Best teaching assistant agency in Birmingham [2025]

Yipiyap peer tutor fulfilling a school's classroom assistant needs.

Well, it’s not an agency at all – meet Yipiyap.

For extra support in the classroom, your first thought might be an agency teaching assistant (TA). But there’s a better option out there.

Yipiyap provide super-engaging peer tutors to support learners in class, in small groups or one-to-one, and in SEND or AP contexts. Peer tutoring has been proven to be hugely effective at boosting learner confidence and progress.

All of our peer tutors are fully employed by Yipiyap. That means we can hand-pick the most relatable and inspiring candidates to be tutors, and make sure they’re up to scratch with our CPD-accredited training.

Schools and colleges get the support staff they need at seriously competitive rates – and, not to mention, with that all-important peer tutoring magic that changes young lives for the better.

Supply Classroom Assistant vs Peer Tutor

75% of school leaders reported their TA recruitment to be “fairly” or “extremely” difficult.¹ Retention proves equally difficult, with over 70% of senior leaders losing TAs to higher-paying roles in retail and hospitality.²

In the face of these challenges, schools turn to supply workers and recruitment agencies. “A good quick fix”, according to Mike Short, head of education at Unison, but “hugely expensive”.³

Schools are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and the National Foundation for Education Research has called for ministers to better address support staff recruitment.⁴

Peer tutoring offers a radically different approach – and one that avoids the dilemma of struggling to recruit directly or paying exorbitant agency fees.

“Cannot big Iqra up enough! Having someone close to age … [fulfilling] the needs of a LSA and additional support for students is invaluable.”

Miss Z Millman, Physics Teacher
WMG Academy for Young Engineers, Solihull

Why schools in Birmingham need teaching assistants

Schools in the West Midlands face particularly acute challenges. Multi-million-pound cuts to children’s services by Birmingham’s “bankrupt” council put more pressure on already-stretched schools.⁵

To make matters worse, the council’s bespoke £100m IT system was finally withdrawn from schools this summer, but not without two years of glitches impeding schools’ budgeting and landing them in hot water with bailiffs.⁶

All this is against a background of challenging social inequality: Birmingham is the 7th most deprived local authority in England, with Walsall, Wolverhampton, and Sandwell following close behind.⁷

And across all English regions, the West Midlands Metropolitan Area has the highest proportion of working age people with no qualifications at all, while 30% of young people achieve fewer than five GCSEs.⁸

These challenges demand a brave new approach. That’s where peer tutoring comes in, with its low costs to schools and serious impact on learner confidence and achievement – an average of five months extra progress, according to the EEF.⁹

“Tom is working as a tutor in place of a TA, providing much needed support for key pupils. Tom's contributions are invaluable, he is hard working, adaptable, kind, willing to learn and caring.”

Miss D Hart, Assistant Principal and SENDCO
BOA Digital Technologies Academy, Birmingham

Cartoon representing Yipiyap school support in Birmingham.

Your new classroom assistant in Birmingham

Yipiyap’s peer tutors have been injecting energy and inspiration into classrooms across the West Midlands since 2022 – and with another decade’s experience nationwide behind that.

Support is competitively priced, and taps into a pool of talent inaccessible to traditional teaching assistant roles.

We’ve already seen real impact in the region and have a promising roster of inspirational role models ready to drop into your classrooms.

Find out more about Yipiyap’s unique peer tutoring model, or request your new tutor today.

“I have had students come to me saying how great it is having Sarah help them with their maths and they are getting it now.”

Mr K Gurney, Assistant Headteacher
E-ACT Shenley Academy, Birmingham