Partner as a school

Partner with Action Tutoring, a National Tutoring Programme provider, to provide academic support to your disadvantaged pupils.

We work 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.

Partner as a school

97% of schools would recommend Action Tutoring to another school

“Action Tutoring gives pupils a real chance to engage in real catch up interventions which might otherwise not be available to Pupil Premium pupils. [We’re] really grateful for the input. I feel the routine really helps pupils to progress. It`s a potential life changer!”

Steve Gittens, Executive Headteacher at Wallsend St. Peter’s in Newcastle

What does a programme look like?

We aim to support schools for the whole academic year and deliver two programmes of 10-20 tutoring sessions (with two different cohorts of pupils).

Each programme supports 18-20 pupils and can be run in-person or online. Sessions last for one hour and can run before, during or shortly after the school day, Monday to Friday.

Timings are agreed between the school and Action Tutoring to ensure high pupil attendance and engagement. There are no sessions during the school holidays. 

Our volunteer tutors

We recruit, train, DBS check and observe our diverse and inspiring volunteer tutors. Tutoring is delivered in person, with volunteers travelling to the schools, or remotely using our online virtual classroom.

Tutors work with up to three pupils and deliver sessions from Action Tutoring workbooks, designed by curriculum specialists. These workbooks organise the subject material across weekly sessions and provide activities to develop pupils’ understanding of different subject areas.

What’s the school’s role in the programme?

As a partner school, you’ll select which pupils take part. At least 65% of the group must be eligible for Pupil Premium or Free School Meals. A further 15% must not be deemed as able to otherwise access tuition.

We understand the pressures that busy schools are under, so we provide a dedicated Programme Coordinator. Your Programme Coordinator is your point of contact with Action Tutoring and coordinates all elements of your programme.

This significantly reduces any administrative requirements from school’s end.

Action Tutoring has been by far the best tutoring organisation we have worked with. The programmes are well organised and align with the school without adding additional pressures or constraints. We have seen direct impact for both our Year 7 and 11 cohorts, with significant progress in both maths and English.

Deputy Principal at a school in Nottingham

What schools do we work with?

Action Tutoring is always keen to hear from new schools. We seek to work with schools where the percentage of pupils eligible for Pupil Premium funding is above the national average (22%), ensuring our tutoring can be accessed where it’s needed most. If your school doesn’t quite fall into this category, please do still get in touch.

We are currently seeking to partner with schools located in our main hubs, or up to two hours from one of the hubs. Our hubs are in the following regions: Birmingham and Coventry; Bristol; Cheshire and Merseyside; London; Newcastle and County Durham; Nottingham and Derby; Sheffield and Sussex.

For more information about partnering with us, see our Primary School Guide or Secondary School Guide.

Proven impact

We invest strongly in evaluating the impact of our programmes, collecting baseline and progress assessment data in addition to the SATs and GCSE results of pupils we support. You can read our full 2021-22 report here

Primary pupils supported by Action Tutoring in 2021-22 were more likely to achieve the expected standards than other disadvantaged pupils across the country — by 8 percentage points in maths and 8 in reading.

72% of disadvantaged pupils passed their maths GCSE after attending at least 10 tutoring sessions with us. Pupils who also attended sessions in Year 10 were 27% more likely to pass their maths GCSE at the end of Year 11, when compared to other Action Tutoring pupils.

Unfortunately the data set for pupils who were supported in English for at least 10 tutoring sessions in 2021-22 was too small, making it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions from it. In 2018-19, 61% of disadvantaged pupils passed their English GCSE after attending at least 10 tutoring sessions with the charity compared to a national average for  disadvantaged pupils of 54%.

 

Costs

We fundraise to subside a large portion of the cost of a programme to reduce the impact on tight school budgets. 

As Action Tutoring is an approved National Tutoring Programme (NTP) Tuition Partner, schools can use their NTP grant to part fund the cost of a tutoring programme.

We ask schools to contribute a proportion of the costs too, meaning that schools pay less than £6 per pupil per hour.

Schools in Multi-Academy Trusts may be able to access a further discount. Please get in touch to find out more. 

Our pupils love tutoring and really look forward to their Tuesday mornings!

The real impact is in the children’s confidence and attitudes. Having worked with Action Tutoring across two schools for a number of years I am highly impressed with the on-the-ground logistics, delivery and management. Communication with the team is always good and the volunteers are highly trained and professional.

Headteacher at Stroud Green Primary School

What’s Action Tutoring’s approach to safeguarding?

We work closely with schools to ensure our programmes are delivered safely. All staff and volunteers have an up-to-date enhanced DBS check. They also receive training in safeguarding and child protection before being allocated to a partner school.

In November 2022, Action Tutoring successfully passed a thorough safeguarding audit as part of the National Tutoring Programme (NTP). It met all the necessary requirements including:

  • Safeguarding is an intrinsic part of organisational values and culture and is promoted through all organisational messaging.
  • All personnel within the organisation reflect consistent safeguarding messaging.
  • There is clarity of safeguarding messaging between all stakeholder groups engaged with the Tuition Partner.

For more information, visit our Safeguarding page (where you can find our full policy). 

FAQs

If you can’t find the answer to your question below, please get in touch at schoolenquiries@actiontutoring.org.uk.

I’m from a current partner school. How do I get in touch?

Simply email schoolenquiries@actiontutoring.org.uk and one of our Head of Programmes will respond within 1-2 working days.

If your query is specific to an existing programme at your school, you can email or call your assigned Programme Manager.

Where do you work?

