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Volunteer Tutors Organisation

(Glasgow)

Annual Report 2015-16 Registered Charity - SC000403

Company Limited by Guarantee - 249742

Kuenssberg Charitable Foundation

A R I S E

Glasgow

VTO is supported by:

A message from the Chairman: Many youngsters have some difficulties during their educative years and many of

their parents can afford to - and choose to - enlist the help of private tutors. The

young people helped by the VTO are not in this category; their parents cannot

afford to pay for private tutors. These youngsters are disadvantaged in many

ways, not just in education, where many have additional support needs - but the

Volunteers recruited, selected and trained by the VTO give them the individual

support and attention which they need to help close the attainment gap for them,

either on a one-to-one basis in their own homes or in the small group setting of a

homework group. In doing this, the VTO also supports their carers - single

parents, parents with little English, foster carers, kinship carers and many others

who struggle with life on a daily basis – and gives them all the confidence that

comes from the resulting improvements. The VTO now also trains many senior

pupils from secondary schools near to selected homework groups to assist the

lead Volunteer in tutoring youngsters who benefit tremendously from the

involvement of older pupils. This involvement also gives these senior pupils the

kind of awareness, skills and experience that will stand them in good stead in

their own future education and careers.

None of this can be done without the agreement and collaboration of education

staff, who see the real value of the organisation, as do many trusts,

organisations, businesses, friends and members of the public and we are very

grateful to all of them for their continuing support. Despite this, in our 40th

birthday year, when over the preceding years we have probably helped

thousands of pupils, we still struggle to gain regular, sustainable funding which is

enough to free us from constant anxiety for a little while and allow us to get on

with what we do best. As I write this, although many applications for funding

have been sent away, we are not even sure that we can survive another year.

Therefore, anyone who reads this and is aware of a source of funding that might

fit the VTO, please let us know about it.

My years as Chair of the VTO have been both challenging and fulfilling and as I

prepare to step down, I would like to extend my gratitude to the staff who have

shown tremendous expertise and knowledge in the area in which we work, while

constantly developing new exciting projects to help youngsters reach their full

potential. To the Volunteer Tutors, Board Members and Fundraisers, past and

present, who have given their time, hard work and commitment with passion and

enthusiasm in pursuing our aims – we couldn’t do it without you!

Joan I Frondigoun MBE MA (VTO Chair)

Achievements

One-To-One Tutoring

VTO has continued with the one-to-one tutoring this year, with 79 young people receiving our home

tuition service.

Tuition provided at home can range from basic English and basic numeracy skills, to helping some

older pupils prepare for upcoming exams.

Further in the report you will see the success of all tutoring provided to the children registered with

VTO, but for the moment we would like to share a quote from one of our tutors, Audrey Todd, “as a

volunteer tutor I have learned so much from these kids, too. My knowledge of WW2 was dismal till

one of my lads started learning it at school - we learned together and it led to some great discussions

with him. I know how to subtract by "borrowing", how to multiply using traditional methods and

"boxes" and various tricks I had either forgotten or never known. It has been a voyage of discovery or

rediscovery which I really enjoy and I am sure it is excellent therapy for my ageing brain.” Audrey

provides one-to-one support as well as working at 2 of our Southside Homework Groups.

Unfortunately due to Volunteer numbers we have seen a small decline in the one-to-one service.

However, our overall number of pupils receiving help as remained high with 60 pupils receiving help

in a homework group setting.

Homework Groups

VTO has increased the number of Homework groups this year. We now provide this service to 60

young people in 8 different venues. Our 3 groups in the Southside have continued to flourish in

Annette Street Primary, Cuthbertson Primary and Holy Cross Primary, with VTO tutors taking on the

sole responsibility of running these groups.

We have continued working with Kelvinside Academy and their senior pupils to provide support in

High Park Primary and Oakgrove Primary.

Our continued relationship with the Bethany Trust has meant our group within ‘The Grove’ has

continued to help children in Kinship Care. This group is supported by senior pupils from Hillhead

High School.

With Kinship Care children in mind, we started a group in Rosemount Lifelong Learning Centre,

offering support to pupils attending St Roch’s Primary and Royston Primary, with the aid of senior

pupils from St Roch’s Secondary School. Unfortunately the uptake from children in Kinship Care

wasn’t what we had hoped, meaning the group was opened to any disadvantaged child.

