The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) helped pupils to make a small amount of additional progress in maths and English when led by schools, according to a new evaluation.
Pupils who received school-led tutoring made up to one month’s additional progress in key stage 2 and KS4 maths, according to an National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) evaluation for the Department for Education published today.
There was also some limited but statistically significant evidence that school-led tutoring had a positive impact on English.
However, the research found no evidence to suggest that tuition from tuition partners or by academic mentors helped KS2 and KS4 progress in either English or maths.
The NFER found some evidence suggesting pupils tutoring by tuition partners and academic mentors actually saw worse outcomes in KS4 English and maths and KS2 English. However, researchers said it is possible that the small effect was a result of issues with the sample.
The evaluation also says that, despite the government recommending that disadvantaged pupils be prioritised under the NTP, less than half of those selected for the NTP were actually from disadvantaged backgrounds. For Year 11, only 35 per cent of selected pupils were disadvantaged - though pupil premium students who were tutored saw a similar amount of progress to their more advantaged peers.
Limitations of the evaluation
The NFER acknowledged that there were several limitations to the evaluation due to the data available. The efficacy of tutoring was evaluated at both a school and a pupil level, and in the school-level analysis “approximately two-thirds” of pupils included in the intervention sample had not actually received tutoring.
And at a pupil level, pupils who received tutoring from the NTP were compared with the impact just from the first year of the programme, rather than pupils who had received no tutoring.
The NFER also said it didn’t have access to subject-level tuition data for school-led tutoring, meaning pupils included in the analysis in maths, for example, may not have received tutoring in maths.
The authors said this likely means that the one month’s progress “will be underestimates of the true effect”.
As expected, for school-led tutoring, more was associated with better educational outcomes.
NTP ‘should be targeted at disadvantaged pupils’
As a result of its findings, the NFER recommended that the government reintroduce targets for delivering tutoring to disadvantaged pupils, and also conduct further research into the most effective delivery to give guidance to schools.
Currently, government NTP funding can be used to pay 50 per cent of the total cost incurred by a school to deliver catch-up tutoring.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the evaluation showed that the NTP has “clearly had a positive impact on some young people”.
“The way forward must, therefore, surely be for the government to continue funding the programme, and to entirely trust schools to deliver tutoring in the way that works best for them.
“Otherwise, the benefits identified in this evaluation will largely be lost, with tutoring becoming the preserve of the dwindling number of schools able to afford to offer it,” he said.
James Bowen, assistant general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, urged the government to continue funding tuition, allowing schools to choose the best approach for them.
The future of the NTP
The researchers said challenges recruiting high-quality tutors, integrating it with the curriculum, and tuition often having to be conducted during normal lesson times were likely contributing to the small effects.
Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said the findings showed that to have an impact, tutoring must be delivered in collaboration with teachers.
NFER’s evaluation of the first year of the NTP, published last year, only looked at the impact of tuition from partners and academic mentors, as these were the only available routes in 2020-21.
That report did find that higher amounts of tutoring were related to better maths and English grades for Year 11s, though researchers said this may not be causal.
Commenting on the latest findings, schools minister Nick Gibb said that the NTP has “levelled the playing field”.
He added: “This report shows the positive impact the National Tutoring Programme has had in supporting pupils as we recover from the pandemic, with almost 4 million tutoring courses started through the programme so far.”
