An impactful wedding gift: Supporting Tutor Trust

Tom Amies-Cull is the Global Chief Operating Officer at a media agency, Kinesso. During our chat, Tom told us that he hadn’t had any tuition as a child attending a state school, like many of the young people we support. He told us that he feels he would have benefitted from a tutor’s support and believed they could have helped him with subjects he found challenging, like chemistry. This is one of the main reasons he supports our mission to democratise tuition and for it to be part of a fairer education system. 

When Tom learnt about our tuition model, he found our transparency compelling, and when he and Ben were deciding which charity to support for their wedding, they chose Tutor Trust to be part of the celebration, asking friends and family to donate instead of having a wedding list. 

Tutors can provide mentoring, 1:1 or small group support and the space for children to have their needs met in education.  

Tutors can help children to navigate difficult exams and our second Randomised Control Trial (RCT) commissioned by the EEF as part of the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), focused on boosting secondary school pupils’ engagement with, and attendance at, tutoring sessions. 

Tom and Ben are passionate supporters of our aims, mission, values and our training model.  

Our excellent team of highly trained staff and former teachers work alongside the University of Manchester to create and adapt our tutor training. After rigorous recruitment, each tutor undertakes a comprehensive training programme where they are given tutorials and feedback on their lesson planning. Teaching professionals with years of experience go through pedagogy - the study of teaching methods - explaining how to increase attainment as a tutor.  

Our tutoring nurtures young academic students from local universities, promotes life skills for their future employment and gives them access to working in schools. Many of our tutors have gone on to become teachers as a result. 

Many young people face significant barriers to accessing education and future employment opportunities. There is still a substantial attainment gap between children from low-income families and their peers. Moreover, with the closure of the NTP, funding for tuition is becoming increasingly difficult to find. 

But contributions from Ben and Tom’s special day have helped us to subsidise tuition for pupils who need it the most and can’t afford to pay for it privately. 

We are seeking funding to help us to continue to subsidise the cost of our tuition programmes to schools. With support, we want to expand our offer so that more young people from low-income communities can access a tutor.