Giving Tuesday 2021: It is time for all of us to bounce back

The consequences of the pandemic have been hard for individuals, businesses and especially charities. Thousands of fundraising events have been cancelled and charity shops were unable to operate again after the restrictions were lifted due to financial difficulties and lack of volunteers. This Giving Tuesday we can make a difference.

What is Giving Tuesday?

Giving Tuesday is a global day of giving that encourages people to donate, volunteer, and participate in charitable activities.

Giving Tuesday provides the perfect opportunity to pause and remember the causes we believe in and the communities we care about. It began in 2012 as a way to counteract the overspending of Black Friday and Cyber Monday by donating to charities in need. It made its way across more than 70 countries and it is now the biggest global generosity movement.

Charities play an important role in our society – and we all benefit. They unite people who have a shared passion in order to make a positive impact in the world. With restrictions being lifted, we want to sustain the community spirit we saw during the pandemic and help charities to recover, bounce back and continue their fundamental work.

We can now engage with others, get involved with our local community and give ourselves the chance to bounce back from lockdown restrictions. We were all isolated for so long that we lost our sense of community, so returning to some form of ‘normal’ is more important than ever.

Lockdown and the pandemic put enormous stress on charities across the country. At Action Tutoring our attention was focused on the potential impact school closures could have on the pupils we support. We acted fast and raised our voices. We found new ways to fundraise and our amazing team enabled us to transition from ‘in-person’ to online tutoring, so we could continue helping disadvantaged pupils when they needed us the most.

You can read more about our launch of online tutoring sessions here.

This is what Shko, who is in Year 6 at Pathways E-Act Primary Academy in Sheffield had to say about his experience:

Coming back to school after lockdown felt weird. I hadn’t spoken in English for a long time. When I was at home, I spoke Kurdish. When I came back, it felt weird because I hadn’t practised English. With tutoring I get much more maths than I would usually. I get a revision because some of the lessons with Action Tutoring are things we’ve done in class that I’ve nearly forgotten. Tutoring feels peaceful.

This wouldn’t be possible without our incredible volunteers who stayed committed to our mission. The need, however, is still great. Pupils are still recovering and building back their knowledge following the school closures. We’re also looking ahead to how we can not only bounce back, but also become even stronger and more resilient in the future.

So, what can you do this Giving Tuesday to help us?

Volunteer

Studies show that disadvantaged pupils have fallen further behind because of lockdown and  school closures. Volunteering as a tutor with us will not only help close the attainment gap between disadvantaged young people and their peers, but  it will also help you bounce back from lockdown.

We have been in our home bubbles for so long, free of social engagement. This lack of social interaction can cause social anxiety and the feeling of isolation, even with restrictions being lifted. Now it is not the time to be isolated; it is time for all of us to bounce back.

Donate

We need your help. Your donation will help us continue our mission and support the most vulnerable in our communities. Disadvantaged pupils deserve a chance to build a better life for themselves and education will allow them to do so.

Giving Tuesday also marks the launch of The Big Give Christmas Challenge – the U.K’s largest match funding campaign. The challenge works by charities securing a ‘match pot’ of funding from their key supporters (called ‘pledges’) and a Big Give ‘Charity Champion’, which is then used to double donations made during the challenge week, meaning one donation = double the impact!

We have £2,000 to raise in donations across seven days, which will be doubled to £4,000 thanks to our match funding pot! Donations open at 12pm on Tuesday 30th November and close 12pm on Tuesday 7th December.

You can watch The Big Give Christmas Challenge 2021 campaign video to learn more. To ensure donations are matched, donations for our #ChristmasChallenge21 must be made via Action Tutoring’s Big Give campaign page. Donations start from £1.

With your contribution, 2022 can be a brighter year, where pupils have the support they need and bounce back from the impact of the pandemic.

Share our cause with your friends and family

If you are not able to give your time or make a donation, you can still help our cause. Please share this post with your friends and family and remember that raising awareness is crucial to ensuring that we continue to help pupils.

