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Episode 1: Poverty & Place (Part 1)

In our newly-launched Tutorcast we dig deep into the world of education in the North of England, to find out what makes it tick, and what we can do to make the tuition experience even better for our tutees and tutors, especially those from disadvantaged communities.

Published:

  • Time to read: 3 minutes

We’re a learning organisation, and, as such, we’re curious about the world around us, especially when it comes to education.

As a charity delivering high-quality tuition, we’ve already taken part in two successful Randomised Control Trials, the outcomes of which now drive our practice. We share our learning with our tutors, using it to create impactful and engaging tuition resources.  And now we’re delighted to announce that we’re going to share what we’re finding out with the wider world – in a brand-new podcast!

In our newly-launched Tutorcast we dig deep into the world of education in the North of England, to find out what makes it tick, and what we can do to make the tuition experience even better for our tutees and tutors, especially those from disadvantaged communities.

We’re excited to announce that amongst our guests are two thought leaders in the field of education, Dr Carl Emery and Louisa Dawes (pictured above), Lecturers in Education and Social Responsibility based at the University of Manchester School of Environment, Education and Development. Their specialist areas are social and emotional wellbeing and learning, emotional intelligence, and research on pupils from lower-income homes experiencing poverty.  They have worked with the DFE, QCA, and the Home Office.  As such, they make for the perfect guests for our new podcast.

Carl and Louisa run the ‘Local Matters’ programme which advocates for a different response from schools and community organisations to addressing the needs of children and families living in poverty.

We caught up with Carl and Louisa to ask them about their findings for episodes two and three of our podcast – and they share some powerful insights into how we can all make education more inclusive and impactful for the most marginalised young people.

Vicky Sadler, Tutor Trust’s Deputy Director of Training and former primary school teacher and leader, is passionate about educational outcomes and levelling the playing field for the most vulnerable.  Having a podcast became a way of finding out more and sharing that knowledge.

We wanted to create the podcast so that, as a team, we could find out more and share what we learned with our tutors, to inform their practice.  It’s a great medium and we know our tutors find them really useful, so it seemed a good way to forge another connection with them.

“The podcast has definitely taken on a life of its own and given me a real insight and desire to see how we can implement this learning in our tutoring.”
Vicky Sadler, Deputy Director of Training

In addition, being able to meet with some of her education heroes for the podcast, and ask them the questions that mattered, has been an unexpected bonus, she says.

I have been really privileged to interview people who spend their days sharing their knowledge to positively impact on young people’s education – it’s been hugely informative, and I hope our listeners will find it as thought-provoking as I have.

“I’ve found it really helpful to hear from Louisa and Carl about poverty, and how that affects young people’s life chances, but also from other guests, who have a deep understanding of what we can all do to make a difference.”
Vicky Sadler

Tutor Trust Co-Founder and Executive Director Abigail Shapiro, says the podcast adds another exciting dimension to the work of Tutor Trust.

Tutorcast is one way we have of sharing best practice with our tutors, but it’s also about opening up the conversation about education and engaging with new audiences.  We have an ambition to double the number of tutees we support over the next three years, and we’re keen to try different avenues to reach new school partners. Using the medium of a podcast is something we wanted to try, and we’re nothing if not innovative in sharing what we do. If it provokes a conversation about how we can make education more equitable, then that’s a good thing.”
Abigail Shapiro, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Tutor Trust

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Episode 11: What's in your tutoring toolkit?

Join Vicky in this insightful episode as she unlocks the hidden gems behind successful tutoring, and we've got two remarkable educators from Tutor Trust, Charlie and Lucy, here to spill the beans on their go-to methods for igniting student engagement.