Abigail Shapiro, Tutor Trust’s Executive Director and Co-Founder, returned to Number 10 yesterday, along with Susannah Hardyman, CEO of sister charity Action Tutoring, to present our powerful new report, The Future of Tutoring, to Government, calling for a fair tutoring future.

It was Abigail’s third visit to Downing Street this year to advocate for educational equity in the North, especially for pupils with the greatest need of tuition support.

The report was formally launched later in the day at the parliamentary event ‘Building a Fair Tutoring Future,’ marking the three-year anniversary of the National Tutoring Programme and was hosted by Tutor Trust, Action Tutoring and Get Further. The event was hosted by The Rt Hon Robert Halfon, Minister of State for Education, and Robin Walker MP, Chair of the Education Committee.

Abigail welcomed guests to the event and Public First presented the report, emphasising the benefits of tutoring and calling for the next Parliament to offer a Tutoring Guarantee, to help narrow the attainment gap and support students' mental health. The Tutoring Guarantee would allow all young people in receipt of Pupil Premium, who are behind in either English or Maths, to be offered high quality tuition support to help close the gap.

Also at the launch to back the call for the guarantee was our CEO Ed Marsh, along with Matt Wallis, Director of Training and Quality Assurance, Mark Wyss, Programme Director, and Pete McIntyre, our Chair of Trustees.

Dame Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, who wrote the foreword for the report, also attended the event.  She is a powerful advocate for tuition and wrote in her introduction to it that: "This report offers timely insight into the value teachers, parents and pupils place on tutoring. I very much hope policymakers attend to its recommendations.

The time is now to shift the dial, and if all of us working with children commit to doing just that, we can deliver for all of England’s children. Tutoring can play a central role in unlocking the ambition of England’s children, if we deliver a Fair Tutoring Future.”

The Future of Tutoring, which draws on research from more than 1,000 parents of school- and college-age pupils, along with teachers and pupils themselves, was commissioned by us and fellow charities including Impetus, Action Tutoring and CoachBright. It showed that support for tutoring was overwhelmingly positive.

The research found that:

• Over three-quarters of parents would support increasing tuition provision in England,
• Parents felt that tutoring helped to support their child’s mental health and reduce anxiety,
• Over half of primary school teachers said tutoring had a positive impact on pupils,
• Teachers reported an impact on academic attainment, increased confidence, engagement and reduce anxiety,
• Teachers agreed that disadvantaged children should be prioritised,
• Pupils like tutoring, unlike many academic interventions,
• Pupils felt that tutoring was enabling them to ‘catch-up on lost learning during Covid-19, and,
• External tutors were viewed positively as experts who sat outside of the school system.

 

      

*The banner images show (left to right): 1) Abigail Shapiro and Susannah Hardyman, CEO of Action Tutoring, outside 10  Downing Street, 2) Abigail Shapiro speaking at the Future of Tutoring event in Westminster, 3) The Rt Hon Robert Halfon, Susannah Hardyman, Robin Walker MP, Sarah Waite (CEO of Get Further), and Abigail Shapiro, pictured at the Westminster launch event.