Tutor Trust
Tutor Trust provides tutoring, at no cost to pupils or their families, to primary and secondary school pupils in the North of England. It particularly targets disadvantaged pupils.
In 2021/22, Tutor Trust served 6,730 pupils in 198 schools.
Size:
- Revenue in most recent annual accounts (August 2021-22): £3.7m.
- During 2021-22, Tutor Trust provided 34,800 hours of tutoring, to 6,730 pupils in 198 schools.
- It has 53.2 staff (full-time equivalents).
Age: Founded in 2011 and started tutoring in 2012
Proportion of charity’s expenditure covered by the evaluated programme: 100%
Charity number: 1144043
Its tutors are undergraduates, graduates and Qualified Teachers, recruited and paid for the work – which is additional teaching in maths, English and (in secondary schools) science. Tutor Trust’s revenue is £3.7m.
Good tutoring costs more than schools can pay, so the tutoring is heavily subsidised by charitable donations.
Why the Good Giving List recommends the Tutor Trust
An independent evaluation of Tutor Trust’s programme published in 2018 found that it increased pupils’ learning, to the equivalent of three months of learning.
That evaluation was funded and published by the Education Endowment Foundation, a charity which is the UK’s What Works Centre for education. That evaluation was specifically of Tutor Trust’s effect on attainment in maths amongst pupils in Year 6 (aged 10 – 11: i.e., primary school, Key Stage 2). The EEF has good confidence in the results of that evaluation – giving it four out of five ‘padlocks’ (which indicate EEF’s confidence in the findings: five is the maximum).
Furthermore, EEF has looked at the wider evidence for the effectiveness of ‘small group tuition’, from 62 studies. EEF finds that it has a positive effect on maths and reading – slightly higher on reading (+4 months) than on maths (+3 months); EEF has good confidence in those findings (giving it three out of five ‘padlocks’.)
Tutoring in maths at Key Stage 2 was 26% of what Tutor Trust delivered in 2021/22, and of 20% of its delivery so far this year. However, all of Tutor Trust’s work uses the same model, described below. In other words, all of Tutor Trust’s work is delivering a programme which is well-supported by independent evidence.
Tutor Trust’s work
Tutor Trust recruits, trains and pays tutors, most of whom are undergraduate students, to tutor disadvantaged pupils in maths, English and science.
The tutoring is delivered at school in groups of 1-3 pupils. It is normally delivered in school hours.
The intention is for each pupil to receive 15 hours of tuition, usually one hour per week for 15 weeks.
Tutor Trust works in the North of England. 65% of the pupils it serves qualify for Free School Meals (an indicator of poverty); 4% are Looked-After Children (i.e., in the care system).
It currently operates in Bradford, Leeds, Merseyside, and Greater Manchester.
Schools select the pupils who need additional teaching. Schools pay for the tutoring: their fees cover about half of Tutor Trust’s costs, the remainder being from charitable grants and donations.
Of the 4,500 pupils whom Tutor Trust has served so far in 2022/23, over 2,300 receive tutoring in maths. About 1,755 are tutored in English. The remaining 445 are tutored in science, which is offered at secondary schools.
Tutors are trained initially for 10-15 hours, and receive continuing professional development throughout their time with Tutor Trust, including annual safeguarding training. A team of 16 in-house teachers provide tutors with ongoing support and monitor the quality of delivery through observing sessions.
Tutor Trust is an official ‘tutoring provider’ under the UK Government’s National Tutoring Programme.
Other information
Evidence and strategy
- Tutor Trust’s work is based on the large body of research about the effectiveness of small group tutoring, including the EEF’s synthesis referenced above.
- In terms of evidence about Tutor Trust’s work specifically, the Education Endowment Foundation has funded three effectiveness evaluations. The first published in 2015 and was statistically inconclusive. The second – the one referenced above – published in 2018 and found a +3 month improvement in maths attainment of Year 6 pupils. A third – a ‘rapid test’ of strategies used by various tutoring providers to improve attendance – was run in 2021. It found that the ‘Snap Survey’ approach used by Tutor Trust increased attendance at sessions a little: from 62% to 66%. The full results were published in June 2022.
- Tutor Trust gathers considerable data, e.g., about what types of pupils it serves, where and for what subjects; the number of sessions they receive and from which tutor(s) and when; and their attainment before and after the tutoring. It uses this to track targeting (who it is serving); attendance and where that needs attention; tutors’ activity, performance and where attention /training is needed. It monitors quality of delivery, e.g., through observation and oversight of lesson plans.
How Tutor Trust uses / would use donations
- School budgets are very stretched, and unable to cover the amount of tutoring that is required, especially for disadvantaged pupils who are behind. Tutor Trust uses donations to subsidise its delivery, i.e., to enable schools and pupils to access it.
- Tutor Trust also uses donations to cover its infrastructure, e.g., refining its process for recruiting and selecting tutors (e.g., identifying the characteristics which make for effective tutors who persist), and gathering the data on performance and pupil feedback which enable Tutor Trust to learn and improve.
Tutor Trust’s three year plan, for 2022-25, which involves doubling the number of pupils it serves to around 13,000 by 2024/25. That will involve serving (a) new schools in the cities where Tutor Trust already operates, and (b) starting work in additional cities.
All photos credited to the charity