Tutor Trust
Transforming lives through tutoring
The big idea
To provide affordable tuition to primary and secondary schools in disadvantaged parts of the North by recruiting and training university students as paid tutors.
Why it’s needed
By age 16, the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers averages 21.5 months in the North of England, compared to 10.4 months in London.
Research indicates that a significant proportion of schoolchildren in England receive private tuition, with maths being the most in-demand subject. However, children from low-income families often miss out on this extra support due to financial constraints, leaving them at a disadvantage compared to their wealthier peers.
Tutor Trust was founded to bridge this gap by providing state schools with trained tutors who deliver tailored, affordable support to less advantaged students.
How it works
Tutor Trust operates in areas of greatest need across Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and the Tees Valley.
The trust carefully selects university students through a rigorous recruitment process and provides them with comprehensive training over three to four weeks.
Tutors receive ongoing monitoring and support to ensure high-quality, high-impact tutoring. Tutors work with children in partner schools and colleges, focusing on providing support to those who need it most.
SHINE’s involvement
SHINE was an early funder of Tutor Trust. In September 2012, a year after the trust was registered as a charity, SHINE co-funded its second pilot in the City of Manchester, delivering tuition in primary and secondary schools. Building on the success of this pilot, SHINE later awarded a grant to support a similar initiative in Leeds.
The impact
In November 2018, the Education Endowment Foundation published an evaluation into the impact of the tuition. A rigorous, independent trial of the project revealed that after just 12 hours of tuition, Year 6 pupils made an average of three months’ additional progress in maths. The impact was especially significant for pupils with lower prior attainment and those receiving Free School Meals. Additionally, a ‘spillover effect’ was observed, with tutees also improving in reading. Both tutored pupils and their teachers consistently reported increased confidence as a key benefit of programme.
Abigail Shapiro, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Tutor Trust, said: “Without the early investment of SHINE, we would not have been able to deliver these trials, which have shown such incredible impact in schools in Manchester and Leeds.”
Fiona Spellman, CEO of SHINE, said: “We provided early-stage investment for this model because we saw the potential it had to dramatically boost attainment amongst children from low-income homes. We are proud to have supported Tutor Trust and would recommend them highly as an effective charity to support.”