Following the success of our expansion into Drumchapel last year, VTO created a partnership with

Drumchapel High and their senior pupils to start a group within Langfaulds Primary, supervised by

VTO Tutors.

These groups wouldn’t be possible without the fantastic help of the local senior

pupils so we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you and wish them the

best with their future endeavours.

Statistics VTO Tutors VTO started recruiting Volunteers for this school year in June 2015, from June ‘15 to January

‘16, 51 tutors were recruited. Of these recruitments 11 were archived before being placed with

a pupil for various reasons including personal reasons, moving away and work commitments.

40 Volunteers went onto complete training and went onto work with children either in a one-to-

one tutoring or in a homework group, some of which had the extra responsibility of supervising

senior pupils from local high schools.

Overall VTO had 97 tutors registered with us this year.

Senior Pupils As you can see when reading about Homework Groups, VTO

extended the opportunity to 2 more high schools this year, for

senior pupils to gain some work experience for their CV’s by

working at homework groups, supervised by senior tutors. From 4

high schools 42 pupils worked at 5 homework groups.

Pupils This year VTO had 160 pupils registered for help. Of which 139 received

help for a period of time, 79 in a one-to-one set-up, 60 at homework

groups.

With a high volume of our registered pupils in the West of Glasgow, it is

important to note that of these 160 pupils, 64% live in areas ranked in

the first 20% of the Scottish Index of areas of multiple deprivation.

Learning difficulties faced by pupils include:

Needs No of pupils %

ADHD 3 2%

ASN 11 7%

Aspergers 3 2%

Autism 5 3%

Deaf 1 1%

Dyslexia 9 6%

Dyspraxia 0 0%

EAL 91 57%

Results At VTO there are three key areas we want to improve for children:

Academic Attainment • Engagement With School • Self-Confidence

VTO monitors the work regularly by asking for feedback from all parties involved, tutors and pupils

are required to complete learner logs weekly and submit them to VTO every 6 weeks. These are

then forwarded onto schools for feedback, to maintain a steady relationship and giving the school a

chance to have their input into the tutoring. We ask for final progress reports at the end of the

school year, or if the tutoring concludes before this point for one reason or another. Final Progress

Reports are completed by, tutors, pupils, parents/guardians and teachers.

2015-16

The following information was taken from feedback provided for children receiving one-to-one help.

Academic Attainment Over the year, 79% of the children had improved academically, mainly in literacy and/or numeracy

but also in other secondary topics.

Of the remaining 21%, 6 of the children had not had enough sessions to be able to say what

improvements there were, either because they had just started at the time of collecting data, or

because they had not attended enough sessions. For 2 children we simply didn’t have data for

them for this category.

Although the remaining 13 pupils had not shown academic improvement, they did show

improvement in their confidence and/or engagement with school, so we think over time, they will

also make gains academically.

Engagement We believe this is essential for children’s learning. We use several markers to try to assess this;

Behaviour, Homework, Attitude towards school, and Attendance.

We think, taken together, these markers help show how engaged a child is with their tuition and

their school activities.

Very few children were referred for help with engagement with school, only 2 referred for help with

homework and 2 children referred because of attendance.

69% of the total showed improved engagement with school, having improved their behaviour,

attitude, homework and attendance. This figure includes one of the children referred for help with

attendance and homework the other child has not had a tutor at this time as she has only recently

been referred.

It is worth pointing out that those children who were not specifically referred for issues around

engagement with school showed improvement in this area.

22% remained engaged with schoolwork and had always been so. 9% had either just started so it

wasn’t possible to say, or they had other difficulties which affected their engagement with the tuition

as well as school the rest had variable engagement with school and their work with the tutor. Many

of the children have difficult family circumstances and their engagement varied when their family

situation was worse. 1 child opted out of the process altogether.

Generally, because we continue with children as long as they want to continue, we think this

provides some stability, and over time their engagement can improve.

Sometimes the children just don’t like the topic they are doing. We encourage

children to make comment each week about the topic and where the tutor is able to

change the way they are working they can accommodate this. We keep resources

and have a network of people who can give advice. It is more difficult if it is a

required topic for school that the child dislikes. The tutors have to use all of their

ingenuity to provide a means to engage their pupil.