Why not share on your social media platforms or refer us to a friend you think would be interested in volunteering with us?

We hope the generosity inspired by #GivingTuesday lasts well beyond a day to create lasting change. It is time for all of us to bounce back and make sure there are brighter days ahead for everyone.

Our new website is live – Action Tutoring

Our new website is live!

We are absolutely thrilled to announce the launch of our new website, alongside our refreshed brand. We have made these changes to reflect the charity we are today, and ensure we remain relevant to everyone who interacts with us. We hope it draws in new audiences to our work.

We have put a lot of work into our new site and we are pleased to finally share it with you. You can now easily access updated and insightful information about our mission and how you can get involved.

What’s new?

Our improved site navigation and extra accent colours will help you find exactly what you’re searching for, presented as a clean and a modern design.

Updating a website is more than just making it appear aesthetically pleasing; it is also about learning what our volunteers and partner schools need and expect. Information should be easily accessible and answer all the questions you may have. It should also provide you with information and details about the charity, our team, our progress and our mission. 

As well as a new website, we have developed a refreshed brand and new logo, featuring the infinity symbol. This represents the infinite potential of the young people we support, our volunteers and our partner schools – emphasising what our pupils can do, rather than what they can’t do. The icon also represents the continuous cycle of giving back: by volunteering with our charity our tutors are helping our pupils to succeed in life. They will then progress and in future give back to society as a result, starting the cycle again.

The new website represents us as an education charity and our core values. We hope you like it as much as we do. The site will support our charity as we continue to work towards our vision of a world in which no child’s life chances are limited by their background.  We want to help more pupils than ever before this year but we can’t do this on our own.  We need more volunteers to help us to deliver the tutoring and more schools to partner with.

Every volunteer, school teacher, fundraiser and partner has helped us get where we are today and we want you to feel part of our journey, so don’t forget to stay up to date with our blog and news updates and subscribe to our newsletter.

Working towards our mission of lowering educational inequality would simply not be possible without the help of our wonderful tutors. We thank all our amazing volunteers and our incredible partner schools who have worked with us to reach the thousands of pupils who are part of our programmes. This is our way of making sure every visitor on our website can see the passion and commitment that goes behind our work.

Have you had a scroll through our new website? We would love to hear your thoughts!

We’ll be gradually rolling out the brand to our other materials and channels. We want to do this in a conscious way, so that we’re not wasting any resources. For these reasons, you might see our old logo in some places for a bit longer.

We’re grateful to The House agency for working with us on this project and understanding our needs and constraints as a charity, ensuring careful and valuable use of our funds.

Spotlight on Bristol: Action Tutoring’s third biggest region

Continuing our spotlight series on Action Tutoring cities, we come to the brilliant Bristol. We partnered with our first school in Bristol in 2014 and volunteers from across the city have been joining us ever since to support our mission to help disadvantaged pupils in the city to succeed.

A third of children are living in poverty in Bristol – ten school children out of a class of 30 – according to new data. The city has the highest levels of child poverty across the whole South West region. Evidently, even in areas where there are prestigious universities and more options for young people, the residents of cities are not necessarily benefiting. 

Young people from affluent areas are six times more likely to get places at the most selective universities. In Bristol, only one in 60 disadvantaged young people goes to a highly-selective university.

We believe that increased academic performance and good grades can be one of the most effective ways out of poverty for these young people and this will require a more redistributive approach to spreading education. 

Action Tutoring supports schools right across this hilly city, from Oldland Common to Stoke Gifford.

Fun fact about Bristol: Ribena was invented just outside Bristol. The popular blackcurrant soft drink gained popularity during the Second World War as an alternative source of Vitamin C.

With lots of programmes to deliver, we need plenty of budding volunteers to get involved. We are very fortunate that we partner with several businesses in the city, including DAC Beachcroft and Arup, whose employees volunteer with us. All of our volunteers have a positive impact on the education of disadvantaged pupils across the UK’s first cycling city.

