Urban Tutors

Volunteer professionals tutoring Australia's youth for free


Tell me more!

Urban Tutors is a new social enterprise start-up founded in Sydney to provide free tutoring to inner-city students between the ages of 15 and 18.


Our tutors are Sydney-based professionals who volunteer their time and energy to support Australia's future.


We focus on the basics: Maths, English and Career Mentoring.


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Get involved!

I need a tutor

Please contact us via the email form below if you or someone you know would benefit from our program.

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I want to volunteer

We are always looking for volunteers! Urban Tutors is a great way to meet people, give back to our community and develop broader life experience.

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I want to donate

Our incremental cost to tutor one child for an hour is $0.50 - even small donations can go a long way!

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FAQ

1. Who can attend these free sessions?

Students are prescreened by our partners. If you or someone you know would benefit from this program please contact us at the email address below.


2. Are your tutors volunteers?

Yes, all our tutors work for free, though we will offer compensation for minor travel expenses.


3. Are you substituting for schoolwork?

No. We aim to complement schoolwork by providing a safe space where our students can finish their homework, ask questions and fill in the gaps in their knowledge.


4. How do you select the tutors?

Tutors are top ranking degree-qualified professionals.


5. What coursework is covered in tutorials?

We aim to complement the work done at school, rather than provide a curriculum. Students will be tested for areas of weakness and tutorials will focus on these directly. Tutors will also be available to help with homework and study plans.


6. I would like to donate, where would my money go?

We measure all key statistics directly. We expect to tutor a student for an hour for around 50 cents. This goes towards classroom hire, tutor travel expenses (bus and train fares) and teaching materials. We also have foundation donors who will fund operating expenses, so we can guarantee that public donations go directly towards additional hours of tutoring. Details on this will be tracked and published on this website.


7. Are you a registered tax deductible charity?

Our application is currently in progress.


8. How do I know if your approach is effective?

Our approach is data-based. We will track the number of hours tutored, our tutor to student ratio, the cost of providing one hour of free tuition, and the improvement in learning outcomes over multiple time periods and publish the results to this website. We are still an early stage start-up, so if you have helpful feedback, advice or information please contact us using the email address below.


9. What is your tutor to student ratio?

We will have two tutors per class, and about eight to ten students. So the ratio will be below 5:1. Having two tutors also makes it more fun for the volunteers. This is something we will experiment with and optimise.


Contact us by emailing: thetutors@urbantutors.com

The Founders

Mike Frazis

Mike consults for a private equity firm and is in the process setting up his own investment fund. He holds a Bachelors and a Master of Chemistry from Oxford and a Masters of Finance from the London School of Economics. Mike is passionate about all aspects of learning; at school he achieved a UAI of 99.7 and once came first in a National chemistry competition. When he’s not working Mike can be found in the surf at Bondi or Tamarama.

Sam Waller

Sam has spent the last 7 years working in financial markets for various Investment Banks. He holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney and a certificate in youth mentoring from the Northern Sydney Insitute. He is passionate about Education, Politics and Macroeconomics and outside of finance has a strong background in written English and Public Speaking. When he’s not working Sam can mostly be found surfing in summer and skiing in winter.