Winter newsletter 2025

Words from our CEO, Jen

Thanks to you, we are able to work everyday to narrow the attainment gap for pupils facing disadvantage. We're very proud of what has been achieved this academic year, our largest ever year of delivery. I also wanted to take this opportunity to share that I will be heading off on maternity leave at Easter. If you know of anyone who would be interested in my interim role, you can find out more and apply on our website. With an excellent Senior Leadership Team and Trustee Board I am confident Action Tutoring will continue to thrive during my period of leave. 

Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) update
We're excited to see that delivery of our maths evaluation is well underway across 58 new secondary schools. It's a unique opportunity to learn about what drives impact in our approach and highlight the benefits of our volunteer-delivered model. We're also very excited to be launching programmes in brand new locations including Hull, Leeds and Somerset. 

Labour Party Conference and budget
I was grateful to join fellow leading education voices at this year's Labour Party Conference, outlining a dynamic vision for the future of tutoring (you can read more in our blog and within this newsletter). In other policy news, we welcome the Chancellor's announcement to fully scrap the two-child benefit cap. This policy change is a significant victory for child poverty campaigners, and the Government estimates it will lift 450,000 children out of poverty over the next few years. 

QBE Award shortlist
It was an honour to be shortlisted in the Charity Times Awards for our QBE Europe partnership. While we didn't take the stage, it was a great opportunity to celebrate our partnership and what we've achieved together. A huge thank you to the QBE Europe team; we wouldn't be able to do what we do without you. 

Impact report
In early 2024-25, we will publish our annual impact report. The report will highlight our charity's achievements and the impact our work, and our amazing volunteer tutors, have had on our pupils. We have some very exciting results to share! Check back on our social media channels during January to read our impact report and its key insights. 

We hope you enjoy this latest newsletter and whatever the winter break has in store for you. 
 

Best wishes, 
Jen Fox 
CEO
Action Tutoring

Growth and delivery

• 58 participating secondary schools. 
• More than 1,450 Year 10 and 11 pupils attending maths sessions to date. 
• Nearly 500 volunteers attending EEF sessions so far, with more signed up to join future sessions. 

You can read more about the EEF programme on our website. 

reach nationwide. Our tuition is now reaching communities across new locations including Manchester, Leeds, Hull, Essex, Kent and Somerset. 

Rigby Foundation 

We are delighted to be expanding our delivery in Birmingham this year, reaching more pupils than ever before in the city. We are a key charity partner in the Inspiring Futures programme, a ground-breaking £3 million social mobility initiative led by The Rigby Foundation. Over the next three years, the programme will provide support to thousands of young people across the West Midlands. 

Celebrating our pupils

As ever, our pupils and tutors have celebrated the joy of tutoring over the past few months. Check out this highlight below. 

Curriculum and our resources

• A greater core skills focus, which is needed for SATs success. 
• More tutor guidance, especially around modelling. 
• Refreshed topics and activities. 

In addition, Year 6 and 7 maths demonstration videos have been well received by tutors, while English printed workbooks resources have seen layout and structure enhancements. English online session templates have also had a re-vamp, taking into account tutors' requests for better usability and access to texts. 

Our team will continue with curriculum development this year as we evaluate our newly released Year 5 English curriculum resources, and as we adopt a detailed evaluation and redevelopment of our Year 7 English curriculum.  

Policy update

Curriculum review response

We are pleased to see several key areas featured within the latest Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report.

Ranging from English and oracy, maths and financial literacy, to a curriculum focused on opportunity and equity, we welcome a brighter blueprint for education which aims to reflect the needs of pupils facing disadvantage.

While some ongoing areas require further consideration, we are therefore eagerly awaiting the upcoming Government White Paper on education. 

Labour Party Conference attendance 

We were delighted to partner with the Education Policy Institute, Get Further, Tutor Trust and Richard Quigley, MP for the Isle of Wight, at this year's Labour Party Conference. 

The event in Liverpool saw a variety of leading education voices come together to discuss a new tutoring model for breaking down barriers to opportunity and supporting economic growth. 

The conference enabled policymakers, school leaders and education experts to collaborate to address what a purposeful tutoring approach can look like. 

Fundraising round-up

#ItAllAddsUp - Celebrating our Big Give Christmas campaign

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated to our Big Give Christmas campaign. Thanks to match-funding, which doubles the overall amount raised in campaign week, we've achieved a fantastic total of £12,122. 

Your vital support will help make a significant and lasting difference to the futures of young people facing disadvantage. This includes helping pupils to build knowledge and confidence through their tutoring sessions; all part of our broader mission to narrow the attainment gap. 

If you wanted to support our campaign but missed the deadline, you can still support our pupils by donating, either one-off or monthly, via our link below. 

Fantastic fundraisers

Thank you so much to our amazing supporters, who have ranged from runners, to bakers, all raising vital funds. Our superstars include: 

• Our ten-strong Royal Parks Half Marathon squad, including nine from our corporate QBE Insurance team. 
• A terrific tutor who has raised £300 from a bake sale, matched generously by her employer, Barclays! 
• QBE Insurance and their broker partners held a quiz night which raised a whopping £4,660!

A festive thank you 

Finally, we want to extend a festive thank you across the winter period, however you choose to spend it. To everyone within our network, thank you for your incredible support. Your amazing efforts enable us to help pupils facing disadvantage every year. See you in 2026.

Tutoring's teaching benefits

Our blog post, Tutoring journeys: From volunteer to teacher, features incredible stories from people like Rich. A former corporate contractor, Rich, used tutoring as the "keystone" to launch his teacher training journey. 

Rich realised Action Tutoring was the missing puzzle piece. It gave him the absolute confidence he needed to make a complete career change. You don't just teach maths or English; you gain essential hands-on experience in a real school environment. You develop the core communication and behaviour management skills impossible to learn from a textbook.

This direct exposure allows you to truly 'test the waters' of teaching in a low-stakes setting. It provides proof of passion and competence, enabling your teacher training application to stand out. 

If you feel that pull toward the classroom, your volunteering hours are your first and most valuable qualification. 
 

Vacancies

Interim Chief Executive Officer (maternity cover)

You will be responsible for maintaining the high performance of the charity, overseeing the delivery of key strategic goals in line with our mission and aims. Within your role, you will work with the Board to implement the charity's vision and mission, lead on people and cultural leadership, represent Action Tutoring externally to stakeholders and raise the profile of the charity as its lead advocate, as well as overseeing financial management of the charity.

Deadline: Wednesday 17th December 2025.

Spread the word

We need you!

Looking to give back? We're always on the lookout for vital volunteer tutors to join our programmes. At the moment we are particularly keen to hear from maths lovers who would make great tutors and who could tutor secondary school-aged maths pupils online. 

Recommend us to a school

We're always looking for new partner schools to join our mission. So, if you know a school, or a teacher who might be interested in our help, why not recommend us to them? You can email hello@actiontutoring.org.uk, or call 0300 102 0094. You can also post recommendations via our form below.