Top 5 Insights from the First Year of the National Tutoring Programme

We asked tutors whether their tutees had made observable progress over the course of the programme. 93% of tutors responded in agreement. 

Respondents were most likely to tell us that the NTP’s small group sizes helped pupils focus and build confidence in tackling new materials. Individualised learning targets were often mentioned as useful in aiding pupils’ progress in subjects like reading and comprehension skills and rudimentary science concepts. 

Attendance problems were the most frequently mentioned obstacles to pupils’ progress, along with the need for extra provision for the most disadvantaged pupils. 

Overall, our findings paint a clear picture of success for the NTP in its headline aim of helping pupils make strides to close the attainment gap. 

To solve the problem of lower attainment among vulnerable pupils, educators need to be familiar with its specific causes. We were pleased to discover that 66% of our respondents felt that the NTP had given them a better insight into the obstacles to learning faced by disadvantaged children. 

Tutors told us that these pupils frequently struggled with feelings of low confidence and self-esteem that held them back from realising their potentials. Access to the right technology was also a common concern, particularly in the context of remote learning. 

Similarly, tutors often observed that the most disadvantaged pupils suffered from a lack of adequate learning environments, whether noisy classrooms at school or crowded living situations at home. 

Beyond the issue of space, a child’s domestic environment seems to be one of the biggest brakes on their academic success. Tutors regularly found that some of their tutees were unable to access online learning materials due to a lack of a home computer. Other respondents highlighted insufficient parental guidance and encouragement. 

Other answers pointed to parents’ and teachers’ difficulties in knowing how to correctly deal with children with Special Educational Needs, particularly when undiagnosed. 

The breadth of challenges that our least privileged pupils face is daunting. However, projects like the NTP can give educators and policymakers a better working knowledge of barriers to learning that can then be used to tackle these performance deficits at source. 

We wanted to find out more about the role of schools in delivering the NTP. More specifically, we wanted to hear from our NTP tutors about whether schools provided the right conditions for them to work as effectively as possible.  

Responses to this question were more equivocal. 41% of respondents were highly positive about their experiences with schools during the NTP, with 38% giving a negative account and 21% offering a mixed picture. 

The tutors who had the most positive experiences tended to mention the strong levels of support that their schools had given them. This support took the form of close relationships with permanent members of staff, provision of adequate learning environments and resources and good communication.

These aspects were also, however, some of the most frequent complaints made by other tutors. Those tutors reporting more negative experiences frequently spoke of a lack of communication and information sharing from senior leaders and permanent staff, particularly in terms of baseline information about tutees. Unsuitably noisy teaching areas and an inadequate level of technological access were other common woes. 

Several tutors struggled with poor attendance among their tutees that they felt schools never properly chased up. Remote learning was also repeatedly singled out as a major drawback, particularly within schools who adopted a ‘camera off’ policy. 

For the second year of the programme, schools hosting NTP tutors should think about how they can optimise their internal processes and ensure that educators have adequate access to resources. Effective coordination between tutors and schools will give pupils the best chance to succeed. 

Our survey has left us in little doubt that the NTP has helped pupils make progress. But we wanted to know whether the tutors delivering it felt as if the experience had helped them too. 

Teaching Personnel was pleased to find out 83% of tutors agreed that the experience of the NTP had improved their abilities as educators. Respondents felt that the programme had built their confidence, particularly when dealing with smaller group sizes and children with a greater range of abilities than they had been used to tutoring. Various tutors spoke of being brought out of their ‘comfort zones’ by working with disadvantaged pupils and children with SEN. 

As well as providing an infusion of useful general teaching experience, the NTP was frequently praised by tutors as a crash course in new educational technologies. Many tutors came away with a much-enhanced knowledge of how to deliver online classes that will surely come in useful in future. 

This survey presented us with a great opportunity to evaluate our performance as an NTP Tuition Partner through the eyes of those on the front line. We are pleased to say that 85% of respondents agreed that they felt adequately supported by Teaching Personnel throughout the programme. 

Tutors praised the work of our Tuition Managers in providing regular and punctual lines of communication. Our myTP online administrative system was also praised for its ease of use in helping candidates stay organised. 

Our training and onboarding processes also earned positive feedback. 74% of tutors felt that what they learned during training came in useful in delivering the NTP, with the remaining 26% largely only differing thanks to their own deep levels of experience in small-group tutoring. 

Teaching Personnel is proud to be playing a part in an initiative that is so clearly making a difference to the prospects of the children most in need. We are now gearing up to deliver another year of quality catch-up tuition in partnership with schools and educators. 

If you are a school leader interested in signing up with the NTP, click here to find out how Teaching Personnel can deliver a programme at your school that will leave a lasting impact on your most vulnerable pupils. 

If you are a qualified teacher or learning support worker eager to contribute your skills to the biggest national catch-up programme of recent times, register as an NTP tutor with Teaching Personnel today.