Parents in England will be given access to data revealing how
their school is using the National Tutoring Programme, the
Education Secretary has announced today (2 May 2022).
The programme is central to the Education Secretary’s
pledge to parents, ensuring that any child who falls behind in
English and maths will receive tailored support to help them get
back on track, and parents will be kept up to date on their
progress. This will support the government’s Levelling Up
mission for education, for 90% of primary school children to
achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by
2030.
The National Tutoring Programme is part of the
Government’s ambitious covid recovery plan, offering
Government funded, high quality catch-up tutoring, world class
training for teachers and early years practitioners, additional
funding for schools, and extending time in colleges by 40 hours a
year, backed by an additional £5bn investment.
In a letter to all schools, sent today, the Education Secretary
confirmed his intention to publish the data of each school’s
involvement this Autumn, helping parents to understand how their
school is taking up the offer of Government-funded support to
help pupils catch up on lost learning. The data will also be
shared with Ofsted, with the department working with Ofsted over
the coming months on the best use of that data.
Since the tutoring programme’s launch in November 2020, around
1.2 million high-quality tutoring courses have been started by
pupils, including just under 900,000 this academic year.
The department estimates that 40% of schools are yet to
offer any tutoring sessions on the National Tutoring Programme
this academic year.
Within the letter, Secretary of State, , will write:
“I appeal now, in particular to those schools that have not yet
started to offer tutoring, to make sure that you do so as soon as
possible this term — do not miss out on an opportunity to help
pupils who could benefit now.
“Starting this week, my department will contact those schools yet
to offer tutoring support to discuss their plans and offer
further support to ensure they can offer tutoring to their pupils
this term.
“As part of my desire to ensure greater transparency of the
impact of the programme, I am planning to publish data on each
school’s tutoring delivery at the end of the year alongside the
funding allocations and numbers of pupils eligible for the pupil
premium. I will also share this information with Ofsted.”
The Education Secretary’s letter encourages the remaining few
schools that have not yet used the National Tutoring Programme to
do so, as the academic year nears an end. Schools yet to
offer tuition through the programme will be contacted
individually from this week to discuss their plans and offer
support.
The department intends to publish data on schools’ tutoring
delivery in the 21/22 academic year in the autumn, in addition to
the data Government already publishes on national take-up, as
well as funding allocations at school level. More details will be
made available in due course.
The data on schools’ involvement will also be shared with Ofsted.
The department will work with Ofsted over the coming months on
the best use of that data.
Evidence suggests that small group tuition can boost progress by
an average of two months in secondary schools and four months in
primary schools.
Current funding for the National Tutoring Programme is enough to
provide a course of tuition to every single pupil eligible for
Pupil Premium, helping meet the parent pledge to help all
children in need of support.
Primary pupils have already recovered around two thirds of
progress lost due to the pandemic in reading, and around half of
progress lost in maths, demonstrating the effectiveness of the
Government’s wider, ambitious education recovery programme.
In March, the department announced updates to simplify the
programme, including the move to provide all £349 million of
tutoring funding for AY22/23 directly to schools. The decision
was made following feedback from schools and stakeholders, giving
schools the freedom to decide how best to provide tutoring
for their children.
The recovery plan, with tutoring at its heart, supports the
government’s Levelling Up mission for education, for 90% of
primary school children to achieve the expected standard in Key
Stage 2 reading, writing and maths by 2030 – and for the national
average GCSE grade in both English language and maths increase
from 4.5 to 5, to the same timeline.
