What Happened to First Tutors?

A clear-eyed guide for tutors and families trying to understand the First Tutors closure. We cover what is confirmed, what is still being reported, how to recover your data and reviews, and where to go next.

Affected by the First Tutors closure? Sherpa is offering ex-First Tutors a reduced 18% platform fee on any existing students you bring across, plus we will import your reviews. Skip the general application stage with our dedicated onboarding form: Register your interest with Sherpa (2 minutes)

When did First Tutors shut down?

First Tutors appears to have ceased operating on 8 May 2026 but major problems have been happening for over a month. Tutors and families have reported not being able to access historic records and reviews.

The UK First Tutors page has been displaying a closure notice with the wording "made the difficult decision to close" and gives two email addresses for contact: info@firsttutors.co.uk for existing queries and dpo@firsttutors.co.uk for data privacy enquiries.

The notice itself does not explain why the closure happened, and at the time of writing no further official statement has been published.

First Tutors had been operating in some form since 2005, making it one of the longer-established names in the UK private tuition market. The closure has left a significant number of tutors and families looking for a new home for their tuition.

Why did First Tutors shut down?

No official reason has been confirmed publicly, so anything in this section is best read as informed speculation drawn from common pressures on UK tutoring marketplaces. The points below are the ones most often raised in tutor discussions following the closure, plus a specific account from an affected tutor that has gained traction online.

1. Parent-company financial collapse (reported on Reddit, May 2026). A Reddit user claiming to be an affected tutor posted that First Tutors was owned by Edunation Limited, a UK subsidiary of the American company Nerdy Inc., listed on the New York Stock Exchange. According to the post, Nerdy's stock had collapsed 92% from its peak, the company was losing around $4 million a quarter, and First Tutors "didn't survive the cull." The post pointed readers to Companies House filings and NYSE earnings reports as sources. This is one tutor's account based on publicly available filings, not a statement from First Tutors or Nerdy Inc., but the parent-company link and the financial figures are verifiable via those filings if you want to check.
2. Competitive pressure in the UK tuition market. The online tuition space has shifted significantly since 2020. Newer full-service-platforms with better classroom technology, mobile apps, payment protection and active marketing have taken market share from older directory-style marketplaces. First Tutors' product had reportedly seen limited investment in recent years, with its core interface and booking flow largely unchanged.
3. The decline of directory-style platforms. Much of First Tutors' business model depended on ranking in Google for tutor-related search terms and charging tutors for introductions. As Google's algorithm has increasingly favoured platforms with strong on-site engagement, verified reviews and proprietary tools over thin directory pages, the directory model has come under sustained pressure.
4. Rising operating costs and trust requirements. Running a tutoring platform in the UK now carries meaningful overheads, safeguarding processes, payment protection, customer support, classroom infrastructure, and data compliance. Marketplaces operating on a low-fee or one-off-introduction model can find it difficult to fund these properly at scale.

None of this proves the actual cause. Until First Tutors publishes an official statement, the most accurate summary is that the service has closed and the reasons remain undisclosed, though the Reddit account above offers the most specific lead currently in public circulation.

Where tutors are discussing the closure

Most of the public reaction has played out across Reddit, X (formerly Twitter) and tutor-focused forums. Since mid-April, some were experiencing access issues without warning and reported seeing a site maintenance screen without any planned schedule for it to return.

The threads below are useful both for catching up on the conversation and for finding others in the same situation. Treat these as community sentiment rather than verified evidence, they show what tutors are worried about, not the official reasons for the closure.

• Reddit r/TutorsHelpingTutors: Tutors and parents comparing what data they could still access on the run up to the day of the shutdown and discussing next steps.
• X (Twitter): Posts from tutors and families reporting their experience, often with screenshots of the closure notice.
• Trustpilot: Recent reviews of First Tutors reflect tutor and parent frustration with the closure and the lack of communication.
• Facebook: Private Tutors in UK Group has a blend of tutor and parent views on what happened and what other alteratives are out there.

What Sherpa is doing to help

Who we are

Sherpa is a UK-based online tutoring platform connecting families with qualified, experienced tutors across all academic and entrance-exam subjects.

We have spent years building a platform that prioritises fostering real tutor-student relationships, payment protection, and online tools that make it a one-stop shop for running a tutoring business. We're not just a directory, we're more like a online school!

We are rated 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot by the tutors and families who use us. Read our Trustpilot reviews here.

How Sherpa works

Our model is built around ongoing tuition rather than one-off introductions. Tutors set their own hourly rate, deliver lessons through our online classroom, and Sherpa handles scheduling, payments and customer support. Our standard platform fee is competitive and transparent and for tutors moving across from First Tutors, we are offering something better.

Our offer for tutors affected by the First Tutors closure

Bring your existing students across to Sherpa and we will cap your platform fee at 18% on those students. That is a meaningful reduction on our standard rate, and it recognises that you have already done the hard work of building those relationships.

Alongside the reduced fee, ex-First Tutors tutors get:

• Dedicated onboarding. Your application is fast-tracked, and a human from our team will walk you through the move.
• Help importing your reviews. We can import the reviews you have recovered from First Tutors archives so years of credibility do not get lost in the move.
• Help drafting a message to your students. We will help you write to your existing students explaining the move and what they need to do.
• A fast start on new students. You can begin lining up new students for the next academic year from day one.
• An all-in-one tutoring, booking management and marketing platform. It's free to have an account and you can always choose your own rates and hours.

Thinking about moving? Sherpa is offering ex-First Tutors a reduced 18% platform fee on any existing students you bring across, plus we will import your reviews. Skip the general application stage with our dedicated onboarding form: Register your interest in the onboarding service to Sherpa here.