Why volunteer with us?

We’re not standing still. We need more volunteers to ensure we can reach as many pupils as possible this year. There are many benefits to volunteering with Action Tutoring, from gaining professional experience and making your CV stand out to meeting other like-minded volunteers who share the same values as you.

Your help is more essential than ever in reducing the attainment gap and making sure pupils from deprived communities have access to quality education. 

Here you can find the schools we work with in Bristol. If one of them is accessible for you, why not get in touch with us so you can help support pupils who need you?

Nimantha is just one of our many volunteers in Bristol who tutored with us last academic year and has joined us again this year. As a university student, he can easily fit his tutoring sessions around his studies. As well as learning new skills, Nimantha is making a real difference to people’s lives:

I would highly recommend tutoring because you’re making a real difference to people’s lives by helping them reach their aspirations. Whatever level you tutor at, the pupils will be extremely grateful to you for devoting some of your time to pass on your knowledge.

Nimantha, Action Tutoring volunteer tutor, Bristol

If you live in this great city and would like to volunteer, our fantastic team in Bristol consists of Gemma, Alice, Lilah, Matt and Chloe. They will support you every step of the way and ensure that you have the best volunteering experience.

GCSE Results Day: Celebrating the the commitment and resilience of our pupils over a difficult year

Today is GCSE Results Day, a key date in our calendar where we pause to celebrate the achievements of our incredible pupils.

Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, we are reflecting on the disruption the pandemic has caused to their education at such a crucial time in their lives. Pupils have continued to lose vital months of learning in the classroom and national examinations have been cancelled again.

Despite these uncertainties we want to celebrate the commitment and resilience of this year’s pupil cohort in an incredibly challenging year. They have engaged with our sessions and continued to seek help, while managing the external disruption and pressures surrounding them.

We also want to thank our amazing volunteers who have given so much support, encouragement and positivity to these young people. They have made a significant difference to their lives this year and to their futures. Thank you for remaining committed to our work and the charity as we all navigated the obstacles together.

GCSE grading

The GCSEs pupils are awarded today have been decided by their teachers. We recognise this wasn’t an easy decision for the Government to make or an easy process for the teachers who have already been burdened with so much this year. However, we are concerned the disadvantaged pupils we support won’t have been fairly assessed.

Research shows disadvantaged young people are more likely to be under-predicted by their teachers than their peers and they generally do better when they sit their exams than when they are assessed by teachers.

Disadvantaged pupils have also been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, due to lack of support and access to tech at home and may have been less likely to return to schools once they reopened. This will have impacted the progress they made and the opportunities to demonstrate their academic abilities to their teachers.

Being undermarked could severely affect the future opportunities available to our pupils and their confidence to progress.
We are proud of our pupils and incredibly grateful to our tutors for what they’ve achieved this year.

What’s next?

Covid has continued to have a significant impact on education, growing the academic attainment gap. We want to stop this growth in its tracks and minimise, as far as possible, the damage the pandemic has caused. We can’t do this on our own.

We need more volunteers than ever before to reach as many disadvantaged pupils as possible and give them the sustained catch-up support they need and deserve. We have hundreds of opportunities to get involved, both through face to face tutoring and online – it’s now easier than ever to help out. If you, or anyone you know, can help this year, apply now!

 Become a volunteer

How to give back to your community as a full-time professional

Volunteer tutor, John Uren, describes his experience balancing tutoring on an Action Tutoring programme with working for the Civil Service.

For an hour every Thursday afternoon, you’ll find me tutoring English Language online to a pair of students at a comprehensive school in South London.

Am I a professional tutor? No. Do I have years of experience tutoring as a side-hustle? No. Am I equipped with the tools, training and safe-guarding knowledge to tutor? Yes.

