Private tutoring in 2026: The new educational standard

The release of the Sutton Trust’s Private Tutoring 2026 report provides a sobering confirmation of a trend we at Action Tutoring have watched with growing concern. The “shadow education” industry in the UK is not merely growing; it is becoming a primary driver of educational inequality.

As the CEO of Action Tutoring, I see the human stories behind these statistics every day. But the data in this latest report demands that we look at the systemic implications. When a third of all secondary school pupils in England and Wales are now receiving private tuition, rising to nearly half in London, we have to ask ourselves: what happens to the children who are left behind?

The growing divide

The report highlights a staggering jump in the prevalence of private tutoring. In 2026, 29% of 11-16 year olds accessed private support, outside of school hours, compared to 18% 20 years ago. While this reflects a natural desire from parents to see their children succeed, it creates an ‘achievement gap’ that tracks directly with household income.

In an era where the attainment gap is wider than it has been in a decade, this is a crisis of social mobility, where a child’s potential is increasingly capped by their parents’ bank balance.

The London effect and regional disparity

London continues to lead the pack, with 45% of pupils receiving private tuition compared to 27% in the rest of England. This “London effect” causes an environment where tutoring is no longer an “extra” for struggling pupils, but an expected norm for the ambitious.

The report also highlights urban vs rural disparities, with 33% of pupils having received private tutoring in urban areas compared to just 19% in rural areas.

Tutoring as the ‘great equaliser’

At Action Tutoring, we have always believed that tutoring should be the ‘great equaliser’, not the great divider. This research from Sutton Trust reinforces the efficacy of the model: one-to-one and small-group tuition works. It builds confidence, plugs specific learning gaps, and provides the tailored support that even the best-resourced classrooms often cannot provide.

“We are about halfway through the [Action Tutoring] programme now and I can see improvements in the children’s ability but also in their confidence. The small groups allow the children to experience very targeted and personal support, something that I cannot offer (no matter how much I want to or try to) as a class teacher.”

Louise Glover, Year 6 class teacher at St John Evangelist Primary School in London

A call for systemic change

The Sutton Trust report makes several critical recommendations that we, at Action Tutoring, wholeheartedly support. Most importantly is the need for a permanent, government-backed commitment to a state-funded tutoring programme that specifically targets disadvantaged pupils.

We need to move toward a future where high-quality tutoring is integrated into the school day for those who need it most, rather than being an expensive tool available only to those who can afford it.

Looking ahead

The Private Tutoring 2026 report is a wake-up call. We cannot allow a two-tier education system to become the permanent status quo in the UK.

At Action Tutoring, our mission has never been more important. We know that when we provide a volunteer tutor to a Year 11 pupil who is facing disadvantage, we aren’t just helping them with exam skills; we are restoring the balance across to society and changing futures.

Education should be the engine of social mobility. But, as this report shows, if we don’t act now to make tutoring accessible to all, that engine risks becoming a vehicle for the few. It is time we ensure that every child, regardless of their background, has the opportunity to have a tutor in their corner.

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The AI revolution: why equity must drive the future of tutoring

At Action Tutoring, our vision is simple: ensuring that a young person’s background does not dictate their future. For over 14 years, we have seen the transformative power of a dedicated tutor through engagement and a targeted curriculum.

While our volunteer model has a proven, life-changing impact, the sheer scale of the attainment gap requires us to think bigger. There are currently 2.2 million pupils in receipt of Free School Meals in the UK today who could benefit from our support.

That is why, in autumn 2026, we are launching an ambitious new pilot of AI tutoring, to bridge this gap, independent of the work announced by the Department for Education in January 2026.

We’re interested in how an AI tutoring model which keeps ‘humans-in-the-room’ can combine the ‘personalisation power’ of Generative AI with the ‘engagement power’ of human relationships.

Personalisation at scale

Research consistently shows that ‘personalisation’ is the secret weapon of tutoring. For that reason, the ability to find a pupil’s specific learning gap and bridge it with tailored feedback is something it’s impossible to replicate in a standard classroom.

