to give each payday. No matter how big or small, your donation will make a difference.

Please share this with others too, by resharing the blog on social media and engaging with our content about Payroll Giving this month on Action Tutoring’s social media platforms, using the hashtag #PayrollGivingMonth.

What difference can your donation make?

“Payroll Giving is a great way to support Action Tutoring. These donations enable us to plan ahead with our vital work. It’s a really effortless way for employees to donate to us and helps us reach more pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve their dreams.”

Mollie Vessey, Corporate Partnerships Manager

Behind the scenes: how we create Action Tutoring’s annual impact report

At Action Tutoring, our annual impact report is more than just a document – it’s a story of progress, achievement, and the power of collective effort. Published each January, it reflects on the previous academic year, sharing our social impact with a wide-ranging audience. But how does this report come together? Let’s take you behind the scenes to see how we create an impact report.

Creating an impact report: step-by-step

Step 1: Gathering the data

The journey begins in September, as the dust settles from the previous academic year. This is when we start collecting and analysing results:

• GCSE and SATs outcomes from our pupils.
• Data about our volunteers, such as the hours they’ve given, and the areas we’ve reached.
• Insights into the percentage of pupils receiving Pupil Premium funding.

Our Impact and Evaluation team dives into the data, ensuring it’s meticulously analysed to tell the clearest story of what we’ve achieved.

Step 2: Learning from feedback

Even before we start drafting, we take stock of how last year’s report was received. Feedback is gathered from internal teams and external stakeholders, guiding improvements and identifying areas to highlight in the next edition. Alongside this, we maintain an ideas log of themes, stories, and messages to include.

Step 3: Shaping the story

In autumn, we hold a stakeholder meeting with various colleagues from across the organisation to define the report’s structure. Together, we agree on:

• The key chapters and headings.
• An outline of content flow across the pages.
• The overarching themes and messages we want to convey.
• The production approach and timeframes.

This process helps us map out the narrative, ensuring the report has a cohesive flow and delivers maximum impact.

Step 4: Crafting the content

Creating the content is a collaborative effort involving teams across the organisation. Each contributor is given:

• Indications on the key topics to cover.
• A word limit for their section.
• Guidelines for sourcing relevant images.

Once the first draft is ready, it undergoes a review process, where contributors and stakeholders ensure it resonates with the audience and aligns with our mission. All the data, analysis and facts are cross-checked and external references verified. 

Step 5: Bringing it to life

We work with an external designer who knows our brand inside out. Their job is to transform the text into an accessible, visually engaging report that’s a joy to read, and aligns with Action Tutoring’s look and feel. From infographics to doodles, every page is designed to draw readers in, make the content come alive and ensure the content is easily understood.

Step 6: Final touches and launch

After multiple rounds of proofing, the final version is signed off. Then we prepare a launch communications plan, including:

• Social media graphics and animations.
• Email campaigns.
• Blog posts (like this one!).
• Mailing of hard copies.

Finally, we distribute the report and ensure our staff are fully briefed to discuss its findings confidently with our audience. We also audit our website and other presentations and materials to ensure the stats and facts are updated in line with the new report.

What’s inside?

Our impact report is a treasure trove of insights, including:

• The outcomes of our tutoring programmes for pupils.
• Stories and quotes from volunteers, schools, and stakeholders.
• Highlights of our advocacy work.

Looking ahead

Once the report is published, we immediately begin gathering feedback for the next edition. Why? Because at Action Tutoring, we’re committed to constant improvement – not just for our impact report, but in everything we do.

Our report isn’t just a summary of the past year; it’s a celebration of the incredible community – volunteers, schools, funders, and stakeholders – that makes our work possible.

We’d love for you to read this year’s impact report and see the difference we’re making together.

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Fearless QBE Insurance fundraisers tackle challenge to support pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds

Epic fundraising

Action Tutoring is proud to be the UK community partner of the QBE Foundation. We’re delighted that through this partnership, during an epic fundraising week, QBE Insurance fundraisers united to support our cause.