I easily balance volunteering with my work commitments, and Action Tutoring even cover the cost of a DBS check!

This is arranged through Action Tutoring. A national education charity dedicated to supporting young people facing socio-economic disadvantages to achieve a meaningful level of academic attainment. This enables them to progress in education, employment or training. Action Tutoring do this by pairing high-quality volunteer tutors with primary and secondary school pupils to help build maths or English subject knowledge, confidence and resilience.

Anyone can volunteer and it’s just one hour per week. Programmes last over school terms, and all training, resources and safeguarding information are provided. I easily balance volunteering with my work commitments, and Action Tutoring even cover the cost of a DBS check!

 Become a volunteer

After completing my training with Action Tutoring, I remember being particularly nervous ahead of my first lesson. What if I won’t know what to do? What if the pupils don’t like me? What if they think I’m an idiot? But it was a brilliant experience, and I have thoroughly enjoyed tutoring ever since.

I admit that not all of my lessons run perfectly, yet over time, it has been incredibly rewarding to see my pupils gain confidence in their abilities and grasp a greater understanding of the topic. You don’t need to be an Einstein or Shakespeare to deliver effective lessons!

I’ve gained confidence, and the skills I’ve developed are transferable to many other areas of life.

Leading a tutoring session each week also provides plenty of opportunity for personal development! Including understanding how to pace and structure a lesson, how to keep your pupils engaged, and how to communicate difficult concepts simply. I’ve gained confidence, and the skills I’ve developed are transferable to many other areas of life.

Did you know? Before the pandemic, disadvantaged pupils were, on average, already 18 months behind their non-disadvantaged peers by the end of secondary school. Projections suggest that school closures could widen this gap by as much as 75%. Every session Action Tutoring provides is vital in closing this gap.

If you’re interested in signing up to volunteer with Action Tutoring, or just looking for more information, please fill out the following application form. This is a fun, interesting and important way to volunteer – open to all!

Action Tutoring’s end of year report: Thanking volunteers and supporters for contributing to a remarkable year for the charity

As the 2020-21 academic year comes to an end, we reflect on what has been achieved at Action Tutoring over the last year, in the face of huge challenges, and look ahead to being able to deliver tutoring sessions to even more pupils in the future.

2020-21 has been a remarkable year for Action Tutoring. It has seen the charity double in size, reaching more pupils and engaging more volunteers than ever before; it launched and rolled out its online delivery, which became the predominant delivery method, and it managed the significant disruption of Covid-19, including national school closures.

The charity would like to recognise these achievements but, more importantly, take an opportunity to thank all of its volunteers and supporters for remaining resilient and delivering so much in the face of such challenges.

Partner as a school         Become a volunteer

Action Tutoring Interim CEO, Jen Fox, said, ‘We have launched in new cities, reached our ten-year milestone, and continuously developed and expanded our new online provision with the tireless support of tutors. For four weeks in February and March, we even brought Action Tutoring into pupils’ homes.

‘We have forged more new relationships than ever and, as part of the National Tutoring Programme, opened the classroom doors to more than 5,400 pupils in nearly 160 schools up and down England. This year alone, 2,700 tutors have taken part, either stepping back into the classroom or logging into one from afar.’

‘We would like to thank everyone involved for the part you’ve played, and for your unwavering belief in pupils’ potential and the power of tuition to help them get there.’

To hear more from Jen about what has happened at Action Tutoring over this academic year please and subscribe for future newsletters, to keep up to date with what’s happening Action Tutoring.

Academic year 2020-21 review:

When the autumn term began in September 2020, we were able to return to schools and begin delivering tutoring both online and in person to help disadvantaged pupils catch up.
As more Covid-19 restrictions were introduced, with national lockdowns imposed in November 2020 and January 2021, Action Tutoring made the decision to pause all in-person volunteering during this time. We had to adapt our tutoring delivery to ensure that our pupils were still able to receive academic support, despite the restrictions.

