We are delighted that award-winning charity, Tutors United, was successful in gaining funding another year of their tuition programme.
Tutors United work with housing associations to deliver community-based tutoring programmes to primary school children from low-income, migrant and refugee backgrounds. We’ve worked with them since 2016 on both our Woodberry Down and Grahame Park regeneration schemes and extended our partnership in 2022 to deliver maths and English tuition to young general needs residents in Camden and Tower Hamlets.
Round one of the Love Where You Live (LWYL) fund has now concluded and we’re pleased to announce Tutors United was once again successfully bid for funds to continue the remarkable work they have been doing with children in Tower Hamlets.
The 2024/25 group will deliver two weekly maths and English tuition hubs from the Virginia Quays Community Centre.
The project will target 24 low-income households with children in years 4, 5 and 6 who are underachieving and are set to enter secondary school with scores below the national average. The children will be provided with 120 hours of vital academic support for more than 30 weeks. The tutors are university students predominantly from low-income, diverse, multilingual backgrounds themselves, and the programme helps boost their employment prospects by providing training and work experience.
While the children are the focus of the project, Tutors United also involve parents/carers by inviting them to termly progress evenings, which provide information and resources, in turn helping their own literacy, numeracy skills and confidence.
According to British educationist Professor Becky Francis CBE: “There is a stubborn link between socio-economic background and education outcomes.” Therefore, statistically, children from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to achieve expected standards in reading, writing, and maths by the end of primary school.
With Tutors United, the children will explore exciting new topics and challenges through targeted group work, tutor-led exercises, and independent assignments. The tutors use different methods to approach problems and identify gaps in the children’s knowledge, so they can confidently ask for help.
We had several residents take part in the Tutors United last year, funded by Equans through their social value initiative. On average they made 33% progress in maths, with one pupil their score improving by 167%. In English, one stand-out pupil made four levels of progress (the equivalent of a whole school year) ending the year on an Advanced Year 4 level (4A), the highest in the whole group.
With the aid of LWYL fund, we continue to uphold our values to our residents by supporting and improving residents’ wellbeing by equipping parents and carers to support their children more confidently and bridging the gap educationally between school and home.
Graduation for 2023/24
To celebrate all the hard work and excellent achievement of the children who attended and other Tutor United partners in East London, a graduation ceremony was held at Rich Mix, in Shoreditch earlier in the summer, which we attended.
Pupils were presented with a certificate of completion, with five outstanding pupils and one tutor receiving awards.
Kathleen Titiboco, a pupil and a speech giver on the day said: “My time at Tutors United has been great. I have been in this programme for two years now which has increased my confidence and helped me a lot at school.’’
The occasion was heart warming and lively with families from different backgrounds, food, music and a sense of community which made it a truly special event.
This year
The Tower Hamlets English and maths tuition for 2024/25 starts on Monday 14 October and registration has begun. If you are a resident with young children in Tower Hamlets, or nearby boroughs such as Hackney or Newham, please register your interest through the link.
Location: Virginia Quays Community Centre, E14 2DU
Registration: www.tutorsunited.org