Results

Confidence

We had 28 children who were referred for difficulties with self-confidence and confidence around

their school work. However, all of the children who had a tutor showed improvement to a greater or

lesser extent.

80% of the total number of children showed improvement in their confidence to approach their work

or in their communication with their tutor, or believing in their abilities enough to try new things and

attempt new work.

The remaining 20% were the same, mainly, they had always been confident and didn’t change.

1 child had opted out and another child had variable confidence but he was hampered by being in

foster care due to very difficult family circumstances and his foster family lived a distance away

which meant he was often quite tired.

Feedback

Below and on the next page, you will see feedback from all parties involved in the one-to-one

tutoring, pupils names have been removed to respect their privacy.

That book was too

hard can we try an

easier one

Pupils

Parents

Results

Tutors

More confident to tackle

homework knowing help

was available

Teachers

More apt to read over his work, much more confident, neater

becoming less reliant on support to complete

his daily tasks. He is certainly more willing

to have a go. He has grown in confidence.

This is particularly evident when speaking

in group and class discussions. Has also

become a much more confident reader. He

is sounding out his words.

Your support has been invaluable

and much appreciated. Homework

is very important in Primary 7 and

for those pupils who struggle,

getting extra help is extremely

beneficial. Thanks you all very

much for your support’

It is really great for her teacher in that,

she can give homework and know that

it will be properly supported at the

group. The teacher is often reluctant to

send homework as it is a trigger for

stress and anxiety in the child’s home,

especially where parents have difficul-

ties themselves with reading or maths.

Significance

We ask how significant VTO’s intervention has been in helping children

make gains - with a scale of 1 to 4, 1 being most significant. The most

commonly occurring score was ‘1’ with ‘2’ almost equal.

Results

Homework Groups

We asked the senior pupils from homework groups to let us know what they felt they gained from the

groups:

“After volunteering for only a few short weeks I have already begun to see a change in the children's

attitude towards school. One pupil has even taken to assuming the role of 'teacher' herself and enjoys

teaching me what she has learnt in class, reinforcing her own knowledge and allowing her to develop

confidence in her abilities. Most of the time the children already know what to do. They just need a

positive atmosphere where they can be free to make mistakes without being ridiculed. Indeed, some of

the children do appear to have had a fair bit of ridicule in the past and not enough praise. But the work

that the VTO does aims to use positive encouragement to promote a healthy attitude towards learning.

There is nothing more rewarding than seeing a child's face light up with pride when they achieve

something new - big or small.” Jennie 6th year Hillhead pupil

“Working with the Saracen street group was a great opportunity to help out in the community and really

gave me a sense of pride and accomplishment. It gave me insight into how to work with young kids

which really helped me to decide on my career path. I've gained many important skills such as

communication and being able to adapt to situations to benefit others. My confidence has really

improved with every week tutoring, being able to convince a child to read when they really hate to was

an achievement in itself. I'm truly thankful for this opportunity and would recommend it to people my

age.” Loujin Hillhead 6th year

Below is some feedback from some parents and children involved in the groups:

Accounts

The following pages are an extract of the audited accounts of:


Year ending May 2015

A complete set of accounts are available upon request.

Accounts are provided by: Alexander Sloan Chartered Accountants

Volunteer Tutors Organisation (Glasgow)

Directors' Annual Report

for the year ended 31 May 2015

Page 2

The Directors present their report and the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 May

2015.

Directors

The Directors of the charitable company are its Trustees for the purpose of charity law and throughout this

report are collectively referred to as the Directors.

The Directors serving during the year and since the year end are detailed on page 1.

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Governing document

Volunteer Tutors Organisation (Glasgow) ("the charity") is a company limited by guarantee (No

SC249724) and a recognised Scottish Charity (No SC000403) governed by its Memorandum and Articles

of Association.

Appointment of Directors

New Directors are appointed at the discretion of the Board. There is no fixed term for directorship. New

Directors take part in an induction programme which aims to familiarise them with the charity's values,

aims and objectives together with its day-to-day operations, in addition to clarifying their statutory

responsibilities as Directors of a company limited by guarantee and Trustees of a charity.

Organisational structure

The Directors are responsible for the overall direction of the charity, serve on a voluntary basis and meet

monthly.

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

The Volunteer Tutors Organisation (''VTO'') was set up to develop and extend free tutoring support for

school age children in the Greater Glasgow Area who experience disadvantage educationally, socially

and/or economically.