Two volunteer teams battled the Thames Bridges Trek and the Royal Parks Half Marathon, raising over £10,000 in total! Read on to find out more about these fundraising adventures. 

Following landmarks along the Thames Bridge Trek

Joining a collective 2,000 person walking group, our 26 Thames Bridges Trek QBE Insurance fundraisers followed a 10 or 25 kilometre route. Passing many iconic sights – heading east through the heart of the capital – the team finished at mighty Tower Bridge.

QBE Insurance fundraisers run the roads at the Royal Parks Half

16,000 keen runners gathered together to take on the flat and scenic Royal Parks Half Marathon. 

One of our 10 QBE Insurance fundraisers, Chris, who managed a personal best, loved the buzzing atmosphere at race day.

Jonathan, another QBE Insurance fundraiser, also had a memorable and rewarding experience.

Our Fundraising Manager, Kate, was there to cheer on our amazing team.

Fundraising success!

Our Thames Bridges team raised £3,408 and our Royal Parks team generated £7,084. This collectively amounts to an amazing £10,492! Thank you so much to the QBE Foundation for generously matching these donations!

This could provide high quality maths or English workbooks to 1,748 pupils, or vital noise-cancelling headphones for 327 online pupils!

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Packing an impact punch! The rationale for our approach to curriculum

Creating a tutoring curriculum that makes a genuine difference in pupils’ lives requires much more than simply aligning sessions with national standards. At Action Tutoring, we have carefully developed a curriculum that is evidence-based, inclusive, and designed to address the unique barriers faced by pupils facing disadvantage. Here’s how our approach ensures maximum impact, one carefully crafted session at a time.

Grounded in research and evidence

Our curriculum is built on a foundation of up-to-date research into effective teaching and tutoring practices. This ensures that pupils benefit from the latest insights into how young people learn best. For example, our Year 6 English curriculum draws on guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and incorporates evidence-based strategies like structured scaffolding and retrieval practice.

This commitment to research isn’t a one-time effort. Our Curriculum Leads (CLs), both of whom are experienced educators, conduct regular literature reviews to ensure our maths and English materials are informed by the latest studies and align with educational standards. By keeping our curriculum dynamic and reflective of current best practices, we give our pupils the best chance to succeed (and achieve the all-important passing grades in their SATs and GCSEs).

Tackling barriers to learning head-on

We recognise that all pupils face challenges, but those from disadvantaged backgrounds often encounter additional hurdles. Our curriculum is designed to mitigate these barriers, including:

1. Poor attendance

Attendance is a significant challenge for many pupils facing disadvantage. To address this, our team of Programme Coordinators (PCs) works closely with schools to maximise attendance. Additionally, our curriculum incorporates recap activities and opportunities to recall prior knowledge, to ensure that each session can ‘stand alone’ to promote pupil progress. 

2. The vocabulary gap

Research shows that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds often face a significant gap in their vocabulary. Alex Quigley’s ‘Closing the Vocabulary Gap’ refers to this; he emphasises that many pupils lack exposure to rich language and diverse texts, leaving them less equipped to tackle challenging material. 

David Didau highlights this issue in his blog on closing the language gap, sharing an example from a foundation-tier exam on Of Mice and Men. The exam included a seemingly straightforward question about ‘dreams’, specifically addressing the ‘futility’ of dreams. Unfortunately, none of the pupils attempted to answer it – not because they didn’t grasp the concept, but because they didn’t know what ‘futility’ meant. Despite their understanding of the underlying idea, their limited vocabulary left them unable to engage with the question.

This challenge has only grown since 2015, as the English curriculum has advanced in complexity, particularly through its vocabulary demands. Simply encouraging ‘reading for pleasure’ is insufficient to close this gap. Pupils from lower socioeconomic backgrounds often don’t get the language exposure needed to access a lot of material.

