To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote take-up of national tutoring programme funding.
Answered on
4 November 2020
There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate pupil progress, and we want to extend this opportunity to disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils. The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is an ambitious scheme that will provide additional, targeted support for those children and young people who need the most help to catch-up.
We are committed to ensuring that there is a strong take-up of the programme and in particular, supporting those schools with the most need to access tutoring provision. We have undertaken a range of communications and engagement activities to ensure that schools are aware of the support offered by the NTP, and over 7,000 schools have already registered their interest in the programme. Our activities include offering school-focused webinars throughout the academic year, to provide more information about the programme, and over 1,000 schools have already signed up for the first available sessions. The webinars are advertised through social media, websites, newsletters and the department’s school networks.
We have also been working with a range of key stakeholders to increase awareness and interest in the programme in areas that need it most, for example, through Opportunity Areas, Multi Academy Trusts and Regions Schools Commissioners. Utilising these networks, we are looking to ensure that school leaders have a strong understanding of the programme and we can engage schools that would benefit most from tutoring support. In addition, we have also been communicating with Local Authority Groups and Teaching Unions to disseminate the information.
The NTP is providing regular newsletters, schools focused blogs and other social media content direct to schools. As the programme goes live in November, we will continue to share case studies and good practice to show how tuition can support pupils effectively and help catch-up any lost learning due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. We will continue to monitor take-up throughout the course of this academic year and ensure further communication is directed towards areas of low take-up.