Action Tutoring’s Impact Report shows tutoring’s effectiveness in narrowing attainment gap

The report highlights the charity’s growing expansion to hard-to-reach areas and closing the attainment gap in post-pandemic education

Action Tutoring has released its 2021-22 Impact Report, detailing significant expansion in tutoring delivery and its impact on disadvantaged pupils across England, despite the challenging pandemic disruption to education. The report also highlights the education charity’s successful efforts in helping to narrow the academic attainment gap in its decade year of supporting disadvantaged pupils.

In the 2021-22 academic year, Action Tutoring supported the highest number of pupils in the charity’s history, with 6,159 pupils receiving 67,800 hours of tutoring delivered by its volunteer tutors. A total of 586 pupils received tutoring support in both maths and English.

“Through our inspirational volunteers, we are devoted to positively transforming the future prospects of pupils facing disadvantage who need our support the most, in a challenging climate of stretched school budgets, high pupil absences, the widest attainment gap in a decade, and the rising cost of living, among others,” said Susannah Hardyman, founder, and CEO of Action Tutoring. “We’ve expanded geographically via our virtual programmes to new areas including Portsmouth, Corby, Chester, Middlesex, and Rotherham.”

Compared to the 53% of disadvantaged pupils who passed GCSE maths nationally, the report shows that 72% of disadvantaged pupils tutored by the charity passed their GCSE maths after attending at least ten tutoring sessions – despite these pupils having been through two challenging years of pandemic disruption and being at risk of not achieving a passing grade.

Action Tutoring’s analysis shows that primary pupils supported by the charity were more likely to achieve the expected standards than other disadvantaged pupils across the country — by 8 percentage points in maths and reading. Pupils who also had Action Tutoring sessions in Year 10 were more likely to pass in that subject at GCSE, compared to other Action Tutoring pupils who did not — 11% more likely in English and 27% more likely in maths.

Beyond celebrating a decade of impact in education, the 2021-22 academic year was pivotal for Action Tutoring. Over 2,300 volunteer tutors delivered tutoring in partnership with 147 schools.  Sixty-nine per cent of pupils Action Tutoring supported were eligible for Pupil Premium funding – a government grant given to reduce the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils. Action Tutoring is an accredited Tuition Partner of the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) and advocated for its introduction in 2020 to help narrow the attainment gap, with more focus on disadvantaged pupils.

According to the Department for Education, the attainment gap is at its widest in a decade at both primary and secondary levels. Tutoring remains one of the tangible solutions to help narrow that gap, as Action Tutoring’s Impact Report effectively shows.

Against the backdrop of the long-term challenges from the pandemic, the report also draws attention to the significant impact of the pandemic on education and how it has hit disadvantaged young people the hardest. The charity is dedicated to reaching more disadvantaged pupils by partnering with schools and ensuring tutoring is embedded into the education system to give all pupils facing disadvantage the opportunity to succeed academically.

Read the full impact report here.