Action Tutoring
Like many of SHINE’s grants, Action Tutoring targets those students who are in danger of missing out on those crucial A*-C grades at GCSE. However this project focuses on the home straight – those critical last few weeks of revision and study that can make the difference between success and failure. Action Tutoring matches professional graduate volunteers to students in inner London schools for one-to-one tuition in English or maths in the run up to their GCSEs.
The Grant Recipient
Action Tutoring is run by The Act Network which was formed in 2009 as an initiative of the Shaftesbury Partnership. This is a social business which creates and inspires trailblazing social reforms that aim to tackle disadvantage and generate opportunities in areas of high deprivation.
What it aims to do
The project targets schools that have GCSE pass rates under the national average. Teachers from these schools then refer students who are on the C to D borderline for maths or English. The project aims to:
- support students to achieve 5 A*- C GCSE qualifications including maths and English
- develop student confidence and motivation
- provide a short term, achievement orientated volunteering activity for young professional graduates (6-8 weeks rather than a year).
How it works
Action Tutoring recruits high quality volunteers, often recent graduates working in the City. After training and security clearance, the graduates provide six to eight weeks of one-to-one tuition on Saturday mornings in the spring and summer terms in the lead up to exams. All tutors must have an A level in the subject they are delivering and be educated to degree level. In mid January the programme began in two schools, with nearly twenty volunteers tutoring in each school! By the end of January it will be running in three more schools.
Latest Results
75% of the students who took part in the project last year achieved grade a grade C in English and maths. Considering before the programme they were on track to fall below a grade C in at least one of these subjects, this is a remarkable achievement!
Funding
SHINE’s grant will support the scale up and expansion of the project to 10 schools and 200 students in 2011-12, with the view to expanding further in the following years. The grant will pay for a part time Project Director and other delivery costs.
Funding: £40,000 over two years (2011-2013)
"This programme specifically targets immediately improving students' exam results."
SHINE staff member
Quotes
"This programme specifically targets immediately improving students' exam results."
SHINE staff member