Generative AI offers extreme personalisation. In essence, when harnessed correctly, it can scaffold instruction and provide instant feedback at a level of precision that was previously a luxury of those who could afford private tutoring, or those who could access it through an intervention like ours. We believe AI tutoring has the potential to transform attainment for those facing disadvantage, which in turn could substantially reduce the attainment gap.

Closing the new digital divide

Innovation in education is all too often a luxury of the rich. Currently, private school pupils are benefiting from Generative AI at triple the rate of their state-school peers. Action Tutoring refuses to let AI become yet another barrier that widens the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots.’

Therefore, by piloting an AI-delivered model, we are democratising access to the world’s most advanced learning tools. Our commitment to equity underpins the moral argument for Action Tutoring to pursue this pilot.

The ‘human-in-the-room’ model

A decade of evidence-building has taught us that for young people facing disadvantage, tutoring is as much about engagement and relationships as it is about pedagogy.

We aren’t going to sit pupils in front of a screen and walk away. Our pilot is built on a ‘human-in-the-room’ design. And it’s not just us that recognises the importance of this: three of the four published randomised controlled trials about AI tutoring specifically include a human element in their design and all show evidence of promise.

In practice, for us, this means:

• The AI tutor delivers the Action Tutoring-tailored curriculum we’ve refined over many years and provides real-time feedback.
• The Tutoring Coordinator (a synchronous human presence) supports pupil engagement, manages the technology, and provides the relational encouragement that no algorithm can replicate.

We are testing the optimal human support required to make AI effective for disadvantaged pupils, rather than looking at the technology in isolation.

A note on safeguarding

Our ability to uphold our high standards of safeguarding has been included as a non-negotiable in the criteria that we are using to assess AI tools. We have built up 14 years of safeguarding expertise which will also be integrated into the system and our approach. This includes retaining our human presence as a connection to both the pupils and the teachers on the programme. We will be carefully managing risks and including additional safety considerations in the design phase. This may look different for different tools but could include ‘screening’ or post-session review options. We’ll also be building in guardrails into the prompts so that any tool we use has clear boundaries about what it can discuss and how to manage any difficult issues that pupils raise. Our wealth of training and resources we currently use for our tutors can also be used to train our AI tool.

And what about our existing programme?

We know that for many of our supporters, the ‘human’ in tutoring is what matters most and we agree.

We are not abandoning our volunteer-delivery model. Our volunteers are the heartbeat of Action Tutoring. This AI pilot is an addition to our portfolio, not a replacement. Specifically, we believe AI could significantly expand our reach, allowing us to support thousands more young people in budget-constrained schools who we currently cannot support. Our commitment to our volunteer community remains as steadfast as it was 14 years ago.

What’s next?

This autumn, we begin our small-scale, mixed-method pilot in around eight secondary state schools across the country. Delivery will follow the same format of our existing high-impact, evidenced-based model and use a safe, Generative AI tool to deliver the tutoring.

We will be collecting both qualitative and quantitative data to understand the optimal structure of the human support required to deliver our curriculum-tailored programme to disadvantaged pupils, through an AI tool.

Additionally, we will begin to build an understanding of the efficacy of AI tutoring for our target population of pupils from both an academic progress and a pupil experience perspective. We aim to test and learn what AI tool functions are required to deliver our model of tutoring.

We are an evidence-based organisation. We won’t rush; we will move thoughtfully and build things that work. In the long run, our goal for 2027 and beyond is to discover how we can unlock the potential of thousands more disadvantaged young people every year.

The AI revolution is happening. At Action Tutoring, we’re making sure it’s an equitable one.

If you’re a school leader who would like to be involved in our innovative new pilot, register your details below.

Ensuring every child can leave school and progress in life: Action Tutoring’s response to the Schools White Paper

We welcome the publication of today’s Schools White Paper, ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’. The Government’s commitment to ending the ‘postcode lottery’ for SEND pupils and its radical restructuring of disadvantaged funding represent a significant step toward a more equitable education system. Ensuring every child can leave school and progress in life is exactly what we, at Action Tutoring, strive to achieve. 

