The government has backed an online tuition pilot which will provide support to 1600 disadvantaged children

With the backing of Gavin Williamson, an online tuition pilot has been launched by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), Sutton Trust, Impetus and Nesta.  This follows analysis by the EEF which concluded that school closures could adversely impact recent progress in closing the attainment gap.  Over the last ten years, the gap has been narrowed from 11.5 months in 2009 to 9.2 months in 2019, according to research published by the Education Policy Institute.

Four schemes will be piloted with 1600 children across different parts of the country.  A Teaching and Learning toolkit jointly published by the The Sutton Trust and EEF predicts that over 5 months of progress could be made using online tuition.

“ The evidence is clear that children learn less when they are not in school. Our analysis today highlights that this particularly impacts those from disadvantaged backgrounds and widens the attainment gap.  Catch-up tuition to complement the expertise of classroom teachers and support those who have fallen furthest behind will be essential and we hope our new online tuition pilot will offer practical help to both schools and pupils at this time.  ” Becky Francis, CEO, Education Endowment

The schemes being piloted as part of the initiative are:

My Tutor

Up to 1000 year 10 and 11 pupils will receive live tuition which will be delivered by university undergraduates.

The Access Project

The Access Project is aiming to provide tuition for up to 440 pupils in years 10-13.

Tutor Trust

100 pupils will be chosen from years 5 and 10 in Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Leeds.  They will receive tuition from university students.

Action Tutoring 

100 pupils will be selected from years 6-10.

“ The school closures from COVID-19 are widening inequalities in educational achievement. But there is promising evidence to show that one-to-one tutoring has a positive impact on improving learning outcomes for disadvantaged students, and could help mitigate the effects of the lockdown.  ” Ravi Gurumurthy, CEO, Nesta

More information on the online tuition pilot can be accessed by clicking here