We have established ourselves in eight regions across England: Birmingham and Coventry; Bristol; Liverpool, Chester, Southport and Wirral; London; Newcastle and County Durham; Nottingham and Derby; Sheffield and Sussex.

We welcome enquiries from schools located in or near to these cities and in the following additional area. Please get in touch if your school is outside of these areas as we may be able to offer a virtual tutoring programme.

How many pupils can you support?

We aim to support between 18 and 20 pupils per programme. Schools can choose to run multiple programmes at once.

What modes of tutoring do you offer?

Our sessions usually have a tutor to pupil ratio of no larger than 1:3, in a face-to-face, online, or virtual setting.

On a face-to-face programme, both pupils and tutors are in school with our Programme Coordinator. On an online programme, pupils are in school working on a computer with our Programme Coordinator, and our tutors log in to our online platform.

On a virtual programme, pupils will be tutored online in school, our tutors will log in to our online platform. Our Programme Coordinator will support virtually by observing each virtual classroom live.

What subjects and stages do you offer?

We provide English and maths support for pupils in Years 5, 6, 7, 10 and 11.

What grade does a pupil need to be working at to take part in the programme?

For Year 5 and 6 we work with pupils who are working towards expected standard. We work with Year 7 pupils who didn’t reach expected standard in their SATs. For Year 10 and 11, we work with pupils working at grades 3-5.

How are your programmes managed?

Each school is assigned a Programme Coordinator who is responsible for the day-to-day running of programmes and supports every session. They liaise with the school contact to provide updates and communicate any requests.

Our Programme Managers and Head of Programmes set up the partnerships initially and check in throughout the year to ensure satisfaction with the delivery of tuition.

We work in conjunction with teachers at the school to highlight pupils that will benefit most from our programme, but also in line with our criteria (disadvantaged pupils/pupils at risk of underachieving). Together with the teachers, we identify the best time to run sessions and the best way to manage the logistics, ensuring we gain their input on specific areas of need.

How much do sessions cost?

For the 2023-24 academic year, the cost to your school for a programme of 10-20 weeks of tutoring for 18-20 pupils is £1,643. This works out as under £6 per pupil. Your school will also need to use £2,700 from your NTP grant towards the cost of a programme.

Your school can sign up to multiple programmes to support different age groups or successive programmes to support the same pupils over the whole year.

How does the NTP work for schools?

Action Tutoring and other approved Tuition Partners are promoted to schools across the country. Schools then choose who to approach us to set up a tutoring programme for their pupils facing disadvantage. 

As Action Tutoring is an approved Tuition Partner, 50% of the cost of a programme can be funded by your school NTP grant In 2023-24.

Schools will also contribute to the cost of the programme in 2023-24. Action Tutoring will subsidise a large portion of the cost of a programme to reduce the impact on tight school budgets. 

What types of schools do you work with?

State primary and state secondary schools.

Who are your tutors?

All of our tutors are volunteers. We believe in harnessing the potential of social power to ‘do good’ without financial reward. It is central to our mission. We have an inspiring pool of tutors who support us because they believe in our mission and share our values.  

Our tutors range in age (from 18 to 82) and in background: undergraduates, former teachers, corporate volunteers and retired professionals. We are incredibly proud of the diverse range of volunteers we engage, who bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the pupils they support.

All tutors must meet the criteria listed below, or have equivalent qualifications, training or work experience. We have refined this criteria over our years of operation and it is in line with other peer organisations.

  • Educated to degree level, or to be studying for a degree.
  • Achieved a B grade (or above) at A Level (or an equivalent qualification) in the subject they wish to tutor. 
  • Evidence of strong communication skills
  • Experience working with young people, or able to demonstrate that they would have the skills required.
  • Empathetic towards the young people we support.
How do you recruit your tutors?

All tutors complete an online application form where they provide details of how they meet the subject knowledge and qualification criteria and any other relevant experience and motivations, which is carefully assessed by an Action Tutoring member of staff. We interview applicants who are close to meeting the qualifications and ask a series of competency and subject-related questions to confirm their suitability.

Once accepted, tutors must then complete an Enhanced DBS check and Action Tutoring will conduct a check of them on the Prohibited Teacher List.

How do you train your tutors?

How do you train your tutors?

We’ve designed, developed and refined our tutor training process over the past eight years. Currently, all successful tutor applicants are invited to attend ‘initial tutor training’. This is a two hour, live, small group training session than covers the following content:

  • Who we are and why we exist as a charity.
  • Our expectations of them as tutors and what they can expect from us.
  • An exploration of the challenges faced by disadvantaged young people.
  • Safeguarding, covering our policy and the use of scenario-based examples.
  • An introduction to the curriculum and exam process.
  • A guide of how to use our curriculum and workbooks to effectively plan sessions.
  • How to manage different pupil behaviours.
  • Overview of the next steps and opportunities for our online CPD modules.

Online tutors attend additional training to cover elements specific to online delivery including:

  • Online-specific safeguarding considerations.
  • How to adapt tutoring for online delivery.
  • How to get started and make best use of our online tutoring platform (Vedamo).

We provide continuous training across the year and our Programme Coordinators and Training and Curriculum team carry out spot checks, observations and  deliver feedback on an individual basis.  

How do you track pupil progress?

Pupils sit a baseline assessment initially, before they begin tutoring, and a ‘progress check’ halfway through, ensuring that tutoring focuses on the areas that they are struggling with. Programme Coordinators attend every session to monitor progress. 

Baseline and progress assessment results are shared with schools. We request pupils’ ‘working at status’ before tutoring commences.

What impact do your programmes have?

We have invested strongly in evaluating the impact of our programme both internally and externally. To see findings from our most recent Impact Report, visit our impact page.