From our infancy, as a charity, we have committed to supporting geographical areas where the need is greatest. We are proud of the reach our online model has enabled, from Cornwall to Cumbria, and we have seen the difference this investment is making in these communities. Read more about our work to tackle rural educational challenges here and our moves to Rotherham, Hull and Dorset.

We welcome the Government’s commitment to these harder to reach areas through its ‘Mission North East’ and ‘Mission Coastal’ initiatives. We remain dedicated to providing schools with the high-quality, subsidised tutoring capacity required to support these new national targets.

We wholeheartedly support the Government’s ‘generational’ mission to halve the attainment gap by 2030. However, an ambition of this scale cannot be built on top of existing school deficits; for these reforms to take root, the ‘Inclusive Mainstream Fund’ must be treated as a foundation, not a substitute, for a significant uplift in core per-pupil funding

Additionally we urge the Government to ensure that “flexibility” around resource spend does not lead to a dilution of quality, and that it is directed toward evidence-based, high-impact small-group interventions. 

We believe that for tutoring to become a permanent engine of social mobility, schools need the long-term financial certainty to plan beyond a single academic year. We call on the Government to ensure that the path to 2030 is paved with sustainable, ring-fenced investment in the children who need it most.

“We have the evidence, the tutors, and the will to close the attainment gap. Now, we need sustained investment to match the Government’s rhetoric.” Jen Fox, CEO, Action Tutoring

A brighter blueprint for education: Action Tutoring’s take on the curriculum and assessment review response

Yesterday’s publication of the Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report signals an important moment for the education system in England. For Action Tutoring, an organisation deeply invested in tackling the educational disadvantage gap, the proposed changes offer both encouragement and a renewed focus for our continued advocacy work.

Our experience working with thousands of pupils from low-income backgrounds across the country gives us a unique perspective on the barriers they face. We are pleased to see several key areas of the review reflecting the needs of these pupils, aligning with the recommendations we submitted:

English and oracy: Valuing the ‘power of talk’

The review rightly highlights oracy—the ability to articulate thoughts fluently and effectively—as being crucial for a pupil’s development. This is a significant outcome. Strong verbal communication skills are vital for academic success and accessing life-changing opportunities.

We fully support the proposed oracy framework, which should help embed a greater focus on spoken language in the classroom. This commitment to oracy is already central to Action Tutoring’s work and is directly reflected in our latest English tutoring resources.

However, our recommendation to introduce formal oral assessments was not taken forward, with the review opting for a framework instead. While we value any step to elevate oracy, we believe that formal assessment is the surest way to guarantee it is prioritised across all schools.

We are also pleased to see that text choices are set to become much more reflective of the diverse texts young people encounter in the modern world. This shift towards greater relevance is a positive move that we hope will increase engagement from pupils, even in the absence of an explicit mention of reading for pleasure in the final proposals.

Maths: Investing in financial futures

One of the most concrete and welcome changes is the explicit emphasis on financial literacy being introduced in the maths curriculum.

We strongly advocated for this, and we are pleased to see the review reflects a plan for greater emphasis on foundational financial concepts starting in primary school. We wholeheartedly support the idea that these concepts, such as budgeting and understanding basic economics, should be built on the logical, rigorous foundations of the maths curriculum before being further explored in other subjects like Citizenship. This is a practical and powerful way to equip disadvantaged pupils with the skills needed for long-term stability and success.

A curriculum for opportunity and equity

Our foundational recommendation to the review was focused on removing the barriers of life experience and cultural capital for disadvantaged pupils. We believe the curriculum must be a vehicle for aspiration.

It is gratifying, therefore, to see the review champion a curriculum that reflects our society and which aims to broaden horizons. This emphasis is crucial to boosting the attainment and life chances of those facing disadvantage by ensuring their learning is both relevant and expansive.

Looking ahead: The power of tuition

While we welcome these curriculum and assessment reforms, we note that the report’s recommendations did not include comment on the role of targeted tuition to close the attainment gap. 

