Today marks the 5^th anniversary of our double award-winning charity delivering its first ever tuition session.  Our initial cohort of tutors did their first ever sessions with Year 11 pupils at Whalley Range High School in Manchester during February half term in 2012.

And we are also celebrating the 2^nd anniversary of Tutor Trust Leeds beginning tuition sessions at two secondary schools in our second city.

Over the past five years, we have recruited and trained over 1,200 tutors who have delivered nearly 55,000 hours of tuition in English, Maths and Science at over 200 primary and secondary schools across Leeds and Greater Manchester, with new schools joining us nearly every day.

There is a mass of evidence – academic and anecdotal – that a good tutor can make a big difference to a child’s achievements, confidence and aspirations.   We believe it is wrong that great tutors tend to be the exclusive preserve of pupils who have parents who can pay for private tutors at home.  

Tutor Trust exists to ‘democratise tuition’ and support busy teachers.  We make great tutors available to state schools so that all pupils who need it get can get some extra help and achieve their potential.  As proud members of the Fair Education Alliance, we are especially keen to give tailored support to pupils on Free School Meals and Looked After Children.

As Tutor Trust continues to grow as an organisation and at this exciting time, we are thrilled to announce two new Trustees joining our Board.  Brendan Murden, Director at CEL Leadership & Change, and Jim Lister, Principal Lawyer at Slater Gordon – both bring deep experience and a passion for increasing educational opportunity and fairness in the North of England.   Both have an exceptional knowledge of schools and share a commitment to the ethos of the Tutor Trust.  We are thrilled to have them join us as we continue to strengthen our governance and grow the organisation across Greater Manchester, Leeds and beyond.  Pete McIntyre remains our chair of trustees.  

Furthermore, our two co-founding directors’ roles are evolving as the organisation requires increased senior leadership capacity.  Tutor Trust currently has eleven staff and over 700 tutors across Leeds and Greater Manchester.  Both Abigail Shapiro and Nick Bent will continue with their existing responsibilities and work streams but Nick will now work full-time and serve as Chief Executive, and Abigail becomes Executive Director.  Both of our Tutor Trust co-founders are firmly committed to democratising academic tuition in Britain and to playing a part in closing the attainment gap. 

Tutor Trust has spent five years proving the educational and social worth of the Tutor Trust model and have demonstrated that, working with schools, we can make a positive impact on the educational achievements and aspirations of the young people we work with.  We continue to refine and improve every element of our work and we are confident that Tutor Trust is sustainable and scalable. 

Over the course of the summer months, we are hoping to further develop our leadership capacity and education networks through creating a Board of Patrons – so please watch this space for further updates.