Ministers are being urged to find new funding to save thenational tutoring programme, which is due to close this week four years after it was launched to help children in England catch up after the Covid crisis.
Headteachers say the NTP has had a hugely beneficial impact on many children hardest hit by the disruption caused by Covid and the subsequent cost of living crisis.
They are calling on the Labour government to embed one-to-one and small group tutoring in the school system as a means of closing the widening attainment gap between pupils from poorer backgrounds and their wealthier peers.
Since the NTP launched in November 2020 as part of a £1bn recovery plan, 5.3m tutoring courses have started, funded with government subsidies that have been gradually reduced and will now stop. The programme has been described as “the only response of merit from [the last government’s] woeful post-Covid education recovery plan”.
This week pupils were attending their final government-funded tutoring sessions, among them children at Hollydale, a primary school in Nunhead, south-east London, where on Wednesday afternoon a group of about 15 sit in front of laptops in the school library, noise-cancelling headphones on, with a single-minded focus on their tutor and the task in hand.
The school has high levels of disadvantage and special educational needs, but tutoring sessions, online and face to face, provided by Action Tutoring, have helped children who might otherwise have been left behind. “It has been really effective,” said the headteacher, Reema Reid. “We can see the impact.”
Among those to benefit is Charlie, 10, who used to find maths boring. Now he is enjoying fractions, decimals and multiplication. “It’s changed my feeling about my maths.” His teachers are delighted with his new confidence.
Other children who recently arrived in the country have made rapid progress with their English studies, while another student with an education, health and care plan because of speech and language difficulties is thriving. “It’s such a valuable resource,” said Gemma Hopkins, a year 6 teacher. “It can make a big difference.”
Shaye and Harlow, both aged 11, believe the hour-long tutoring sessions every Wednesday after school have helped them. “At first I didn’t want to do it,” said Shaye, who was reluctant to stay after school, but he found it easier to learn without the distractions of a bigger class. “Now I’d like to do more.”
“It feels calmer. I was able to remember lots of things,” said Harlow. He and Shaye say they feel better prepared for secondary school than they might otherwise have been, before disappearing for final preparations for their roles in the evening’s performance of The Wizard of Oz.
“With the right support under-served, or disadvantaged, children also can achieve,” said Reid. “It will be a tragedy if this programme ends. It will widen the attainment gap even further.”
School leaders hope the new government will consider reviving the programme, especially with the recent appointment of Sir Kevan Collins, the original architect of the former prime minister Boris Johnson’s education recovery programme, to the Department for Education (DfE).
“Tutoring is a well-evidenced and highly effective way to boost learning,” said Nick Harrison, the chief executive of the Sutton Trust, an education charity committed to improving social mobility. “The NTP has been remarkably successful, and has levelled the playing field by widening access to tutoring for pupils from low socioeconomic backgrounds. It’s therefore a vital tool for closing the attainment gap between the least and most disadvantaged pupils.
“Without continued funding, there is a real risk that we’re about to squander the huge progress that has been made on access to tutoring.”
Pepe Di’Iasio, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, added: “It’s baffling as to why, having finally got the NTP working reasonably … the scheme was no longer viewed as worthwhile. We would urge the new government to provide the funding to embed tutoring into the school system and not abandon the progress that has been made to this point.”
Susannah Hardyman, the chief executive of Action Tutoring, said: “At a time when the attainment gap is at its widest in over a decade, and the fall out from Covid is still being felt on a daily basis in schools, it’s a travesty that the NTP funding has not been extended.”
Asked for comment, the DfE said the NTP was a time-limited four-year programme. The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has stressed her commitment to ensuring all children have the best life chances by breaking down barriers with high and rising standards in education.