We appreciate that the Review’s terms of reference were rightly focused on the curriculum and statutory assessment system, and that tuition sits outside its direct remit. However, as a national charity which specialises in academic support, we know that high-quality, targeted tuition is a proven and effective tool for accelerating progress and closing the attainment gap. We are therefore eagerly awaiting the upcoming Government White Paper on education, which we anticipate will contain commentary on the power of targeted tuition to achieve the national goal of greater educational equity.

Action Tutoring remains steadfast in its ongoing advocacy work, campaigning for the strategic inclusion of effective interventions like tuition to ensure that the positive curriculum changes announced today lead to tangible improvements in outcomes for every pupil, regardless of their background.

Bridging the gap: how a state-funded tutoring programme can ensure excellence for all

A recent report by Public First has reignited an essential conversation about the future of state-funded tutoring. With compelling evidence and practical recommendations, the report identifies how a state-funded tutoring programme could help to tackle the persistent attainment gap which exists today.

Lessons learned, future focused

The report includes a comprehensive review of the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) and the 16-19 Tuition Fund (16-19 TF), delivered in response to the pandemic learning loss. It not only clearly identifies the challenges faced in these programmes, but also leverages the lessons learned. As a result, it proposes a robust blueprint for a future national tutoring offer.

The stark reality: funding shortfalls and missed opportunities

Despite the widely acknowledged benefits of tutoring, schools and colleges are struggling to maintain or afford the provision without dedicated funding. Pupil Premium is no longer available to support these costs. School leaders report that these funds are increasingly being used to plug budget gaps rather than for targeted interventions. The Public Accounts Committee’s recent inquiry highlighted this concerning trend. Additionally, a recent survey with schools found that 74% cited there was an “insufficient level of Pupil Premium funding” available to deliver support.

The situation is even more challenging for post-16 students where no equivalent Pupil Premium funding exists. Alice Eardley, Interim CEO of Get Further, highlights this disparity, emphasising that “more than half of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds leave school without a standard pass in GCSE English and maths. To pass these crucial qualifications in post-16 education, they require targeted support. We know tutoring is an impactful and cost-effective intervention but, with funding for disadvantaged students ending at age 16, this transformative support is often out of reach”.

A call for action: inclusive and equitable excellence

The report proposes a blueprint for a state-funded tutoring programme to specifically support pupils who have fallen behind in English and maths. This aligns with the Government’s recently published Curriculum and Assessment Review Interim Report, which calls for an inclusive and equitable curriculum to ensure excellence for all.

Key recommendations for a successful national programme

The impact: transforming lives and bridging gaps

The report has received interest from a number of MPs and policymakers. Paul Waugh MP said:

“A defining mission of this Labour government is to break down barriers to opportunity and we are committed to building a better future for all young people – no matter who they are or where in our country they grow up. The evidence in Rochdale and across the country shows that high-quality tutoring can be transformative, helping pupils to catch up, succeed and access the opportunities they deserve. This report shows that top-up tutoring in state schools can raise standards and help close the attainment gap, and I hope that its findings will be taken on board by the Department for Education”

Jonathan Simons, Partner at Public First and lead author of the report, concludes,

“State-funded tutoring was one of the most ambitious education interventions we’ve seen in a generation, and it worked. Millions of pupils benefited, especially those who needed it most. But without a long-term plan, that progress risks slipping away. This report shows how we can learn from what has gone before, in order to build a state-funded national tutoring offer that tackles the critical educational challenges across our system today.”

The message is clear: state support for a national tutoring offer is not just a matter of policy. It is an investment in the future of millions of young people. By addressing the funding gaps and implementing effective models, we can create a more equitable and inclusive education system where every pupil has the opportunity to thrive.

You can read the full report here.

Behind the scenes – Preparing for a gold standard evaluation with the Education Endowment Foundation

At Action Tutoring, we’re excited to be working with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) on a gold-standard evaluation of our work.

The evaluation will explore the impact of our secondary maths programme. Having developed this over 13 years, through more than 150 school partnerships, Action Tutoring will be undertaking a rigorous evaluation design to better understand its impact.

Here, we’ll share what went into the decision-making process, the preparations involved, and our hopes for what this evaluation can achieve.

