Tutortoo is making a difference to students who are ‘lost in the crowd’

Founded by husband and wife duo, Trevor and Jenine Jamison, Tutortoo Belfast was established in March 2020 just before the first lockdown and, despite the challenges, they have seen a significant growth over the first half of the year.
Along with their team of 55 qualified tutors they are working with over 50 children, young people and university students from across Northern Ireland to provide supplementary education that meets the learning needs of individual students. 
Tutors work in the home or online with students on a one to one basis allowing Tutortoo to provide a flexible and targeted tuition service that prizes customer care above all else.
Jenine explained: “We love teaching and are passionate about improving the life chances of children and young people through education. As parents with three children currently going through the education system, we understand the challenges that families are facing. As teachers however, we also understand the incredible pressure that schools are under to deliver individualised learning support to their students. We felt that the increasing bureaucracy put on teachers and their leaders was dragging us away from the real business of teaching young people. So, we decided enough was enough, we were going to teach and meet individual students on a one to one basis not as a cohort but as individuals.”
Trevor continued: “Our priority is to provide a professional service that is hallmarked by excellent customer care. When parents come to us, we want them to feel reassured that we are invested in the success of their child, not the class but the individual and that we have the expertise to ensure that quality teaching and learning takes place.”
Educating the young people of North Belfast for the past 18 years, Trevor and Jenine understand the challenges that parents, and students often face.

Jenine stated: “We are tutoring over 50 young people of all key stages from across county Antrim and County Down. We have over 55 tutors on our registered from many different educational backgrounds including teaching, medicine, law, journalism, Pharmacy, special education teachers, play therapists, art therapists and many other fields.

“Parents contact us on a daily basis to ask for advice on school places, exam grades, entrance to Uni etc. Over the last two weeks with the daily changing situation in regards to transfer tests and exams being cancelled we had parents calling, emailing and messaging through social media. Students and parents are reporting increased grades and scores in internal tests.”
Both Jenine and Trevor have completed their Post-graduate Studies in Educational Headship at the University of Ulster in 2018 and are currently completing their master’s degree in education. Their combined academic, professional and leadership experience equips them to lead a dynamic team of professional tutors who inspire students to get motivated, get ready and get the results they desire.
However highlighting the successes and challenges over the past year, Jenine explained: “Stepping out of an 18 year career and starting a new business at the outset of a pandemic has had its challenges, we have not qualified for any of the government support schemes for business and the banks are not lending to new businesses, so cash flow is always a worry.
“However, we have no regrets. We love what we are doing and the services we are providing are needed in this time perhaps more than ever before. Our children and young people have missed more face to face teaching in the last year than any other generation before them.

“We have taken the opportunity to get back to helping individual students, we are making a difference to those students who get lost in the crowd and bring hope to parents who can often feel like no one is listening to what their child actually needs to make learning happen.” 
One parent has said: “We have been using Tutortoo for a while now and I’ve been delighted with the service and tutor, my daughter has been self-isolating therefore missing out in school but we have been able to keep going with the tutor via zoom which has been great to help my daughter stay focused during homeschooling.”
Looking to the future, Jenine added: “Our PAL programme is aimed at helping take some of the pressure off busy working parents during this time of home-schooling by providing an online classroom with only six students, this is also cost effective for parents. We provide information as it comes through to our clients and on our social media to ensure parents have the most up to date information.”

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