That’s why our sessions are designed to model effective reading strategies and explicitly teach tier 2 vocabulary, such as “lunged” and “benevolent,” alongside tier 3 subject-specific terms like “metaphor” and “oxymoron.” By embedding this instruction into engaging, scaffolded activities, we help pupils build the language skills they need to access and excel in their learning.

3. Difficulties in accessing learning at home

A lack of access to technology or a suitable learning environment can hinder progress. That’s why our online tutoring sessions are fully equipped with the resources pupils need; such as headsets and printed anthologies of texts to annotate; delivered in the safe and structured setting of their school.

4. Closing learning gaps

Our curriculum is targeted at helping pupils catch up in areas where they may have fallen behind. For example, our Year 5 English grammar curriculum focuses on three essential areas: tenses, prefixes/suffixes, and fronted adverbials. These skills are foundational for success in Year 6 and beyond.

Aligned with the National Curriculum

Ensuring continuity with classroom learning is essential. Our curriculum aligns closely with the National Curriculum, enabling pupils to strengthen and build on their classroom knowledge. For instance, our maths resources integrate problem-solving questions and opportunities for “maths talk,” which mirrors the emphasis placed on reasoning and communication in schools.

Inclusive by design

We believe that a truly impactful curriculum must reflect the diversity of the pupils we serve. That’s why diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles are woven into every stage of curriculum design. We aspire towards:

• Author diversity: A 50/50 gender balance in our primary resources, and 25% of authors from ethnic minorities.
• Inclusive content: Names and scenarios in our curriculum reflect a variety of cultures and avoid stereotypes. For instance, traditional binary groupings like “boys and girls” have been replaced with creative alternatives, such as “guinea pigs and rabbits.”
• A proactive approach: DEI isn’t a bolt-on gesture at the end – it’s embedded from the very beginning of the design process.

Looking to the future

At Action Tutoring, our curriculum is more than just a set of resources – it’s a carefully designed tool to empower pupils, tutors, and schools alike. By addressing the specific challenges faced by pupils facing disadvantage, prioritising inclusivity, and constantly striving for improvement, we aim to deliver a tutoring experience that truly packs an impact punch.

We work with primary and secondary state schools across England to deliver heavily subsidised, high-quality tutoring for pupils facing disadvantage in Years 5, 6, 7, 10 and 11, in English and maths. If you’re interested in finding out more, visits our schools page:

Read our curriculum guides:

Action Tutoring’s curriculum is designed to ensure comprehensive SATs and GCSE preparation for pupils. Our specialist Curriculum Leads for English and maths are fundamental to this, bringing a wealth of knowledge from their experiences as Lead Practitioners in schools.

You can view our current Curriculum Guides for schools below:

Why you can’t just stick a worksheet online and call it e-learning – what we’ve learned from developing an impactful online tutoring curriculum

In an era where online learning has become a staple of education, it’s tempting to believe that transitioning from in-person teaching to digital delivery is as simple as uploading worksheets or repurposing classroom resources. 

At Action Tutoring we believe that truly impactful e-learning requires much more. We’ve been supporting pupils facing disadvantage with face-to-face tutoring for over 12 years. In 2021 we gained a huge amount of experience in managing sessions remotely when the pandemic forced pupils into home-based learning. This experience has been invaluable in enabling us to shift to an effective remote model, allowing us to reach and to support even more pupils facing disadvantage, including those outside of urban centres.

Here’s why we’ve found an effective online curriculum delivery must be carefully designed and expertly executed, based on our experience developing an impactful online tutoring programme.

Why effective online curriculum delivery requires thoughtful design and expert execution

1. Curriculum design: more than resources

Effective online learning begins with a well-structured curriculum. Success isn’t just about the materials you provide; it’s about crafting a journey for learners. Our online curriculum includes:

Recapping and recalling: Resources are designed with built-in opportunities for pupils to review previous learning and reinforce key concepts.

