2025

A Year In Review

We analysed over 150,000 hours of 1-to-1 lessons on Sherpa and asked the opinions of students, parents and tutors to develop insights into the impact of online tuition in the UK.

150K+

lessons delivered on Sherpa in the 24/25 academic year

99%

of users would recommend us to a friend

2.23

average grade improvement for students

1

Our Mission

Working towards making a high quality education available to all.

At Sherpa, our mission is simple: to connect parents and students with experienced tutors and UK-qualified teachers who can offer them the right academic support. Since day one, we’ve facilitated more than 300,000 lessons and helped thousands of students find the help they need to thrive. We pride ourselves on maintaining a personal touch, with our friendly and knowledgeable team always on hand to assist.

Here's what some of our parents and students had to say:

Confidence-boosting

It gave me more confidence and helped me achieve a good A-Level grade. The way I was taught through Sherpa helped with my dyslexia and learning difficulties and I was spoken and taught in a manner which I found easy to understand.

- Year 13 Student

Maximise potential

Our tutor has really opened our eyes to what our daughter is capable of - the depth and velocity seems to be four to five times that of school.

- Parent

Great tutors with flexibility

We have a lovely English tutor that my son got on well with from the very start. Process of booking lessons and choosing time is so easy as well as cancelling if something happens.

- Parent

2

The current landscape

Demand continues to increase

46%
of secondary pupils in London have had private tutoring¹

Absence rates doubled post-COVID

7.5%
of pupil in England missed over half of their schooling²

Students need tailored support

22%
of tutors surveyed said students felt unsupported at school

The educational landscape is always evolving, but even more-so in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a lasting impact on pupils at crucial phases in their development. A study from leading academics has suggested that GCSE grades could be affected well into the 2030s as a result³.

What drove parents to seek support?

Within our Year in Review survey, we asked respondents 'What specific reasons were behind looking for an online tutor on Sherpa?', allowing them to select multiple options from the motivations shown below.

Most commonly, tuition was sought after to improve student grades, particularly where grades were already low or close to a pass. 1-to-1 support is also highly valuable in improving student confidence, which is shown to have lasting effects in school and beyond.

¹ The Sutton Trust, Tutoring: The New Landscape (2023). View

² Lester KJ & Michelson D, “Perfect storm: emotionally based school avoidance in the post-COVID-19 pandemic context”, BMJ Mental Health, 2024; 27(1): e300944. View

³ Lee Elliot Major et al., A generation at risk - rebalancing education in the post-pandemic era, The Nuffield Foundation, April 2024 [↗]

3

The impact of online tuition

We asked our respondents how student confidence and assessment results progressed over the course of their sessions with an experienced tutor on Sherpa. They reported their grades before and after tuition completed over the last academic year, and rated their confidence levels before and after in each subject on a scale of one to ten.

+2.23 grades

average increase in exam results reported by Sherpa students

74.5%

increase in subject confidence levels, on average

Key Benefits of Tuition

We asked parents and students surveyed to identify the biggest benefit tuition had for them. Whilst improved grades was a common response, the other advantages demonstrate how tuition can have a big impact on students' habits and overall wellbeing.

4

Online vs. in-person

We asked students and parents about their opinions of online tuition. 5 years after COVID pushed all tuition online, we wanted to find out if students are more interested in moving back to in-person tutoring.

We found that parents and student still prefer online tuition, thanks to the time and money savings, as well as the benefits of having lessons recorded to be able to watch back later.

48%

of those surveyed had tried in-person tuition before using Sherpa.

98%

of those surveyed would continue using online tuition after trying Sherpa.

Efficient and accessible

Online tuition offers much greater flexibility and convenience for both sides. It saves time on travel and makes scheduling much easier. I also find that online tools make lessons more engaging and adaptable to individual needs

- Happy Tutor

Benefits everyone

Online allows greater flexibility, students appear more comfortable, and parents are more supportive as they can more easily monitor the tutoring.

