This year’s volunteer tutor cohort closed recruitment at 320 people — the largest in our history, and nearly double the 2024 intake.
What we’re most encouraged by isn’t the headline number, though. It’s that 47 of this year’s tutors are returning from a prior cohort, several for a third consecutive year. Retention has always been our harder problem than recruitment; a volunteer who leaves after one term takes months of relationship-building with a specific reading club with them.
New this cohort: a structured onboarding week, run jointly by regional coordinators and two returning tutors, ahead of first classroom placement. Early feedback suggests it’s cut the usual first-month drop-off meaningfully, though we’ll have a clearer read by the term’s end.