Action Tutoring was able to offer online sessions to pupils based at home after a successful pilot programme in the summer and approval from the National Tutoring Programme. With the introduction of online tutoring, 84% of our sessions were delivered online over the course of the year, compared to 0% in the previous academic year.

The ability for our programmes to reach so many pupils was made possible by support from the National Tutoring Programme, which has meant that we have been able to grow more than ever before. Being an NTP Tuition Partner for this academic year has enabled us to support many more disadvantaged pupils; those who have been significantly impacted by the pandemic.

The last year has been an uncertain one, with school closures and further disruptions to learning having impacted disadvantaged pupils significantly. As a charity, we are proud of what has been achieved in response to the pandemic and are committed to helping pupils make up for the time lost.

Looking ahead

Over the next year, we plan to expand our reach further, meaning that we are able to support even more disadvantaged young people in additional regions across the country.

We look forward to submitting our application to continue as an NTP Tuition Partner over the next three years, which will allow us to offer more schools access to our programmes, while ensuring that this growth is manageable.

This expansion means that we need more tutors than ever before. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer tutor for next academic year, please apply now.

We are also looking for more schools that would like to get involved. If you are interested in partnering with us as a school, please complete our initial enquiry form.

Partner as a school         Become a volunteer

A safe place for all: putting an end to discrimination against LGBTQ+ pupils

Content warning: mentions of homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and mental health issues.

As part of Pride month, Action Tutoring Communications Assistant, Phyllida Jacobs, investigates the extent of homophobia and transphobia in schools and explores what can be done in the classroom to challenge these prejudices.

School should be a welcoming place where everyone feels included and respected. Yet for many LGBTQ+ pupils, this is not the case.

Research by Stonewall found that nearly half of LGBTQ+ pupils are bullied because of their gender identity or sexual orientation, with one in ten trans pupils being subjected to death threats at school. LGBTQ+ young people are more likely to suffer from mental health problems, and more likely to miss school due to bullying. Although this research also shows that the problem has slowly improved over the last ten years, there is clearly much more work to be done. 

Schools can play an important role in challenging homophobic and transphobic views that pupils may have picked up elsewhere. Many teachers work hard to challenge these prejudices when they arise. However, too often school can be a breeding ground for intolerance.

The discrimination faced by LGBTQ+ pupils in schools today can be traced back to the controversial Section 28. Between 1988 and 2003 (2000 in Scotland), this law prohibited the “promotion of homosexuality” by local councils. As a result, schools stopped teaching LGBTQ+ issues and often did nothing to prevent homophobic and transphobic bullying. A generation of LGBTQ+ people were raised in a culture of silence, where their very existence was denied. After years of campaigning, Section 28 was repealed, but its effects can still be felt today. 

It is now mandatory for schools to teach LGBTQ+ content as part of PSHE, yet two in five pupils report never being taught about these issues. The Department of Education guidance leaves it up to schools to decide how and when the content should be taught, allowing many schools to minimise or ignore LGBTQ+ issues in the classroom. 

It’s clear that more needs to be done to prevent homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools, but in March 2020, the Government Equalities Office withdrew funding from LGBTQ+ anti-bullying projects. This must be seen as a worrying step backwards in the fight for LGBTQ+ inclusion in our schools. 

The strain of lockdown combined with recent negative media attention on trans issues has only made life harder for LGBTQ+ pupils. If we are to create a culture in which all young people feel safe to be themselves, urgent action is needed. Without proper funding for projects specifically addressing homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying, and clear guidance on teaching LGBTQ+ issues, the great progress that has already been made will flounder.

Learn all about Stonewall’s campaign for LGBTQ+ inclusive education and how you can show your support here.

Volunteers’ Week 2021: Thanking our fantastic tutors

Volunteers’ Week takes place 1st-7th June every year and serves as a chance to recognise the fantastic contribution volunteers make to our communities.