The company is established as a non-profit making charity, under the management of the Management

Committee, which comprises the Directors (i.e. Trustees) and other appointed voluntary members, for the

following purposes:-

a) To provide help with learning to disadvantaged children.

b) To liaise with all other statutory bodies, organisations and individuals in the field of education and

social work that have or may have an interest in the charity.

c) To stimulate the development of similar charities in other areas of the United Kingdom.




Page 3

VTO's primary roles and goals are to:

- Liaise with schools, parents, and others including social work department, Shelter, etc. to identify

pupils who need some support with their education.

- Recruit, train, commit, resource and support volunteer tutors in order to offer free one-to-one

educational support and guidance to children who mainly come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

- To improve the lives of children through interaction with tutors away from the classroom.

- To engage volunteers in extending their skills base for the benefit of children and improving their own

personal development.

The core aims for children involved with VTO are to:

- Increase confidence in learning.

- Improve school performance and encourage a positive attitude to school.

- Improve communication and social skills.

- Increase ambition and self belief.

- Encourage development towards becoming responsible adults.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

VTO seeks to work in harmony with mainstream schools and has a well-established process for delivering

benefit to the children it serves. To ensure the safety of the children, all tutors and staff are PVG checked

to the highest level. At the end of the year, we had 96 tutors registered with us, 80 of these were recruited

during the year. 72% of these tutors were women. Tutors receive a minimum of 6 hours training before

they are paired with a pupil. In addition, there are also training sessions on Dyslexia, secondary school

Maths and Lesson Planning. These extra sessions allows our tutors to develop their skills and ability to

tutor.

During the year ended 31 May 2015, VTO supported 164 pupils of which 108 received one-to-one tuition,

50 attended our Homework Clubs and 6 were involved in our Kinship Carers group.

At the end of the year we had 109 children on our records registered for one-to-one tutoring. Our

development plan for the next five years is to increase provision, as far as finance allows, for up to 300

children. The one-to-one tuition takes place primarily in the pupil's own home but in some circumstances

can be held in a public library. Although the majority of the tuition is in literacy and numeracy, we can

also offer help in other subjects like science and languages if we have a tutor enrolled with us who can

cover these subjects.




Page 4

The children who are referred to us are from a wide variety of backgrounds and the only criteria that we

expect is that they are attending school but, in cases where children are not attending school for health or

other exceptional reasons, then we are still able to offer support if there is a genuine need for support.

More than half of pupils registered with VTO live in areas of Glasgow that are classified within the top

20% "Most Deprived" regions.

As well as offering one-to-one tuition, VTO continues to run Homework Clubs, after school hours, in 5

Glasgow Primary Schools, 3 in the south and 2 in the north side of the city. We also are involved with a

Kinship Carers group, working in Partnership with Education Quality Improvement and the Bethany

Trust, offering support with education to the children and advice on paired reading to their carers. As in

previous years, some of our homework groups are supported by senior pupils from local secondary

schools, Hillhead High School and Kelvinside Academy. This allows us to help provide valuable

transferrable skills to the young people who are mentors and assistants in the homework groups and at the

same time improving the quality of the provision of service.

During the year, we have been actively seeking grant funding, selling our cook-books and we held our

annual fundraising Ceilidh event.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Per the Statement of Financial Activities on Page 7, the charity reported net incoming resources (i.e. a

suplus) for the year of £226 (2014 - deficit £8,848) and total reserves at 31 May 2015 of £34,467 of which

£25,839 related to Restricted Funds.

Reserves policy

It is the policy of the charity to maintain unrestricted funds (i.e. unrestricted funds not committed or

invested in fixed assets) at a level that equates to approximately three months of unrestricted expenditure.

At 31 May 2015, the charity's unrestricted funds per the General Fund on page 7 amounted to £8,295

which was acceptable to the Directors who continue their efforts to attract ongoing funding.




Page 5

STATEMENT OF DIRECTORS' RESPONSIBILITIES

The Directors are responsible for preparing the Directors' Report and the financial statements in

accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally

Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the Directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a

true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and

application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that period.

In preparing these financial statements, the Directors are required to:

- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

- observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;

- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

- state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material

departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;

- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the

charitable company will continue in operation.

