Welcome to our spring 2023 newsletter
An update from Susannah, our CEO
I hope you’ve been enjoying longer days and some warmer weather. It’s certainly put a spring in our step here at Action Tutoring.
Exam season is approaching, which is always a stressful but exciting time for our tutoring programmes.
It really draws into focus why we do what we do, especially as we see pupils grow in confidence in these last few months before their exams.
So far this year, advocacy work has been at the top of our agenda. We’ve been campaigning directly to No.10 and Parliament for policies that we know are needed to bridge the attainment gap. We submitted evidence to Parliament using data from our impact report and received an honourable mention.
It was great to hear that the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) has made considerable progress in increasing access to tutoring. New research from the Sutton Trust has shown that the gap between the proportion of the most and least deprived pupils receiving tutoring has almost closed. We believe that to close the attainment gap in the long term, tutoring for disadvantaged pupils must be permanently embedded in our education system.
Do have a read through our spring policy update for more information on our advocacy work.
As always, our frontline work tutoring pupils remains at the core of what we do.
This term, I enjoyed trips to Sheffield, Liverpool and Newcastle to meet with staff in these regions and visit our partner schools.
It has been inspiring to meet more of our tutors and observe programmes taking place. I will take these moments with me as I advocate at No.10 for wider tutoring provision.
Greetings from Newcastle!
From our Newcastle Programme Coordinators, Hannah, Brenda and Sam, our Online Programmes and Systems Administrator, Samantha and Susannah our CEO.
This newsletter will give you a glimpse into the groundwork we’re doing to tackle the attainment gap. It’s an incredibly exciting moment for us, our partners in schools and our tutors.
- Susannah Hardyman, CEO and founder of Action Tutoring
What you can expect in this newsletter
- Our new partnerships and funding
- Heartwarming poetry by a pupil
- World Book Day fancy dress
- Our promise to keep costs low for schools
- Feedback from our Schools Advisory Board Meeting
- Our advocacy work at No.10
- Paid opportunities to join our team
- A reflection on how the skills shortage can be combated with tutoring
Exciting new partnerships and funding
We’re excited to embark on new collaborations with the Westminster Foundation and QBE Insurance.
QBE will provide significant funding over a 3-year period, making a very tangible difference to our work as the NTP subsidy reduces next year and then ceases. They will also support our marketing team to help drive awareness of our cause and will work directly with our programme teams to deliver sessions to pupils as their colleagues join us as volunteer tutors. We're extremely grateful and excited to have been selected as their partner charity
The Westminster Foundation is generously giving a £500,000 grant that will fund tutoring over five years for disadvantaged pupils in nine schools across Chester and Westminster.
Read more about our collaboration with the Westminster Foundation on our blog.
Pupils at Blacon High School in Chester working with our North West Programme Coordinator, Laura.
Pupils celebrate completing their tutoring programmes
A number of our programmes recently finished. Pupils have been saying thank you to their lovely tutors through cards, poems and smiles!
Take a look at this wonderful poem by a pupil in Newcastle.
World Book Day celebrations
This World Book Day our Bristol Programme Coordinator, Freya, dressed up as Worzel Gummidge the scarecrow for her session at Oasis Academy New Oak.
Freya said:
“The class teacher described me as "outstanding in her field" and we had a good chuckle. I saw Thing One and Thing Two from The Cat in the Hat, loads of Hermiones (they're reading Harry Potter in class) and a Peaky Blinder for some reason”.
We will keep costs low for schools
We are delighted to share that thanks to support from a number of generous funders, next year we are in a position to significantly subsidise the cost of tutoring despite a reduction in NTP funding.
Schools will not have to pay more than £10 per pupil per hour. We're so pleased that our fundraising enables us to make this offer to schools. If you know a school that would love to take advantage of this please click the button below or reply to this email.
Deepening relationships with our partners in schools
In March, we had our very first School Advisory Board Meeting - 11 senior school leaders from across England came together to provide vital feedback on our programmes and future plans.
We want to say a massive thank you to everyone who joined us. We discussed school spending priorities and strategies for communicating with new schools. Take a look at what some of the school leaders said about us!
Our advocacy work goes from strength to strength
Driven by the reduction in NTP subsidies and its diluted focus on disadvantaged pupils, we have been really focused on our advocacy work.
In February, we submitted evidence to two parliamentary inquiries into education recovery and persistent pupil absence.
We recommended making the NTP a permanent policy, strengthening its overall quality, reinstating its pupil premium enrollment targets, maintaining subsidies and expanding to regional ‘cold spots’.
We took part in meetings with education leads from No.10’s delivery unit, Education Select Committee Chair, Robin Walker, and Shadow Schools Minister, Stephen Morgan. We wrote letters to 90 MPs and 7 city mayors to recommend us to schools in their constituencies/cities.
Jen Fox (Deputy CEO) and Susannah Hardyman (CEO) outside No.10
Advocacy will continue to be one of our priorities as a charity. In addition to our frontline work, campaigning for disadvantaged pupils in Parliament will go a long way in reducing education inequalities.
New opportunities to join Action Tutoring
Are you a teacher who wants to use your brilliant teaching knowledge but are ready to leave the classroom? Want a work-life balance and a fulfilling and interesting role? Join us as an English or maths Curriculum Lead
The role can be based anywhere in England and Wales. Please click the buttons below to find out more information. The closing date is 25th April at 1 pm.
Tutoring can help reduce the skills shortage
More than half of UK businesses are experiencing a skills shortage (Open University's Business Barometer via People Management). To fill this gap, more companies are looking to recruit straight out of school and through apprenticeships. However, to access the majority of these opportunities, individuals still need to pass GCSE maths and English.
Only 48% of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds passed both their English and maths GCSEs in 2022. If we do not intervene at school-level, we’ll continue to see increasing numbers of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET).
Reducing the skills shortage is a key result of the work that we do as an organisation. We’re glad to have a number of brilliant partners in the business world that work with us to do this and we would like to build more partnerships.
We offer Lunch & Learn sessions to introduce businesses and their employees to our work. There are opportunities to support us through funding or volunteering.
If you work for a company that you think might be interested in our work, please email samantha@actiontutoring.org.uk. For more information, read our blog post about this by clicking the button below.
Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. We hope you are as excited as we are about everything we are working on.
There are many ways to get involved as a tutor, funder or partner. For more information, please to reply to this newsletter or visit our website
