Tutors United in Lewisham
On Monday 13th July, we brought together over 200 people at our Lewisham Graduation to celebrate the incredible efforts of our graduating pupils and their families, the commitment of our tutors and classroom assistants, and the consortium of partners that made it all possible!
Our work in Lewisham is built on a unique foundation – a set of partnerships that span the borough. The Haberdashers’ Foundation, Haberdashers’ Academies Trust South, L&Q, The Leathersellers’ Foundation, Leathersellers’ Federation of Schools, Lewisham Council, Lewisham Local, Merchant Taylors’ Foundation, Mulalley, Peabody, Phoenix Community Housing, and South East Consortium came together to fund and co-deliver free tutoring in local communities for 107 young Lewisham residents, and we couldn't be prouder to work with so many forward-thinking organisations.
This enormous ceremony was generously hosted by Goldsmiths, University of London in their beautiful Great Hall. We'd like to give a massive thank you to Dr Marl’ene Edwin and Joquan Johnson for your support in making this event happen – we couldn't have done it without you!
We were so pleased to be joined by Lewisham councillors from different parties, who gave out unique awards to young residents from their borough – Cllr Justin Calcutt Cheadle, Cllr Pauline Dall, Cllr Tanya Dunne, and Cllr Mike Podmore.
A big shout out to our founder Joel Buchanan, who gave out the Rising Star Award to an exemplary pupil who showed a determined mindset and an ability to be a role model for their classroom, an award inspired by Joel's own journey to create Tutors United when he was just 17 years old.
Across the 2025-26 academic year, our Lewisham programmes saw:
107 primary school pupils tutored
12 university students hired, trained, and paid as tutors
3 Lewisham residents hired, trained, and paid as classroom assistants
430 hours of learning
50% average individual progress in Maths
39th average individual progress in English
Thank you so much to everyone who joined us on such a momentous day for our charity. To our pupils, to their families, to our tutors and classroom assistants, to our friends at our partner organisations, to our funders, to the team at Goldsmiths, to our team and trustees, and to the Lewisham communities that have embraced us – your hard work, commitment, and support made this all possible.