Benefits of moving to Sherpa

The First Tutors model was a directory. So once you paid for an introduction without knowing who with, you were on your own. Sherpa is built differently. That difference is the reason most tutors stay to build a reputation, go on to get more students and earn a higher rate.

Here is what you get to buikd your tutoring business when you move across to Sherpa:

• All your bookings in one place. Lessons, messages, payments, reviews and student notes live in a single dashboard. No more juggling spreadsheets, calendar apps and bank transfers.
• Access to our leading online classroom. Built specifically for one-to-one tutoring, not retrofitted from a video-call tool. Whiteboard, file sharing, lesson recordings, and a revision tool for GCSE students built right in.
• We can import your existing First Tutors reviews. Send us the reviews you have saved from the Wayback Machine and we will add them to your Sherpa profile so the trust you have built carries across.
• Payment protection. Students pay through Sherpa and you are guaranteed payment for lessons delivered. No more chasing late bank transfers or absorbing the cost of no-shows.
• Built-in scheduling. Reminders, calendar sync and rescheduling are all handled automatically for you and for your students.
• A platform you can rely on long-term. Sherpa is well-established, with a growing tutor and student base, an active product team, and an ongoing commitment to the UK tutoring market. We are built to be around for the long haul and always pride ourseves on our communication with users.
• Human customer service and support. Real people, UK-based, who pick up the phone when something goes wrong. They are all online tuition experts who have heard it all before!
• A steady supply of new students. Start lining up your roster for the next academic year from day one, alongside the students you bring across.
• No need to share personal contact details. Everything runs through the Sherpa mobile app, including messaging. Clearer boundaries, and no need to worry about late payments, chasing fees an harsh negotiators.

What UK GDPR entitles you to

Two articles do the work. Article 15 covers data others created about you (reviews, received messages, internal notes); Article 20 covers data you supplied (profile, messages you sent).

• This deadline is from the date of delivery, not just when they end up reading it.
• Send it from the email address you registered with First Tutors. Write from anywhere else and the DPO has grounds to ask for ID first, which costs you weeks.
• Save a copy of the email and any reply. If they miss the deadline, those timestamps are what an ICO complaint runs on.
• The legal references do the work. You don't need to soften the email or apologise for sending it.
• First Tutors' own published Privacy Policy (archived 7 March 2026) explicitly confirms the right of access and the right to data portability "in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format". They've already promised the rights you're exercising.

How to request your data back from First Tutors

Even with the platform offline, you still have legal rights to the personal data First Tutors held about you. Under UK GDPR, you can submit a Subject Access Request (SAR). A free request that obliges the data controller to provide a copy of the personal data they hold on you which might help set up a new tuition profile elswhere.

What you can ask for;

• A copy of your profile content (bio, qualifications, subjects, photos)
• Your message history with students or parents
• Booking and lesson history
• Reviews and ratings left for you, or by you
• Payment and invoicing records
• Any data First Tutors holds beyond what was visible in your account

How to submit the request;

1. Send a written request by email to dpo@firsttutors.co.uk, the data privacy address listed on the closure notice.
2. State clearly that you are making a Subject Access Request under UK GDPR. Include your full name, the email address associated with your First Tutors account, and a description of the data you are requesting.
3. Keep a copy of your request and the date you sent it. The organisation has one calendar month to respond from when they recieved it.
4. If you do not receive a meaningful response within a month, you can raise a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Template wording you can adapt

Subject: Subject Access Request — former First Tutors account.

Hello, Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, I am making a Subject Access Request for all personal data you hold relating to me. My account was registered under [name] / [email].

Please provide a copy of my profile content, message history, bookings, reviews and any other personal data on file, in a commonly used electronic format. If any of my data is available in a structured, machine-readable form, I would like to receive it in that format. I would be grateful for confirmation of receipt and an indicated timeline for response.

Many thanks, [your name]

Don't delay. Your DSAR rights are only intact while First Tutors winds down. They survive administration and liquidation, but they don't survive is dissolution. Once the company is struck off, it ceases to exist as a legal person and recovering your data after that point requires a court application.

How to recover your reviews using the Wayback Machine

The Wayback Machine is a free internet archive run by the Internet Archive. It periodically saves snapshots of public web pages, which means many tutor profiles on First Tutors will still be viewable even though the live site is down. This is the fastest way to recover your reviews.

1. Go to web.archive.org.
2. In the search bar, paste the URL of your old First Tutors profile. If you do not remember it, search Google for your name plus "firsttutors.co.uk" and copy the URL from the results.
3. The calendar view shows every date the page was archived. Blue dots are archived versions, click the most recent one before 8 May 2026.
4. Your profile page should load as it appeared on that date, including reviews, qualifications and bio.
5. You can use your browser's print-to-PDF function (Ctrl/Cmd + P, then "Save as PDF") to keep a physical copy. Or keep the url of the wayback machine version!

A few tips for getting the best archive snapshot:

• If the latest archive looks broken, try one a few weeks earlier. Pages are sometimes archived partially.
• Reviews that loaded via a "show more" button may not be in the archive. Work back through older snapshots to piece them together.
• Save each review as a URL with the name visible. This will matter when importing reviews to other platforms.
• Sherpa will accept verifiable URL reviews as part of your move-over process.

Ready to move your tutoring to Sherpa?

The First Tutors closure has been disruptive, but it is also a chance to move to a platform built for how tutoring actually works in 2026, with proper tools, real support, and payment protection. We have made the process for ex-First Tutors as quick as possible.

Fill in our short form and our team will be in touch within one working day. It takes around two minutes.

Still not sure about Sherpa? Email us at hello@sherpa-online.com. A real person will reply or you can message our instant chat in the bottom right corner of the page. Hope to hear from you soon! Register your interest in the exclusive onboarding service to Sherpa here.