Expert craftsmanship: We’ve appointed in-house Curriculum Leads (CLs) to ensure that every session is tailored, focused, and impactful for our specific audience.

Inclusion as standard: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is at the heart of our content. We aspire towards DEI targets, such as a 50/50 gender split between authors of texts, names from a variety of cultures and languages, and that 25% of text authors come from ethnic minorities. By avoiding stereotypes and incorporating school feedback, we create lessons that resonate with pupils from all backgrounds.

2. Delivery drives results

While resources are critical, the way they’re delivered makes all the difference. Our volunteer tutors receive tailored training to use Action Tutoring’s online resources effectively. This training empowers them to:

Model and question: Tutors learn how to break down concepts, ask probing questions, and set clear objectives.

Engage and assess: They’re trained to monitor progress, engage learners, and adapt their approach during sessions.

Leverage technology: Training covers our online platform, Vedamo, equipping tutors to use interactive features such as shared whiteboards, chat functions, and session slides effectively.

Tailor-made training is offered throughout the tutor journey, with online modules, live webinars, drop ins with Curriculum Leads and demonstration videos all regularly available. These offerings are crucial in ensuring tutors feel supported and empowered to deliver effective sessions. 

3. Overcoming online learning challenges

Online learning is not without its pitfalls. That’s why our curriculum and delivery model are designed to address common barriers:

Building rapport and reducing isolation: Structured activities like check-ins and group games foster interaction and connection. Pupils collaborate on shared tasks, such as peer-assessing answers on the same board.

Managing distractions: Noise-cancelling headphones help pupils stay focused, and visually engaging session designs maintain their attention.

Improving familiarity: Each session includes practice time to build confidence in navigating the online classroom environment.

4. Technology and curriculum alignment

One of the hallmarks of our approach is the seamless integration of technology with curriculum content:

Purpose-built platforms: Unlike generic video conferencing tools, Vedamo is specifically designed for learning. It features interactive tools like text boxes, highlighting, and slide navigation, enabling pupils to actively engage with their tutoring sessions. Pupils can write on the screen so tutors can assess their work in real time; and they can see their peers’ ideas to enable group discussions

Real-time support: Our dedicated online support system staff provide live technical assistance, ensuring that disruptions don’t derail learning.

5. Pupils at the centre of design

An impactful curriculum also supports the social and emotional development of pupils. We’ve learned that:

Safety and value are key: Pupils thrive when they feel supported. Our tutors prioritise building strong relationships, which is frequently mentioned in the pupil feedback we collect each year.

Targeted content leads to impact: Because our curriculum is so sharply focused on the needs of disadvantaged pupils, it delivers measurable results. For instance, pupils who attend 10 or more sessions see substantial improvements in their SATs and GCSE outcomes. 

In 2023–24 we carried out an in-depth study, quality assured by a leading research organisation. It found that online and face-to-face tutoring led to similar levels of impact in the results pupils achieved. In fact, Year 11 maths pupils seemed to benefit slightly from the online format.

6. Continuous improvement

Finally, an effective online curriculum is never static. We constantly refine our programme based on:

Research and evidence: Regular reviews of tutoring research and updates to the National Curriculum inform our resources.

Feedback from schools: Partner schools help us understand what works best, shaping future iterations of our materials.

Platform enhancements: Recent updates to Vedamo, such as streamlined slide navigation, make our online learning experience even more user-friendly.

The bottom line

True e-learning goes far beyond uploading worksheets or digitising existing resources. It’s a collaborative effort that combines expertly designed materials, inclusive practices, skilled delivery, and robust technology.

At Action Tutoring, we’re proud to offer a model of online tutoring that mitigates the challenges of e-learning and maximises its potential. If your school is looking for ways to support pupils effectively in an online environment, we’d love to help. Together, we can close the gap for disadvantaged pupils and help them achieve their full potential.