- Satisfied Tutor

Achieve more from home

My child prefers online sessions as she can participate from the comfort of our home. It has also allowed us to find the perfect match for her, regardless of geography.

- Proud Parent

Tech transforms learning

Lesson recordings are very valuable for students and parents. The technology makes overall lesson quality higher, with tools like screen sharing, pasting questions and resources directly onto the whiteboard from a huge bank (something that was limited in person).

- Dedicated Tutor

Efficient and accessible

Online tuition offers much greater flexibility and convenience for both sides. It saves time on travel and makes scheduling much easier. I also find that online tools make lessons more engaging and adaptable to individual needs

- Happy Tutor

Benefits everyone

Online allows greater flexibility, students appear more comfortable, and parents are more supportive as they can more easily monitor the tutoring.

- Satisfied Tutor

Achieve more from home

My child prefers online sessions as she can participate from the comfort of our home. It has also allowed us to find the perfect match for her, regardless of geography.

- Proud Parent

Tech transforms learning

Lesson recordings are very valuable for students and parents. The technology makes overall lesson quality higher, with tools like screen sharing, pasting questions and resources directly onto the whiteboard from a huge bank (something that was limited in person).

- Dedicated Tutor

5

Student insights

We surveyed Y10-13 students and their parents after the December and Easter holidays to see how they prepared for their mocks and final exam over the holidays. When asked what they would do differently next time, the vast majority of students and parents recommended starting revision earlier and committing to a structured study plan.

Our data also supports starting early, with students who began tuition at the start of the academic year seeing nearly twice the grade improvements compared to those who waited until the Spring holidays.

88%

of students wish they did more revision in December

vs. 60% during the Spring holidays

67%

of students did at least some revision over December

vs. 93% during the Spring holidays

1.5 hours

of revision per day was the average during the Christmas holidays

vs. 3 hours per day in the Spring

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How did students revise?

Having a clear structure to your revision, and knowing where your time is best spent is one of the key factors that determines exam results. Creating an effective revision plan is an area that is often overlooked in school. Having found effective methods for creating revision planners at school, we decided to create...

New

Sherpa's Reflective GCSE Revision Planner

In 2025, we created our Reflective Revision Planner, allowing students to generate tailored revision timetables.

Students add their subjects and confidence levels in each topic, and we generate revision plans to help them focus their studying on where it has the most impact.

Target your weakest topics

Track your revision and subject progress

Revise in manageable 25-minute chunks

Find out more

6

Our mission progress

Since our first lesson over 4 years ago, we have helped thousands of students find the right tutor for them. Here are some insights for the academic year 2024/25.

Our Students

155,000+ hours

of lessons delivered this year

92%

of users find a tutor to contact within 10 minutes

Our Tutors

45%

of our tutors are qualified teachers

60%

of tutors surveyed tutor solely through Sherpa

85%

of tutors using multiple platforms prefer Sherpa

The Environment

Online tutoring enables students to find the best tutor to fit their needs, whilst also saving users time spent travelling and therefore has a positive environmental impact. We've calculated the tangible impact choosing online tuition through Sherpa has had.

Our users saved

1,796,724

miles of travel

compared to travelling to in-person lessons

Enough to go to the moon and back almost 4 times!

Our users saved

59,891

hours of travelling

and helped to reduce traffic, too.

That's 6.8 years of time saved.

Our users saved

302,517

kgs of CO2

from being released into the atmosphere

The same as planting 13,750 trees for a year.

Our users saved

£172,610

in fuel costs by choosing online tuition.

Just enough to buy a few Freddos!

How were these statistics calculated?

What was our sample size?

Through our annual Year in Review survey, we collected responses from 536 tutors, parents and students who use Sherpa. This group was made up of 320 tutors, 145 parents and 71 students who had lessons over the last academic year (August 2024 - July 2025). Our Christmas Holiday Revision survey collected responses from 218 parents and 71 students. Our Easter Holiday Revision survey collected responses from 227 parents and 64 students.