Our story

Our charity now supports thousands of young people each year around England to reach their full academic potential and to help close the attainment gap. Read about the history of Action Tutoring and find out how it went from supporting a handful of pupils in London, to over 2100 pupils in the academic year 2019-20.

2011 – Action Tutoring is formed

Action Tutoring was founded in 2011 by the current CEO, Susannah Hardyman. Having seen first-hand the difference tutoring could make, Susannah set about establishing an organisation that could make the benefits of tutoring available to those who couldn’t otherwise afford it, through the use of volunteers.

2011 – Pilot programme success

Following the success of the pilot programme, the SHINE Trust provided funding for a larger pilot programme and in the academic year 2011-2012, fifteen programmes were delivered in school across London, benefitting 250 pupils

2012 – Manchester programme launched

Since 2012, the organisation continued to grow rapidly in London and in spring 2013 a pilot programme launched in Manchester. Funding from NESTA and the Cabinet Office enabled Action Tutoring to expand the regional model quickly around the country.

2014 – Collaboration with Impetus

In May 2014, Action Tutoring was thrilled to start working with Impetus-PEF helping to further refine the model to ensure the greatest possible impact for the pupils it worked with.

2015 – Workbooks created

In 2015, Action Tutoring developed its first workbooks structured to fit with the curriculum. 

2016 – Tutoring in Primary Schools begin

Action Tutoring began working with primary schools to help prepare Year 6 pupils with their SAT exams in the October of 2016. 

2019 – Launched in Nottingham

After launching across seven cities in England providing volunteer opportunities to thousands of new people, the most recent addition to the group was Nottingham providing tutoring from 2019. The other cities we work in are:

You can find out more about each of these cities on the Where We Work pages.

2020 – Online tutoring starts

Early in 2020, Covid-19 causes schools to close. In response, Action Tutoring launched its first trial providing online tutoring to pupils across the summer before launching its first online programmes in October 2020, offering tuition to pupils via video link from tutors across England, Scotland and Wales and the opportunity to tutor from home for volunteers.