ImpactEd’s Annual Evaluation Report of the National Tutoring Programme highlights key tutoring recommendations

Our pedagogical training helps ensure that all school-led tutors and academic mentors employed by schools have the right skills and knowledge to provide high-quality tuition to their pupils, and that schools understand how to embed tutoring effectively within their own contexts. 

School-led tutoring and academic mentoring shown to have positive impact on pupil progress, attainment, and attendance 

In the evaluation report, commissioned by EDT, ImpactEd explores the evidence around the impact of school-led tutoring and academic mentoring in the 2022/23 academic year and what tutoring best practice looks like. 

The report shows that the NTP had a positive impact on: 

• Disadvantaged pupils: The average attainment in maths increased more for secondary pupils with pupil premium eligibility in the participating group compared to their comparison group counterparts. Receiving tutoring also helped to protect secondary pupils with pupil premium eligibility from getting lower grades at endline assessment, and helped pupils without pupil premium eligibility to improve their GCSE English grades. 
• Attendance: Pupils who received tutoring had higher attendance rates than their comparison groups. This was true across phase, pupil premium, and EAL status. 
• Progress: Tutoring sessions had a positive impact on pupil attainment in English and maths at both primary and secondary level. For example, the proportion of primary pupils working at, or above, expected standard increased from 18.4% at baseline to 61.2% at endline in maths, and from 5.8% to 48.2% in English. 

Recommendations for best practice tutoring 

The report provides clear recommendations to support the implementation of in-school tutoring and maximise outcomes for pupils. These recommendations highlight the importance of: 

• Targeting pupils’ specific learning gaps, which is more effective at increasing pupil attainment than a generic approach. 
• Communication between tutors and teachers to understand individual pupil needs and preferred methods of teaching.  Some schools addressed this by providing tutoring from a teaching assistant within a pupil’s class, or the pupil’s class teacher, building on established relationships between the tutor and tutee. 

“It is really encouraging to see further evidence of the far-reaching impact of in-school tutoring.

There is already a wealth of research demonstrating the positive effects of tutoring on pupil progress, but seeing the impact on attendance, socioemotional measures, and the particularly positive outcomes for disadvantaged pupils is especially important, as it highlights the role of in-school tutoring as an intervention that supports schools to address multiple issues their pupils could be facing.

"We’re really proud of our role in supporting school-led tutors and academic mentors to provide high-quality tutoring, and in supporting school leaders to effectively implement tutoring, so that schools can maximise the opportunity provided by the National Tutoring Programme.” 

Fiona Rutherford, NTP Programme Director 

You can read last year’s report here. 

Find out more about the NTP, and how your school can nominate tutors for NTP training, on our National Tutoring Programme page.