This year’s theme is ‘a time to say thanks’, giving an opportunity to thank every individual that has given up their time to help those in need, over what has been an exceptionally difficult year.

Action Tutoring would like to say a massive thank you to every dedicated volunteer tutor for all your support over the past year.

Your contributions have helped disadvantaged young people across England catch up on the learning missed as a result of the pandemic and given pupils a better chance of reaching their full academic potential.

What our volunteers have achieved this year

The past year has been a tumultuous one. The disruption to learning caused by the pandemic and subsequent school closures has impacted disadvantaged pupils significantly and; with the introduction of the National Tutoring Programme; tutoring has been key in attempting to make up for the time lost.

We are so grateful for the contributions of every single volunteer tutor. Your hard work has allowed us to deliver more tutoring sessions and to support more young people than ever before.

So far, this academic year, 2,485 Action Tutoring volunteers have delivered 23,098 sessions to disadvantaged young people across the country!

The impact our volunteers have made

We know that small group tuition is extremely effective in improving both pupils’ grades and their understanding of the subject. A study from the Education Endowment Foundation calculated that an intense programme of one-to-one tuition could add up to five months’ progress to a young person’s schooling.

Every session that is delivered, therefore, offers significant support to a pupil’s learning and so as this number increases, so does the chance of these young people being able to reach their full academic potential.

Action Tutoring Interim CEO, Jen Fox, said: “2,485 is a huge number. With more tutors than ever before, it’s no surprise that Action Tutoring has been able to double in size this year.”

“Our passionate, diverse, committed volunteer army means that almost 5,000 disadvantaged pupils have had the tutoring support they deserve this year.”

Become a volunteer

Moving forward

Our work in levelling the academic playing field isn’t finished. We need your help to increase the amount of tutoring that we are able to provide and to reach more disadvantaged pupils across the country.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer tutor, please fill out our application form.

National Numeracy Day 2021: Encouraging maths skills for everyday life

Wednesday 19th May 2021 marks National Numeracy Day, a national campaign that focuses on building a love of maths among school children and encouraging adults to become more confident with numbers.

At Action Tutoring, we understand the value of developing numeracy skills for everyday life. With the help of our dedicated volunteer maths tutors, we have delivered a total of 76,417 maths sessions to disadvantaged pupils across the country over the last ten years.

As part of National Numeracy Day, we spoke to two of our dedicated volunteer maths tutors, Ceri and Ediho, about the importance of developing numeracy skills, how tutoring can support young people with maths and why they decided to offer there help as volunteer tutors.

Become a volunteer

Ediho Lokanga

Ceri Bunnage

Why do you think feeling confident with numbers is important for young people?

E: Most people do not realise that mathematics is used in everyday life and that wherever we go, we deal with it in one way or another. Good numeracy skills are essential for shopping, saving, renting a house or taking a mortgage. We all need to master basic numeracy to solve some of the issues we face daily.

How do you use maths in your everyday life?

C: I use maths to manage my time, for example how long I will work and when I have time to relax, as well as when buying my food and deciding if I have the extra money to splurge on treats. I also use maths when planning trips – I think about what time I must leave to arrive somewhere at a particular time, based on how long it takes to get there.

What is your favourite maths topic?

C: My favourite maths topic would be algebra – I find that they are like puzzles that I can solve!

E: I like differential equations, as I can use these equations to help me solve mathematical and physical problems.

What made you want to become a volunteer maths tutor?

C: I wanted to be able to help the pupils that need that little bit of extra support in order to shine, just as I needed the same for English due to my Dyslexia and Dyspraxia.

E: I wanted to pass on what I know and what I have learned over the years. I am aware that many young people struggle with mathematics, so I felt compelled to try and help them with this. Above all, it is a joy to know that you are making a change in helping somebody achieve their ambition, become a better learner and master a new topic.

It is a joy to know that you are making a change in helping somebody achieve their ambition, become a better learner and master a new topic.

