Team Up is an education charity which provides small group tuition to under-achieving disadvantaged pupils in English and maths. Since first partnering with West London Zone in early 2017, Team Up  have delivered to over 700 pupils across 22 partner schools in London. 

How do we work together?

Over the course of a 12 week programme, pupils are matched with tutors and placed into small groups based on their needs, abilities and personalities. They then meet each week to cover a range of topics in either maths or English, boosting both their skills and their confidence. The size of the groups and the nature of the curriculum provided means that each session is tailored to their current level and confidence; providing each child with the opportunity to thrive and succeed.

Within the last year, the young people we worked with were able to demonstrate on average 0.6 grades of progress (nearly twice the expected level) across a 12 week programme with our inspirational Team Up tutors. Additionally, in our most recent programmes we have seen outstanding engagement from WLZ pupils with 88% saying they have enjoyed studying with their tutor and a large majority feeling as if the programme has increased their confidence in the subject. 

What is so important about their work?

Zayaan* participated in Team Up during the  Spring term, scoring 14% in his initial baseline assessment. When he started with his tutor; focus, a lack of confidence, and motivation were a barrier to his learning. He found it incredibly hard to concentrate and was reluctant to complete any questions unless he had one-to-one support from an adult for each part of the question.

Gradually after two or three sessions he began to answer verbal questions during warm up games with the whole group, leading his WLZ Link Worker to comment that she’d “never seen Zayaan so engaged”. In subsequent sessions, Zayaan began to complete entire questions independently and, through a combination of incentives and praise, he was able to complete around 4 times as many tasks within a session.

Zayaan's journey with Team Up continued for a second term with his focus and engagement increasing weekly. Over the course of the next term, he began to demonstrate many new skills and utilise his extremely quick mental maths, saying “Look I can do my times tables quicker than you!" to his tutor. Zayaan then started to express more confidence in his work, helping others with theirs. By the end of the programme, he expressed a new love of learning and declared “I love Maths and English now… I’m going to do really well in school because it’s really important”

During his end of term assessment, he focused exceptionally well and attempted every single question on the paper; using logic and his multiplication skills to attempt problems he had not seen before. Following his two terms with his Team Up tutor, Zayaan was able to achieve 79% in his progress test - more than 5 times his initial score and a progress grade of 3!

“I love maths and English now… I’m going to do really well in school because it’s really important”                                                                                                  Zayaan

Zayaan’s life chances have dramatically transformed through the two terms spent with his tutor – not just because his maths skills have flourished, but because his entire attitude and approach to life has shifted. He now has a focus, self-belief, and a determination that will allow him to tackle life’s challenges and succeed.

Plans for the future

The partnership that Team Up has built with West London Zone continues to be highly valued and the experience is treasured by all Team Up staff, tutors, and pupils. Through the support of WLZ Link Workers, the Partnerships team, and our own Programme Staff, we look forward to extending our opportunity to reach more young people in doubling their expected progress through Team Up. 

If you would like to hear more about what we do or are interested in volunteering with us, you can visit our website or email [email protected]. 

*Name changed and image unrelated