HERE ARE FIVE THINGS

THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

(about us)

one

We've been around for a while.

Studyseed was established in 2013 as a private tuition agency in Northern Ireland. In 2017, we became incorporated as a community interest company, becoming Studyseed CIC (more on that below!).

Over the past decade, we have worked with a lot of amazing children across Northern Ireland and we have forged strong relationships with schools, organisations and policy-makers in our mission to make educational support accessible to everyone who needs it.

two

We're on a social mission.

After four years of operating in the private tuition industry, we had grown increasingly uncomfortable with the disparity that exists between children of different socioeconomic backgrounds in their access to educational support.

One in five children in Northern Ireland lives in poverty, and less than 50% of children entitled to free school meals leave school with at least five good GCSE grades. We realised that operating as a private business did not align with our social values or research backgrounds and so, in 2017, we became a social enterprise. This means a few things.

Firstly, our profits must be used for the benefit of society. We use our profits to provide free tuition and workshops for disadvantaged children through schools and youth organisations. We also use our profits to heavily subsidise our services for organisations that provide free support to children living in neighbourhood renewal areas.

Secondly, as a social enterprise, our assets are locked. This means that we cannot use our profits for private gain. Our profits are used to help society and so, in our eyes, they rightly belong to society.

Finally, we are not a charity. A social enterprise generates money to invest into society by acting as a business and must generate at least 50% of its profits in this way. By choosing a tutor through Studyseed, you aren't just getting great support for your child - you're also supporting the educations of other children across Northern Ireland. So, thank you for joining us on our social mission - that makes you pretty great.

three

We work with inspiring people.

We work with experienced tutors across Northern Ireland who provide educational support for children at all stages through Primary, Year 8-10, GCSE and A-Level in a variety of subject and support areas. Our tutors are a great and varied group of people: we have support workers, scientists, public and private school teachers, researchers and retired teachers - to name a few. What they all have in common, though, is their passion for education, their commitment to inspire students and their shared belief in our social aims.

four

We are a women-led company.

Studyseed was set up by two 23-year-old postgraduate students from Craigavon who had £50 of start-up funding, big dreams - and an even bigger draught coming through the cracked window of the 1996 Citroen AX they were sitting in when the business plan came up. The odds are stacked against female entrepreneurs of all ages, but particularly those between the ages of 25-34. We're still here and, with every year that passes, our social impact continues to grow.

Our team has also grown over the past seven years, but we are proud to still be a women-led company in Northern Ireland. Our management team does not only represent women, but also advocates for disability and BAME representation in business leadership. And until the day comes when we don't have to speak just a little bit louder to have our voices heard in boardrooms, we think that's important to mention.

five

We love research.

Our research backgrounds range from psychology and special educational needs to children's rights and community cohesion through education in Northern Ireland. We believe that good research, coupled with positive social changes at a grassroots level, can make an overwhelming impact on transforming society. In an era of fake news and unreliable information, we think that it is more important than ever to provide robust information that comes from fact-checked and peer-reviewed sources. We also believe that our platform should be used to amplify the voices of the children and families that we work with.

WHAT WE DO

We provide a matching service where we facilitate introductions between clients and suitable tutors that are listed on our secure platform. All tutors listed for private tuition services for clients are self-employed individuals and must provide evidence of qualifications, background checks and references before they are approved for listing with us. We provide a service to both the tutor and the client in facilitating their introduction and ongoing administrative support through lesson reports and automatic invoicing through the TutorCruncher platform. Each tutor is responsible for setting their own hourly rate and we charge an £8/session agency fee in addition to this. This fee covers our administrative costs and any profit is used towards our social aims.

We also provide educational support services for schools and organisations, where we deliver bespoke educational programmes for students with tailored resources. Our social aims include providing free educational support for young people who are eligible for free school meals and we aim to achieve this in the delivery of each of our school/organisation programmes, with additional arrangements made to reach students eligible for these services through the contracting school or organisation.