Teachers Reveal Why Government’s £1bn Tutoring Plan Won’t Work*

by danielbarker on 6 July, 2020

A government plan to fund private tutors for students who need help catching up on their studies amid the coronavirus pandemic has been criticised by school leaders as poorly thought out and with little detail. 

Last month the government revealed a £1bn fund – with primary and secondary schools given £650m to spend on one-to-one or group tuition for any pupils who they think need it. The most disadvantaged children will have access to tutors through a £350m programme over the course of the school year from September.

But headteachers have pointed out the money is not entirely new, as some funding to close gaps as pupils transition from primary to secondary schools is being scrapped.

And they also fear that many pupils, especially those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, will be wary of opening up to a stranger and admitting they don’t know or understand things.

It is great making headlines by saying there will be funding to tutor children – but there have been no real details,” Brian Walton, headteacher at Brookside Academy in Somerset, told HuffPost UK

“It should not be about throwing money at a problem until you know exactly what the nature of the problem is.

Others have questioned whether the money will actually be enough, as research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests the £650m pot works out to be about £80 extra for each pupil.

“Children cannot learn until they feel safe, they are fed and they get back into a routine,” Tehmina Hashmi, executive director at Bradford Academy told HuffPost UK.

“It is not just as simple as plugging gaps in learning. It is about getting children back into the routines and talking to them about how they are feeling.

“It will take time for the new normal to be established before we can even begin to think about gaps in learning.”

As a headteacher, Hashmi has found herself getting constantly frustrated by the lack of clarity from government when it comes to everything that has happened since the coronavirus lockdown, that she has taken matters into her own hands.

Hashmi disagrees with the way the government has chosen to bring children back into school by year groups such as reception, Year 1 and Year 6.

She says teachers know from telephone calls and monitoring online learning which children are and are not engaging with home learning and she believes a better tactic would be to bring those pupils back into school who have not been learning to meet their needs.

The government has taken away the Year 7 catchup funding which is a grant for schools to use for pupils from Year 6 going into Year 7 to close any gaps in their learning.” she said. “So when taking this into account, some schools will only be getting a bit more money.”

Hashmi also feels there are too many restrictions attached to how the funding can be used – such as the mention of the tuition being carried out by “approved providers.”

“In the context of a school like mine where relationships with children are so important, engagement with our own staff would be better.” she said.

Siobhan Collingwood, headteacher at Morecambe Bay Community Primary School in Lancashire says her priority is making pupils feel safe and forging a reconnection with school life.

She told HuffPost UK that the problem with tutoring is that any vulnerable pupils throughout the country who haven’t been accessing home learning resources won’t be any more likely to take up tutoring.

“For many vulnerable pupils, their lifestyle is such that they may not easily be able to access tutoring. Some families might not have the IT or find time within their day.

If there are families struggling with things like mental health issues, drug and alcohol problems and housing troubles, tutoring will not be top of their priorities.

The reasons why they have not accessed home learning will still be there. What is going to be different in the way they respond to home learning and an hour’s lesson with a tutor? Why would we assume they access that when they have no relationship or connection with a tutor?

Siobhan says the assumption seems to be that children can just pick up where they left off when they return to school – but the reality is very different.

“Children may have been hibernating and sleeping well into the day,” she said. “Their body clocks will have altered and to recharge a brain that has been in a state of lulling takes time.

“My priorities will be for children to feel safe and for them to reconnect with school, learning and teachers.”

She added: “To me, rather than funding for tutors, I think it would have been better to provide some really excellent summer school activities where children can meet up with other children and share their experiences over lockdown in an energised space and be in a better place to re-start school life in September.”

Children may have been hibernating and sleeping well into the day. Their body clocks will have altered and to recharge a brain that has been in a state of lulling takes time.”Siobhan Collingwood, headteacher at Morecambe Bay Community Primary School in Lancashire.

Brian Walton, headteacher at Brookside Academy in Somerset, told HuffPost UK that one of the things that frustrates school leaders is that the government makes announcements about schools but then doesn’t follow through with dialogue explaining how it will work.

Walton is concerned about when tutors will provide this catch up learning to pupils and says it will be detrimental to their learning if it is during school time and they are taken out of existing lessons.

The idea that these tutors will come in during school time is crazy,” he said. “Taking children out of quality school lessons is not the answer.

’They will miss out on time with skilled teachers who know them better and working with other children who might help to bring them on.”

It should not be about throwing money at a problem until you know exactly what the nature of the problem is.”

However, Walton also has reservations about tutoring taking place outside of school hours such as during evenings and weekends. “That requires buy-in from the children and parents.” he said.

“Parents would have to be committed to taking children somewhere on a Saturday. Some parents will jump at the chance – but others won’t.”

Nansi Ellis, assistant general secretary for education policy and research at the National Education Union (NEU), told HuffPost UK that while it is good there will be money available to support pupils who need it, there is already confusion around who will be eligible and how it will work.

“There are two different pots of money – some for one-to-one tuition and some for smaller group tuition,” she said. “There was an ongoing pupil transition grant which has been scrapped so we are a bit cynical as this is not all new money and where else are they going to take money away from to put into this pot?”

Ellis feels there is an expectation from government that all children will return to school in September and that most will be able to slot in and a handful will need extra support. But she says this is definitely not the reality.

“I think it is good that there will be money available to support pupils who need it, but schools need to be able to decide what to spend it on and start with the wellbeing and physical and mental needs of children before we can even start looking at the learning gaps.”

Ellis told HuffPost UK that she has serious misgivings about the government’s plans to get newly qualified graduates or tutors to provide the catchup learning rather than teachers – particularly when there are supply teachers who have been furloughed who are already known to pupils at some schools.

“Not only will graduates and tutors not know the children, they won’t know the school or system,” she said. “Children, particularly younger ones, need familiarity and a friendly face they know.

*article made from material previously published in Microsoft News

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