Tutor Trust Impact Report 2023/2024 - Report - Page 6
Introduction
The current challenge
Young people continue to face considerable
challenges in their education, as the attainment
gap widens beyond the pandemic.
3 Education Policy
Institute, 2024
https://epi.org.uk/
annual-report-2024disadvantage-2/
4 Education Policy
Institute, 2024
https://epi.org.
uk/annual-report2024-geographicdisadvantage-gaps/
5 Sutton Trust, 2024
https://www.
suttontrust.com/
our-research/schoolfunding-and-pupilpremium-2024/
6 The Tutor Trust,
2017 https://www.
thetutortrust.org/
impact/our-rctevidence
The attainment gap for primary and
secondary school aged pupils is still
at its highest since 2011. Child poverty
is rising, with research showing
that pupils have been increasingly
experiencing disadvantage for longer
periods of time3, which a昀昀ects the areas
where we deliver tuition. Young people
from lower income backgrounds at age
16 in the North West, and Yorkshire
and The Humber were found to have
an attainment gap of 21.7 and 21.3
months respectively. The average gap
in attainment across the areas we work
in was 21.5 months. Additionally, this gap
in learning has widened post-pandemic,
with Key Stage 4 students in the North
West seeing some of the greatest gaps,
whilst London experienced no change
in this category4. These concerns were
addressed by the National Tutoring
Programme (NTP), which ended in
August 2024. The current challenge
is ensuring young people continue
to receive this much needed support.
These challenges are further
compounded by funding concerns in
schools and the ongoing cost of living
crisis. The Sutton Trust identi昀椀ed that
Pupil Premium funding is no longer being
used for its intended purposes of helping
to support young people from lower
income backgrounds, and instead being
allocated to general school costs5.
Tutor Trust o昀昀ers a high-quality, impactful
and a昀昀ordable option to schools to help
reduce the educational attainment gap.
Our model is backed by the ‘gold standard’
of evidence6.Our 昀椀rst Randomised Control
Trial (RCT), a large-scale e昀昀ectiveness
trial conducted in 2017 by the Education
Endowment Foundation (EEF), showed
that Year 6 pupils receiving 12 hours of
our tutoring made an additional three
months’ progress in maths. Progress was
greatest for low prior attainers and pupils
receiving Free School Meals, and there
was a ‘spillover e昀昀ect’ with the tutees’
performance in reading also increasing.
The evidence from this research informed
the Department for Education’s design
of the National Tutoring Programme
(NTP), which we participated in as a
Tuition Partner throughout its lifespan.
A second RCT, commissioned by the EEF
as part of the NTP, focused on boosting
engagement and attendance at tutoring
among secondary school pupils. This
also resulted in positive 昀椀ndings which
we have embedded into our processes.
Tutor Trust’s evidence allows us to be
unique in the sector in having ‘goldstandard’ evidence of the impact of our
work from two Education Endowment
Foundation RCTs.
Furthermore, to support schools in
the 2023/24 academic year Tutor Trust
absorbed 20% of tuition costs. With the
support of our funders, we have been
able to reduce costs to schools by
a further 30% this academic year.
◀ St Paul’s Church of England Primary School, Year
5 maths pupils with tutor Madeeha Khan-Israeel
6
Tutor Trust Impact Report 2023/24
