Our tutors

Our tutors 

Our tutors are self-employed and are paid a minimum of £22 to plan and deliver a one-hour tutoring session. Our tutor pool contains people with a range of experience, including qualified teachers and experienced professionals. Around 70% of our tutors are undergraduate and graduate students at local universities.

We pay our tutors fairly and we are thoughtful about how we recruit. Fewer than half of tutors who submit application forms become tutors with us. All primary tutors have at least a grade B / 6 in both GCSE Maths and GCSE English. All secondary tutors have at least a grade A / 7 at GCSE in the subject that they tutor, and many are studying that subject at university. Our tutors supporting those resitting their GCSEs in college have at least a grade A / 7 at GCSE in the subject that they tutor, and have been trained as mentors.

Before being approved to tutor with us, all tutors go through the following process:

• Initial online application with scored competency questions
• Online interview with scored questions, including a simulated tutoring session. Every candidate is interviewed by two members of our staff team.
• 10-12 hour assessed online training, consisting of a mix of self-paced online learning, live sessions with our staff team and PGCE trainers from the University of Manchester, and assessed tasks. The training contains guidance on the various GCSE specifications and the National Curriculum. You can find out more about our tutor training here.
• Safeguarding training
• Two references
• Enhanced DBS check and barred list check

Building confidence and aspirations

Our tutors don't just provide academic support; throughout the programme, they strive to build confidence, foster aspiration, and encourage a love for learning in their pupils. Tutoring sessions not only provide a safe and supportive space for pupils to ask questions and work through the topics they find more difficult, but also the chance to have conversations in a small group with a successful adult role model.

Many of our tutors are students at Russell Group universities, and an increasing proportion have engaged in Widening Participation programmes before attending university. They're very well-placed to talk with pupils and students about their own journey to higher education and what options are available to pupils after leaving school.

Ensuring high-quality tutoring

After their initial training, our tutors receive ongoing support and monitoring from our in-house team of experienced teachers and school leaders, including subject specialists in English, Maths and Science. We offer ongoing programmes of development for our tutors, including video tutorials, a peer mentoring programme, live online sessions, and in-person training events.

All tutors are required to complete annual safeguarding training and refresher training.

Our in-house team ensure that all tutors are delivering high-quality tutoring sessions. Monitoring takes two forms, with tutors assessed against our rigorous matrices of tutor quality:

• Lesson plan spot checks - all tutors are required to submit an exemplar lesson plan, which is reviewed by a member of our quality team. Tutors receive developmental feedback.
• Lesson observations - last year, over 60% of tutors were observed delivering a session by one of our team. We observe as many tutors as possible, prioritising new tutors, those whose lesson plan indicates areas for development, and those we believe may be outstanding and able to mentor other tutors. Tutors receive full developmental feedback on the outcome of their observations.

We are very proud of the quality of our tutors: in 2022/23, 94% of tutors observed were delivering good or outstanding tutoring. The small number who need more support are provided with a bespoke programme of coaching and are reobserved.