Online tuition can be an effective way to teach disadvantaged pupils during and after school closures, according to this report by the National Centre for Social Research, which aimed to help disadvantaged youngsters after the first lockdown in England.
The report evaluates the reach of the National Online Tutoring Pilot, commissioned by the EEF in partnership with the Sutton Trust, Impetus and Nesta, to support disadvantaged pupils’ learning during and after partial school closures in the first national lockdown. Its aim was to test the feasibility and promise of online tutoring to support learning while pupils, in particular those from low-income backgrounds, were unable to access school in the normal way. It was the first study to look solely at online delivery in England.
In total, the pilot covered 1,425 pupils in 65 schools, with 9,800 tuition sessions delivered. The vast majority of students were aged between 14 and 16 and studying for their GCSEs, and most received weekly one-to-one sessions in maths, English and science.
According to the evaluation, online tutoring had “high reach”, and led to reported improvements in learners’ confidence, engagement with education and preparedness for the new school year.
Eighty-seven per cent of pupils said that they would like to carry on with their tutoring, while 76 per cent said they enjoyed learning more than they did before.