How do you think tutoring can help young people improve their numeracy skills?

C: I believe that there are many different learning styles and that not everyone benefits from regular classroom learning to the same degree. More focused learning like small group tuition can benefit some pupils greatly. There is also the fact that many pupils just need a bit of consolidation of their numeracy skills through repetition, which can be achieved through tutoring.

How can parents help support their children with maths?

C: I believe that a good way to support children with their maths is to have them use it in real life. For example, when shopping, they could be given a £5 note and allowed to pick their desserts, which can’t exceed that amount. This will give the children some joy (because it’s dessert!) but also means they need to do some maths to work out what they can purchase.

E: Parents need to be involved in the process of exploring and learning mathematics with their children. Young people should be encouraged to explore everyday mathematics and discuss real life examples as a family.

Any top tips for young people who struggle with numeracy?

C: For children struggling with maths, my suggestion is to split questions into smaller steps so that they are easier to work with. If you are struggling, smaller numbers can be easier to work with and though this makes the problem longer to work through, it can be simpler to solve.

E: Make sure that you always break down instructions before tackling any problems, talk to your parents or teachers about the best techniques you could use and be positive and optimistic that problems are there to be solved and that there are techniques that you can use to do this.

If you would like to support disadvantaged young people with their numeracy skills, apply now to become a volunteer maths tutor using the link below.

Become a volunteer

Action Tutoring launches programmes in new cities across England

At Action Tutoring, our vision is a world in which no child’s life chances are limited by their socio-economic background. We wish to support as many disadvantaged pupils as we can, across as many regions as possible, to close the attainment gap and help these pupils fulfil their potential.

That’s why we’re delighted to announce the expansion of our current reach to new cities across the Midlands, North West and North East of England.

This means that with the help of our dedicated volunteer tutors, we will be able to deliver more sessions across the country, helping more disadvantaged pupils catch up on the learning they have missed as a result of the disruption caused by the pandemic.

Become a volunteer

The story so far

Action Tutoring began in London in 2011 and in 2014, we expanded to partner with schools in Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Sheffield and Sussex, before reaching Newcastle in 2017 and Nottingham in 2019.

During our time in these cities, we have made valuable relationships with schools, volunteer centres and other local organisations, in order to spread the word about the work that we do, with aims of having a positive impact on the local community.

Now, 10 years after our very first sessions took place, we are excited to be expanding further, reaching schools in Coventry and Derby in the Midlands, Chester and Southport in the North West and Durham in the North East.

Head of Delivery, Adam Geach, said, “It’s fantastic that we have been able to expand the work we are doing and partner with schools that we have previously been unable to support.

“Previously we have been limited to working in large cities due to the restraints of our volunteers, however with the development of our online model, we are now able to support schools further afield. This means we are able to reach and support disadvantaged pupils from different communities, where the inequality gap is stark.”

Adam added, ‘It’s fantastic to see our programme coordinators work so closely with the schools and to have tutors from across the country support pupils from these areas.”

For more information about the schools we are working with, please visit our Where We Work pages.

The benefits of online tutoring

Programmes in these new cities are currently all online, with pupils entering virtual classrooms from school, while tutors join remotely from across the country, as we build our pool of amazing volunteers in these areas to support pupils at local schools.

Programme Coordinator for Chester, Cathy Cartwright, said, “Since January we have launched six programmes in five different schools across Cheshire West and Cheshire, supporting pupils in Years 5,7,10 and 11.

“With these being online programmes, tutors from all across the country have been able to support pupils in Chester develop their confidence and subject knowledge in their English and/or maths.”

Partner as a school 

Get Involved

If you live in one of these cities and would like to help disadvantaged pupils in your community catch up on the learning they have missed, please apply now using our application form.

Similarly, if you are a school in one of these cities and would like to get involved, please enquire via our school inquiry form.

We are also always looking to expand further, so please get in touch even if we aren’t currently running programmes in your region.

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