Nick Bent Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Expand Nick has been involved with a number of educational and youth work charities for twenty years. He is a Director of the academies charity Oasis Community Learning and was previously Chair of Governors at the Oasis Academy MediaCityUK in Salford. During 2017, Nick is a Clore Social Leadership Fellow. An Associate of the think tank Demos, Nick spent seven years working in Westminster and Whitehall, including four years as a Special Adviser to Rt Hon Dame Tessa Jowell MP during the last Labour Government. He has also served as Director of the think tank Policy Network. From September 1st 2014, Nick has been appointed to serve a second three-year term as a lay member of the General Assembly of the University of Manchester. Nick is a graduate of the universities of Oxford (law) and Harvard (public policy).
Abigail Shapiro Co-Founder and Executive Director Expand Abigail's career in public affairs and media relations includes extensive experience of the education sector through spending time working at both the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the Pre-School Learning Alliance. Abigail has previously worked in Westminster and Washington DC. In recent years, Abigail's role as a freelance communications consultant has included work for GMPTE and Manchester City Council. Abigail is a graduate of the prestigious Politics and Parliamentary Studies course at Leeds University. From September 1st 2016, Abigail has been appointed to serve a three-year term as a lay member of the General Assembly of the University of Manchester.
Jason Heaford Chief Operating Officer Expand Jason has joined the Tutor Trust with many years’ experience of leading high quality early years provision. His most recent being a Social Enterprise based in Stockport. The setting received an ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted Inspection late in 2013. In addition to his work as a Director there he also helped to create and develop the charity ‘ACCES’. In his role as CEO, Jason has helped ACCES in supporting disadvantaged families and children across the Stockport area. During this period Jason was invited to become one of the founding Trustees’ of Anchorpoint Stockport of which he served as a Trustee for 2 years. Anchorpoint followed Stockport’s CVS in providing a voice and support for ‘Third Sector ’organisations. Jason began his working life as a professional footballer most notably with Derby County FC, but had to retire through injury. He went on to work within the Transport Industry becoming the UK operations Manager for the large French company GCA. Providing new learning opportunities for children who could not afford tuition attracted Jason to The Tutor Trust and he hopes to continue and expand on the amazing work that has already taken place.
Matt Wallis Quality and Impact Manager (Primary) Expand Matt joined The Tutor Trust in summer 2016 with over 14 years of experience working in primary schools and teaching across the primary range. He has always worked in inner city areas in a range of roles, supporting the children and families who live there. He started teaching in Sheffield and spent two years there before moving to London and working in Hackney for two years. He then spent five years in East London working as an Assistant Headteacher responsible for supporting children with Special Educational Needs. This gave him the experience of supporting children and families to overcome barriers for learning which has remained a firm foundation for his ethos to learning and education. Relocating to Manchester in 2011, Matt started as a supply teacher in a large primary school in Moss Side and quickly moved to support the school’s senior leadership team as Assistant Headteacher for over 4 years. He was responsible for various areas such as English, KS2 and Inclusion and was proud to teach in a school that won the DfE’s Pupil Premium Award for the North West region for their work supporting disadvantaged pupils to achieve their potential. Matt is now the Quality Assurance Manager for The Tutor Trust, overseeing the training and continual development of our tutors and the service they provide.
Jenny Muter Quality Manager (Secondary) Expand An experienced secondary teacher and middle leader, Jenny joined the Tutor Trust in September 2017 in the new Quality Manager (Secondary) role, working alongside Matt to ensure that all tuition sessions are of the highest quality. After graduating from the University of Oxford, Jenny went into teaching through the TeachFirst programme, which fit with her commitment to improving educational opportunities for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. She stayed in her initial placement school for five years, and undertook a variety of leadership roles, including Assistant Head of English, Head of Humanities, and leader of Key Stage 3 Assessment. She successfully completed the Teaching Leaders fellows programme for high potential educational leaders. Jenny is a keen traveler and has also previously taught in China, as well as having volunteered on educational projects in Belize, Kenya and Sri Lanka.
Lewis Howell Leeds Tuition Manager Expand Lewis joined The Tutor Trust in March 2014, having spent the previous 2 and a half years working in South Africa’s Kalahari Desert. Lewis was the Field Project Manager at the Kalahari Meerkat Project for 18 months, a behavioural research project run by the University of Cambridge looking at the evolution of cooperative breeding in meerkats. He was responsible for managing both the day to day research of the project and the team of international volunteers who collected the data. Prior to this, Lewis was one of the research volunteers for 12 months. Lewis graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2010, having studied Wildlife Conservation.
