The Tutor Trust is delighted to launch The Right Angle’s Final Project Report alongside our partners TLC: Talk, Listen, Change, demonstrating the project’s positive impact on the lives of over 200 vulnerable young people in secondary schools who have benefitted from The Right Angle.

Key Findings: pupils thrived mentally and academically

• Pupils accessing both counselling and tuition were twice as likely to improve their GCSE grade.
• On average those who had counselling and tuition attended 5 more tuition sessions than those who had tutoring alone.
• Looked after Children showed the greatest difference in GCSE results when they engaged in tutoring and counselling.
• 57% of pupils demonstrated a clinically significant decrease in psychological distress.
• 71% of KS3 pupils improved their National Group Reading Test scores.

Over the past two years The Right Angle - a collaboration between Tutor Trust and TLC: Talk, Listen, Change - has supported young people in care or alternative provision throughout Greater Manchester, providing both academic support through tuition, and therapeutic support through counselling.

Funded by the Department for Education (DfE) between September 2018 and July 2020, The Right Angle was one of just 9 successful applications out of 296 to the DfE’s Alternative Provision Innovation Fund. As one of the largest APIF projects in the UK, the value and impact of our project continues to be recognised and supported well beyond the end of the funding in July 2020.

Pupils received up to 12 hours of tutoring in English, Maths, and Science and up to 10 hours of professional counselling support from TLC. In total, The Right Angle delivered 2,956 tuition sessions and 880 hours of counselling during the two-year project.

Between September 2018 and April 2020, 251 pupils were referred to the Right Angle. Eligible pupils are secondary school age, and are either looked after and under the remit of one of the Greater Manchester Virtual School Teams, or in an Alternative Provision setting, such as a pupil referral unit.

60% of the young people The Right Angle supported were looked after children, referred by one of the project’s Virtual School partners. The remaining 40% were identified by pupil referral units or in a minority of cases, accepted on to the project due to being at risk of exclusion.

The Right Angle’s achievements are particularly significant given the size of the national attainment gap between pupils in alternative provision and those in mainstream schools. 64% of pupils in state-funded schools achieve a grade 4 or higher in GCSE Maths and English, compared to only 4% of pupils in AP, according the Centre for Social Justice. By contrast, 19% of the young people in alternative provision who took part in the project achieved grade 4 or higher in both GCSE Maths and English.

Abigail Shapiro and Nick Bent, Co-Founders of Tutor Trust and Michelle Hill, Chief Executive of TLC said:

“We are delighted with the outcomes of this work. These interventions have supported disadvantaged young people to reach their full potential, and have helped them lead happier, healthier lives, confirming the project’s belief in the benefits of combining different forms of support.“

Charley Hembrow, a Right Angle Tutor, reflected on the success he saw in his time working with young people on the project:

“The greatest success story for a Right Angle pupil at Mossley Hollins High School is most certainly C. C, despite being another student that falls into the ‘low academic confidence’ category, had made incredible gains with his maths ability since starting tuition […] He’s learnt that the maths ability was always there.”

 

The Future of The Right Angle

Thanks to funding from Porticus UK, The Right Angle’s support of young people has been extended for another academic year.  It has been an exceptionally busy Autumn term, with demands for our work higher than ever. The pandemic has presented additional challenges for pupils and their schools, with many young people self-isolating, and schools suspending in-person teaching as bubbles burst.

The Right Angle has risen to meet the challenges of providing support during these difficult circumstances: Tutor Trust now offers online tuition for individual pupils, and TLC offers both telephone and video counselling.

Building on the growth made possible by winning the Fair Education Alliance Scaling Impact Award in 2020, The Right Angle is hoping to bring support to more young people, and expand to other Local Authorities in the future.

Our evidence demonstrates that our innovative approach to Alternative Provision and Looked After Children can make a difference to young people’s lives.  Both Tutor Trust and TLC: Talk, Listen, Change are determined to grow this work to serve even more young people.