Over the past few weeks, everyone in education has wondered what the much-touted summer catch-up would look like.

Would exhausted teachers be asked to come in during the holidays? Who would be the “camp counsellors” in anticipated American-style summer camps? Would an army of retired teachers be called up to serve once more? 

Amid all of this, one thing that the commentariat agreed upon was that it would involve tutoring of some kind. What we hadn’t perhaps bargained for was just quite how much - and for how long. 

And so, when it came - a thundering £1 billion investment - mostly in tutoring of some form, and spread throughout the next academic year, I think many of us thought, “Well played.” 

How tutoring can help pupils catch up

Indeed, those of us who have had direct experience of tutoring in our schools can see what a boon it is.

Truth be told, our school has had patchy provision historically. And this is where tutoring has come into its own. I became head in March 2019, and it was clear that there was one hell of a job to do to catch up. 

Our Year 13s had suffered from half of their A-level study being delivered by supply teachers, while our Year 11s had had weak teachers - one of whom had spent an entire half-term teaching our Year 11s To Kill a Mockingbird, a book that had not been seen on the curriculum for four years.

Working with tutors, together with some sessions that I led myself, that group of students was able to have focused sessions on the text they should have been studying, An Inspector Calls. 

The impact was huge

Huge improvements

The individual stories are too numerous to recount, but Mohammed in Year 11 provides a case in point. He joined the academy mid-way through Year 10 from a nearby school.

Due to personal reasons, Mohammed had had a fractured experience educationally in Year 9 and there were lots of gaps in his learning. However, due to staffing issues in Year 10, Mohammed had over 50 per cent supply teachers each week.

This compounded his gaps in learning and meant that he was working at several grades lower than he should achieve. 

With the staffing changes that happened since September 2019, and with a well-planned curriculum, eradication of supply teaching and strong classroom practice, Mohammed quickly made strong progress. However, the gaps in his learning persisted, mainly in the core subjects such as mths and English. 

Using baseline assessments and breaking down each aspect of the syllabus, Mohammed’s English and maths teachers were able to have an informed approach towards using tutoring after school to address some of the gaps in his knowledge.

Mohammed received small group tuition in English for a period of 18 weeks running after school between 4.30 and 5.30pm. 

Mohammed also was part of the fantastic MyTutor programme in maths, an online tutoring programme that uses high-quality undergraduates for online tuition through its secure platform.

Being one-to-one, these sessions were completely tailored to Mohammed’s needs and also allowed him to ask questions in a safe space, to practise concepts demonstrated in class and to address gaps or areas of need from his mock examinations.

In both subjects, Mohammed made great progress as tutoring worked side by side with excellent teaching and a well-planned curriculum, allowing him to catch up. By March 2020, Mohammed had moved from a grade 1 in Maths, to a secure grade 5, and from a grade 3 in English to a secure grade 7. 

And these impressive results played out across the cohort. We were on track to have narrowed our gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged from 13 per cent to 2 per cent. 

What’s more, we were anticipating an uplift of somewhere around 20 percentage points in our headline 4+ measure - and these are data that are fully supported by our trust’s wider data collection.

(Sadly, given Ofqual’s proposed approach, schools like mine, which have shown significant improvements, may not get their just desserts this summer.)

The joy, of course, of the MyTutor programme is also that it is not confined by geography.

Prior to working at Kingsley, I worked in a deprived community on the South coast and sourcing high-quality tutoring locally would have been challenging.

If I had known about a programme like MyTutor at the time, it would have had a significant impact on boosting students’ life chances and helping them reach their target grades.

Tutoring complements teaching

I recognise that some in the profession can be a little sniffy about the notion of tutoring, and that in some way it cedes ground on what should rightfully be teacher territory.

Bu it should not be an either/or argument.

Tutoring is not, and cannot be, a substitute for great quality teaching. However, if used in a targeted way, then it is a powerful supplement. It allows students to revisit previous concepts, consolidate what happens in class, and it help students build confidence.

To the doubters, I say this: try integrating high-quality teaching with high-quality tutoring, and you’ll see just how powerful it can be.

Elroy Cahill is headteacher of Kingsley Academy (part of Academies Enterprise Trust) in Hounslow, West London