One. Million. Lessons.
When we started working with secondary schools in 2016, this number seemed like an abstract, ambitious milestone, yet one that was always in the back of our minds, giving us energy and motivation.
We knew what this was all about: making high-quality tutoring available to all. After all, the very reason MyTutor came to be, was that our founders, Bertie, Robert and James, felt that tutoring was too expensive and hard to access for those children who could potentially benefit most from it. And we wanted to change this – to make tutoring accessible to all.
The impact of a million lessons
While there’s still plenty to do, these (first!) one million lessons delivered had a real impact on the life of the pupils who took part in our programmes: our data shows that pupils make, on average, one grade of improvement in just 10 lessons.
It meant hundreds of thousands of children feeling that much more confident and more willing to raise their hand in the classroom. It meant, on average, one extra grade of progress at GCSE-level. It meant more opportunities for pupils to explore further education and career options that they might have not considered before, or that might not have been accessible to them.
A day in the life of our Schools Team
There’s a lot that went on (and goes on every day) behind the scenes to make all of this possible.
We’ve got our Tutor team that’s in charge of recruiting, vetting and training only the very best university tutors, those that’ll make great mentors to your pupils, so that they’ll get to see themselves in their shoes. We’ve got Operations, responsible for ensuring that all of your online lessons run smoothly, from start to finish and beyond, and the Product and the Quality teams, who work hard on building the lesson space to maximise the impact of the programmes.
And then, at the core of our Schools team are our Relationship Managers and Education Partnership colleagues. Maddy, Idnaan, Cath, Lily, Sophie, Tom and many others… We could write all of their names here, and a couple of them are going to ring a bell: you’ll recognise them when you see them popping up in your inbox while setting up your programmes, and you’ll recognise their voices when you’re talking to them on the phone about funding and programme sizes.
This wouldn’t have been possible without them and all the other MyTutor teams working hard behind the scenes, and all the wonderful teachers we’ve worked with over the years.
A big day of celebrations
Needless to say, the One-Million-Lesson Day needed a big celebration. And while sweet treats are always going to be involved (of course!), we wanted to do something more, and celebrate alongside one of the 1300+ schools we’ve partnered with over the years, where lesson number one million would be delivered live. This school was Aylward Academy, one of the schools of Academy Enterprise Trust (AET).
Feedback from our programme lead Miss Vessey
"MyTutor visited us this term and had a successful group discussion with over twenty of our sixth form pupils who in general found the one to one tuition support helpful with their revision. Being part of the millionth lesson was a really exciting experience as it just demonstrated how many pupils across the country are being supported with their learning. We look forward to celebrating this with our pupils who were part of term-long programmes. I recommend MyTutor as an intervention support programme to really help individuals with their progress.”
What do the tutors have to say?
To mark the occasion, we sent some treats to the Tutors who delivered lessons on Monday 6 June, and were part of the celebration. They were very excited to join us to mark the milestone! Here is what one of our tutors Natalia had to say:
“My experience so far at MyTutor has been nothing short of amazing. I feel so lucky to be part of such a great community and I feel even luckier that MyTutor has given me a job that I love and that has supported me throughout university. Not only do I enjoy tutoring, but it also allows me to make a difference, and that is something I will always treasure. It is incredibly rewarding and heart-warming to see my pupils’ confidence and abilities develop week on week, and I’m excited to continue working with pupils in the future! Here’s to the next million!”
What's next?
Whilst one million school lessons is an amazing milestone, we aren’t stopping there and are already looking ahead to our next one, 1 million lives impacted.
Keep your eyes peeled: great things are coming!
