Praise for local parents as community tutoring fund goes from strength to strength
Thursday, 2 July 2020
The 'Ask The Question' fund, set up in 2017, allows parents to 'donate a lesson' to enable a local disadvantaged child to have a free tutoring session. The fund has already benefited around 20 children, granting them the opportunity to enjoy a lesson on whatever subject or topic they feel they need a little extra help or support with.
Read The Question is a local, independent tutoring service based in the heart of Hebden Bridge. Owned and run by Jo Austin, who has nearly 20 years of experience as a tutor, 'Read The Question' works with hundreds of local children to enable them to 'reach their potential'.
Ask The Question was set up by Read The Question as the fund to enable students from underprivileged backgrounds from the local area to gain access to one-to-one tuition and support.
Jo Austin, business owner of 'Read The Question' has thanked parents who have donated lesson time to help local, disadvantaged children.
Jo Austin said, "Now it is more important than ever to publicly thank and give appreciation to the generosity and community spirit of so many of our local parents who despite facing unprecedented uncertainty for themselves, have continued to support this vital initiative."
The 'thank you' comes amidst the news that some children could be left 'a year behind' their peers academically due to school closures and lack of teaching due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: "School closures are likely to have a devastating impact on the poorest children and young people. The attainment gap widens when children are not in school. There is strong evidence that high quality tuition is a cost-effective way to enable pupils to catch up."
Jo added, "It is the most rewarding part of my work to see the direct impact that the support of the local parent community is able to have on these children's lives, and now it has become more important than ever. Our mission is to help every individual child to reach their maximum potential, and with school closures there's been a greater pressure than ever at putting that potential at risk."
With the partial closures across schools in England, the rise in school drop out fears and the attainment gap is a very serious issue facing so many of us, meaning that schemes like this have become more important than ever.
Those who wish to donate to the 'Ask The Question' fund can do so through the website here.