KS3

Rationale:

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is an ambitious scheme intended to provide additional, targeted support for those children and young people within the academy who have been most affected by disruption to their education because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Students received 15 hours’ worth of online tutoring via the My Tutor platform. Students received support in English through either one to one, or one to three online tutoring sessions, the programme will provide bespoke support, and intervention to develop a targeted range of skills to increase progress in English. Students were supported by their academy teachers who provided information on the areas that individual students need to improve on.

How was it delivered:

A programme of 15 weekly, term-time tutoring sessions covering English with a trained and qualified specialist teacher. Sessions are online and are either 1:1 with the student and a tutor or 3:1 with two other students from our academy cohort and a tutor. Some students sat sit their tutoring sessions in school and other students will sit their tutoring at home. 54% of the selected students completed their tutoring sessions in school.

How many students took part?

We worked with 189 students across Year 7 – Year 9, which breaks down to:

  • 57 Year 7 students
  • 35 Year 8 students
  • 97 Year 9 students

Students were selected using different methods for different year groups. Year 7 students were chosen based on their reading age where there is a gap between reading age and actual age, focusing on English skills. Year 8 and Year 9 students were chosen based on any gaps between assessment grades and minimum expected grades (targets) in English

KS4

Rationale:

As part of our ongoing support for students due to missed learning from COVID-19 and to continue to provide effective intervention for students to enable pathways from post-16, we used online tutoring as a package to support this process.

Students received 15 hours’ worth of online tutoring via the My Tutor platform. Students involved received one-to-one, or in small groups, bespoke support, and intervention on a range of Core and Ebacc subjects such as English, Maths and Science.

Research from the Education Endowment Foundation into effective support for students includes tutoring as a means of supporting student progress. The EEF states that effective tutoring can, add up to 5 months of progress on average when students have received regular tutoring.

How was this being delivered:

Some of the tutoring sessions were online at home, whilst others will be at the academy so that we can support students if required. All Year 11 students will receive tutoring at home to allow them to develop independent learning skills that will support them for post-16 and training.

How many students took part:

We worked with 40 Year 10 students and 25 Year 11 students.

All students are provided with headphones with a microphone so that they can interact with their tutors. Over time, with more online tutoring slots available, we increased our provision to Y11 and Y13 students who wished to have additional tutoring. All costs were met by the academy.