Preparing for evaluation: defining focus and scale

One of the first and most significant steps in preparing for the evaluation was deciding where to focus. As a charity working with pupils in both maths and English across primary and secondary schools, narrowing the scope was essential. 

While maths was always going to be the subject of focus (a priority area for the EEF), we needed to determine whether to include all age groups or target a specific phase. Aligning our impact goals with the EEF’s research priorities (in this case, key stage 4 maths) helped ensure the evaluation would address meaningful questions for both organisations.

As well as aligning with EEF’s research priorities, our key stage 4 programme has been delivered and developed for over a decade, where we have built up a significant body of evidence to support it, already to a high standard——for example, an independent study found an impact on GCSE point scores equivalent to a third of a grade.

Another critical decision was the scale of the evaluation. The EEF funds trials on three levels, ranging from pilots—exploring promising initiatives early in development—up to effectiveness trials, which evaluate impact under real-world implementation). Ultimately, we agreed to an effectiveness trial, an ambitious choice that reflects the scale at which Action Tutoring already operates. Importantly, this decision balanced Action Tutoring’s ability to maintain the quality of our delivery with the EEF’s goals for robust, real-world insights.

What are we measuring?

Central to this evaluation is assessing our programme’s impact on pupil attainment in maths. At its core, Action Tutoring aims to improve exam results for young people facing disadvantage, keeping doors open for their future opportunities. However, the evaluation also provides a rare opportunity to rigorously explore the broader benefits of tuition, such as building pupils’ confidence and self-belief in maths.

The evaluation will include what is known as a  ‘nimble trial’, which may test promising strategies to enhance the impact of the tutoring, for example by testing promising methods for improving pupil engagement in the intervention.

These elements, while harder to measure, represent an exciting area of untapped potential. By evaluating not just academic outcomes but also softer skills like confidence, we hope to gain a fuller picture of the transformative impact our work can have.

Through a competitive process, the EEF commissioned NFER to design an evaluation that would explore all these questions robustly – tailored to the essential components of Action Tutoring’s unique model.

Hopes for the future

As we embark on this evaluation, our aspirations extend beyond simply gathering data. This is an opportunity to refine our model further, ensuring that we’re delivering the greatest possible impact to the pupils and schools we work with.

Additionally, we want this evaluation to add to the broader evidence base in education policy and research. Action Tutoring’s model is unique in utilising the power of volunteer tutors and a well-structured, evidence-based curriculum. By assessing the effectiveness of these components, we hope to provide valuable insights into how volunteer-led tutoring can support pupils facing disadvantage at scale.

A commitment to impact

Looking ahead, we’re confident that this evaluation will demonstrate the positive difference our programmes make. Multiple previous studies have already shown that attendance at tutoring sessions is associated with higher maths attainment, particularly in maths. Year after year, we see our Year 11 pupils exceed national average pass rates in GCSE maths—despite having been at higher risk of missing out on this benchmark. With this evidence in mind, we’re optimistic about the findings of this evaluation and the potential to scale up our work to reach even more young people.

Equally important is ensuring that the evaluation process runs smoothly for everyone involved – our volunteers, our team, school teachers, and most important of all, the young people taking part. We are determined that this should feel like Action Tutoring at its best.

A challenge and an opportunity

This gold-standard evaluation represents both a challenge and an opportunity. It’s a chance to hold Action Tutoring’s work to the highest standards, learn from the process, and contribute to the wider field of education. At Action Tutoring, we don’t settle for simply believing our work makes a difference – we want to know it does.

By sharing the evaluator’s findings, we aim to demonstrate the power of volunteer-led tutoring to address educational inequality. Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds deserve the best support possible, and this evaluation is an important step towards achieving that goal at greater scale.

Five reasons why your school should partner with Action Tutoring this year

Action Tutoring works with primary and secondary state schools to deliver tutoring programmes for pupils in Years 5, 6, 7, 10 and 11 in English and maths. Established in 2011, we’ve developed an effective tutoring programme with proven impact.

97% of schools would recommend Action Tutoring to another school. Read on to find out why.