The Directors are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable

accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the

financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment

(Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. They are also responsible

for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the

prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The Directors are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information

included on the charitable company's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the

preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Independent examiner

The Directors recommend that Alan Cunningham, C.A., a partner in Alexander Sloan, Chartered

Accountants, remains in office as independent examiner until further notice.

This report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions of Part 15 of the Companies Act

2006 relating to small companies.

This report was approved by the Directors on 11 December 2015 and signed on their behalf by

Karen Frondigoun

Director


Page 6

Independent Examiner's Report to the Directors on the Unaudited Financial Statements of

Volunteer Tutors Organisation (Glasgow).

I report on the financial statements of Volunteer Tutors Organisation (Glasgow) for the year ended 31 May 2015 which

comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet and the related notes.

Respective responsibilities of Directors and examiner

The charity's Directors (who are also directors of the company for the purpose of company law) are responsible for the

preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the terms of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland)

Act 2005 ("2005 Act") and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) ("2006 Accounts

Regulations"). The charity's Directors consider that the audit requirement of Regulation 10(1) (a) to (c) of the 2006

Accounts Regulations does not apply. It is my responsibility to examine the financial statements as required under

Section 44(1)(c) of the Act and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.

Basis of Independent Examiner's report

My examination is carried out in accordance with Regulation 11 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations. An examination

includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the financial statements presented

with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the financial statements, and

seeks explanations from the Directors concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the

evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the

financial statements.

Independent Examiner's statement

In the course of my examination, no matter has come to my attention

1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements:

to keep accounting records in accordance with Section 44(1)(a) of the 2005 Act, Regulation 4 of the 2006 Accounts

Regulations; and

to prepare financial statements which accord with the accounting records and comply with Regulation 8 of the 2006

Accounts Regulations

have not been met, or

2. to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial

statements to be reached.

Alan Cunningham, C.A.

Partner

Alexander Sloan 38 Cadogan Street

Chartered Accountants Glasgow

Date: 11 December 2015


The notes on pages 10 to 18 form an integral part of these financial statements.

Page 7

Statement of Financial Activities

(incorporating Income and Expenditure Account)


Unrestricted

General Designated Restricted 2015 2014

funds funds funds Total Total

Notes £ £ £ £ £

Incoming resources

Incoming resources from

generated funds

Voluntary income 2 6,380 - 50,855 57,235 41,228

Activities for generating

funds 3 1,670 - - 1,670 2,478

Other incoming resources 4 200 - - 200 -

Total incoming resources 8,250 - 50,855 59,105 43,706

Resources expended

Costs of generating funds

Costs of generating

voluntary income 5 )(807 - - )(807 )(717

Charitable activities 6 )(20,173 )(568 )(34,829 )(55,570 )(49,389

Governance costs 7 )(2,502 - - )(2,502 )(2,448

Total resources expended )(23,482 )(568 )(34,829 )(58,879 )(52,554

Net incoming/(outgoing) resources )(15,232 )(568 16,026 226 )(8,848

Reconciliation of funds

Total funds brought forward 23,527 901 9,813 34,241 43,089

Total funds carried forward 8,295 333 25,839 34,467 34,241


The notes on pages 10 to 18 form an integral part of these financial statements.

Page 8

Balance Sheet

as at 31 May 2015

2015 2014

Notes £ £ £ £

Fixed assets

Tangible assets 12 333 901

Current assets

Debtors 13 2,396 881

Cash at bank and in hand 35,126 36,617

37,522 37,498

Creditors: amounts falling

due within one year 14 )(3,388 )(4,158

Net current assets 34,134 33,340

Net assets 34,467 34,241

Funds

Unrestricted funds

General funds 16 8,295 23,527

Designated funds 17 333 901

Restricted funds 18 25,839 9,813

34,467 34,241

The Directors' statements required by Sections 475 (2) and (3) are shown on the following page which forms

part of this Balance Sheet.


(Glasgow) 13 Kelvinside Gardens

Glasgow G20 6BG

0141 946 6498

[email protected]

http://www.vto.btck.co.uk http://www.facebook.com/vto.glasgow http://www.twitter.com/GlasgowVTO

http://www.youtube.com/VTOGlasgow

VTO is a registered Scottish charity – No. SC000403 Company limited by guarantee – No 249724

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