Beth Farrell Project Coordinator Expand Beth joined The Tutor Trust in February 2014 as a tutor, training in Secondary English and Science, and in Primary tutoring. Alongside her role as a tutor, Beth also assisted the charity by managing the Tutor Trust’s online blog and writing newsletters on behalf of the charity, as well as being on the committee for the University of Manchester’s ‘Tutor Trust Society’. Beth graduated from the University of Manchester in 2016 with a degree in English Literature, with a special acknowledgment for her voluntary work. In her time at University, Beth was the Marketing and Publicity officer for RAG, the University’s fundraising organisation, and was Secretary and scriptwriter for the University of Manchester Pantomime Society, as well as contributing to the University’s newsletter and working at the Student’s Union bar. Beth is driven towards aiding the lives of children, and worked at an adventure playground for children in disadvantaged areas in London over the summer of 2015. It was The Tutor Trust’s key aim of closing the education gap that drew Beth to working as a tutor for them, and so she is delighted that she has now taken on a full time position with the charity.
Rob Paterson Manchester Secondary Coordinator Expand Rob joined The Tutor Trust in 2016, training in Secondary English, Maths and Primary tutoring. He was one of the first tutors on the EEF program and completed over 100 hours of tuition in just over 6 months. Having graduated with a degree in PPE from The University Of Manchester, Rob has worked extensively with children and young people in running a York based children’s theatre company called Snickelway between 2013 and 2016. Rob found great fulfilment in being able to make a tangible, positive difference in the lives of children through tutoring and looks forward to continuing this in his new role of Secondary Coordinator.
Zoe Robertson Recruitment and Impact Coordinator Expand Zoe began tutoring for The Tutor Trust in 2016 as a primary and secondary maths tutor. After studying at the University of Manchester she graduated with a first class degree in Biomedical Science in 2017. Following her graduation, she was very pleased to be offered the role of Recruitment and Impact coordinator for The Tutor Trust. Zoe has always been very passionate about tackling educational equality, and displayed this during her time at university by volunteering as a primary school tutor for a charity with a very similar ethos to The Tutor Trust. In 2013, she also visited and taught at a school in Tanzania, after fundraising for the school throughout her time at secondary school. Her final year project at university involved designing and conducting a study for primary school students to test and improve their knowledge of microbiology, and the most effective approach to develop their understanding. She really enjoyed investigating different learning style approaches as well as designing the study and analysing the data, so is really looking forward to working with Matt and Jenny, the Quality Managers, on future projects.
Ben Pliener Tutor Coordinator Expand Ben joined the Tutor Trust in summer 2016 as a Leeds Maths tutor and joined the team as Tutor Coordinator in July 2017. He graduated from the University of Manchester with a Masters in Classics and Ancient history in 2014 and stayed with the University until 2016 looking after the new students as a Resident Life Advisor. Ben has always been passionate about supporting the community and before going to university had received awards from the Lord Mayor of Leeds and the Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire for his work specifically with children through several local youth groups. The ability to help improve the education of struggling students was the reason why Ben become a Tutor and why he is happy to now have a full-time position working for The Tutor Trust.
Deborah Reid Executive Assistant Expand Deborah joined the Tutor Trust team in January 2017. She has always lived and worked in Greater Manchester, knowing many of the schools we work with. Previously, she has worked in finance administration roles for over twenty years with her last position being Credit Premium Unit Manager in the Manchester branch of an insurance company for thirteen years. Her role involved dealing with and developing all aspects of their direct debit collections. Moving away from the corporate insurance field, Deborah still wanted a role where could utilise her expertise in financial administration. She is very much enjoying assisting The Tutor Trust in its work with young people throughout Greater Manchester and Leeds.
Rachel Bray Primary Schools Coordinator Expand Rachel was born and bred in Stockport and graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2016 with a degree in Education Studies. During her time studying, Rachel worked in a lot of schools in the area. She has always had a keen interest in education and working with children, and has completed over 10 years volunteering for Girl Guiding and Scouts. Having worked in schools throughout Manchester and seen the work that tutors do first hand, Rachel is passionate about The Tutor Trust ethos, and knew that it was something she would love to be a part of. She was delighted to join the team as Primary Schools Coordinator in February 2018.