Modelling an instant messaging tutoring service for maths
The Tutorfair Foundation aims to help close the educational divide by widening access to tutoring. They work with schools with a pupil premium eligibility of 50 per cent or higher, providing free tutoring to pupils at primary and secondary levels.
So far they have trained and placed over 680 volunteer tutors and helped over 6,000 students; providing them an average of seven hours of in-class and small group tutoring for around £20 per student.
The Tutorfair Foundation is supported by donations from private clients of Tutorfair.com, an online marketplace for private tuition. Tutorfair was established to make the booking of tutors an easier process for customers. But, realising that private tuition has the potential to widen the educational divide, they also provide free tutoring for pupils who couldn’t normally afford the fees, making charitable donations fundamental to their pricing structure. The Tutorfair Foundation use these donations to fund their programme.
Tutorfair On-Demand will enable students to connect with tutors via an instant messaging platform - providing support at the exact moment the students need it - while voluntary tuition will continue to be provided by Tutorfair volunteers in London schools. The On-Demand platform will create an entirely new and scalable way to bring free tutoring to disadvantaged students.
Funding will be used to build and provide the on-demand tutoring service for GCSE maths, and will be staffed by Tutorfair volunteers. The service is based on an instant messaging (text and image) platform, designed for both mobile and desktop devices. The Tutorfair Foundation aims to make this service available to GCSE maths students in selected rural and coastal schools with greater than 50 per cent pupil premium eligibility.
Once on-demand tutoring - delivered via instant messaging - can be shown to have a positive impact on academic attainment, geographic location will no longer factor as a barrier to supporting pupils.
Following the completion of Click Connect Learn, the online nature of platform will give the foundation an opportunity to scale further.
The program has the potential to be expanded beyond GCSE and beyond maths, with the foundation having a long-term vision to make the tutoring available to as many students as possible who qualify for pupil premium. Ultimately, they aim to provide a free on-demand tutoring service that is accessible to any eligible student in the UK.
For more information about Tutorfair contact: [email protected]