1. We subside our programmes with fundraising in order to keep costs down. 

Along with the National Tutoring Programme, our Philanthropy Team have worked tirelessly to fundraise so we can ensure disadvantaged pupils can still access our support, even when school budgets are tight. This year our tutoring costs as little as £10 per pupil hour. 

2. We provide a dedicated Programme Coordinator to take care of all of the administration.

As a team full of former teachers, we know exactly how little time you have to spare. And no teacher wants to spend their precious planning time doing extra admin. Our Programme Coordinators sort all the safeguarding, set up and on-going logistics for you.

And they aren’t just a mysterious person at the end of a helpline. In the majority of cases, they’ll be with you in school when tutoring takes place. And for online programmes, they are by your side ensuring the technology runs smoothly. 

3. We have a bespoke curriculum exclusively designed for Action Tutoring. 

You can be rest assured that your pupils will have materials that are age, stage and exam focussed. They’re not just worksheets pulled off the internet; they’ve been designed by Lead Practitioners and are specifically designed for use in a small group tutoring situation. Even our online versions have been adopted based on research on effective e-learning. 

4. We make an impact, getting more pupils through key exam milestones.

We’re driven by the impact we make; after all, it’s the whole mission of our charity. So it’s very important to us that what we do makes a difference to the young people we support.

With more than a decade of impact analysis, you can be confident that the time your pupils spend with our tutors positively impacts their progress and attainment. 

5. We have a diverse and dedicated army of high-quality volunteer tutors trained and ready to inspire and support your pupils.

From retired teachers, to economics university students and solicitors, our tutors are diverse and inspirational. They give their time for free because they have the academic skills, as well as the right motivations.

So what’s holding you back?

Get in touch today through our school enquiries page and one of our brilliant team members will be in touch. 

Steering the Action Tutoring ship into 2021

Action Tutoring Interim CEO, Jen Fox, reflects on her time at the charity so far, and looks towards leading the organisation to more exciting growth in the new year.

Growing up in the seaside town of Bray in the Republic of Ireland, you’d be forgiven for assuming I had at least some experience on the water. While I’m not one to shy away from a New Year’s Day swim, my time on board ships has been limited. And yet, I find myself drawn to the analogy: steering the Action Tutoring ship into 2021.

I joined AT back in September 2015, fresh out of teaching science in a secondary school in South London. Initially appointed as London and Curriculum Manager, I soon found myself learning about what it takes to run a successful education charity.

I was fortunate to cover Susannah Hardyman’s first maternity leave in 2017-18. During this year, Action Tutoring grew significantly, mostly due to an expansion of our programmes into primary schools. Perhaps it was this experience that influenced Susannah and the Trustees to welcome me back as Interim CEO for a second time around? I’m delighted, excited and proud to be part of the AT team in a year where our ambition is to double in size.

The destination has been set, the Captain grounded (with a new born!) and the crew more passionate than ever to make a difference. My job is to make sure that the AT ship stays on course.

Setting the destination has taken months of strategic and financial planning, but the confirmation of Action Tutoring as an approved Tuition Partner of the National Tutoring Programme removed any doubt that AT could spread the power of volunteer tutoring to more deserving young people this year.

I didn’t have a tutor growing up, but I was lucky to have several teachers and family members who gave me the time and support structures that I needed in order to learn. I was the first person in my family to attend university, an experience that changed how I viewed the world. My mum (who graduated from the Open University two decades after having her family and while she was working full time) instilled a belief in me that education is transformative. I’m known for often concluding any debate about social, emotional or political problems by stating how they can be solved through education. I truly believe that is the case.

In a year overshadowed by a pandemic alongside continued school disruption, I’m certainly not expecting smooth sailing. However, I feel confident that any storms or course diversions ahead, whether they be treasure chests or mirages, will be weathered with ease.

I can say this because I know the crew we have. From the 64 employees to the 2000+ volunteer tutors and hundreds of supportive Link Teachers, I am confident that they will face whatever lies ahead with integrity and commitment. This will enable us to give as many disadvantaged young people as possible a better chance to succeed in the next stage of their lives.

If you would like to join us as a volunteer, apply now to start tutoring on a January programme.

 Become a volunteer