National Tutoring Programme and School-Led Tutoring

Tutor Trust confirmed as Tuition Partner of the National Tutoring Programme for 2021/22 school year – 22nd September 2021

Register interest here for Primary schools

Register interest here for Secondary schools

This page gives school leaders and teachers:

An overview of how Tutor Trust can boost your pupils’ attainment, self-confidence and aspirations;
Information about the two subsidised schemes and the costs;
A quick and easy way to register your interest with our Schools Team; we operate on a first come, first served basis.

SCHOOLS NOW HAVE TWO GREAT OPTIONS FOR TUTORING

Following a record year of tutoring delivery in 2020/21, we are thrilled we can continue to offer schools high-quality, low-cost tutoring from 1st September 2021 onwards. For the second year running, the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) has approved Tutor Trust as a prestigious Tuition Partner.

In addition to the NTP, schools can also access our tutors directly through the ‘school-led tutoring’ programme which the Government announced in June along with over £500m of fresh funding; this ‘school-led tutoring’ option also gives very heavy subsidies for tutors. Under this programme, schools will receive £203 for 60% of all their pupils who are eligible for Pupil Premium (the figure is £529 per pupil for Alternative Provision settings, Special Schools and Hospital Schools).

In practice, the way Tutor Trust partners with your school and supports your pupils will be very similar with both the ‘school-led tutoring’ and the NTP; the costs of both schemes are very low.

Schools can choose to use either the NTP and/or the ‘school-led tutoring’ scheme. The team at Tutor Trust would be happy to talk you through the different options, or you can read our FAQs here.

If you are interested in working with Tutor Trust either through the National Tutoring Programme or the ‘school-led tutoring’ scheme, please register your interest through the short Google doc (see buttons above). This will only take around three minutes to complete.

LAUNCH OF YEAR TWO OF THE NTP

From September 1st 2021, schools across Greater Manchester, Leeds/Bradford and Merseyside can once again access our high-quality tutoring service for very low cost. A block of 15 hours of tutoring in either Maths, English or Science will cost schools as little as £75 per pupil for the full programme.

Tutor Trust has offices and teams of staff and tutors in each of the city-regions we serve. Each office is headed by a School Partnerships Manager who is an experienced former Headteacher/school leader.

Pupils who had NTP tutoring in the previous 2020/21 school year can have NTP tutoring again in 2021/22. They are also eligible for tutoring in one or more subjects under the ‘school-led tutoring’ scheme in 2021/22. However, pupils can only have one block of 15 hours of NTP tutoring this year (e.g. 15 hours of Maths); pupils needing support in more than one subject can access our tutors through the ‘school-led tutoring’ scheme for the extra subject(s).

NB: Under the NTP rules, we cannot offer tutoring to schools outside Greater Manchester, Leeds/Bradford or Merseyside. For schools outside these areas, please contact an approved NTP provider in your town or city.

WHY CHOOSE TUTOR TRUST FOR YOUR PUPILS?

Tutor Trust is a proudly Northern education charity with a mission to ‘transform lives through tutoring’. We work exclusively with state schools and our focus is mostly on helping disadvantaged pupils and vulnerable learners to fulfil their potential.

Founded in Manchester in 2011, we have a very strong evidence base for the quality and impact of our work across the North of England. Tutor Trust is unique in being the only tutoring organisation in the country – either charitable or commercial – with proven, positive results from a large-scale randomised control trial with the Education Endowment Foundation; this rigorous and independent evaluation showed disadvantaged pupils making an additional 3 months of progress in Maths from just 12 hours of our tutoring.

We are an elite ‘Promising Project’ of the Education Endowment Foundation (and the only one based in the North of England). When he was the CEO of the Education Endowment Foundation, Sir Kevan Collins – who went on to be the Government’s ‘Education Recovery Commissioner’ – said this about Tutor Trust:

The evidence is clear that high-quality tutoring can boost the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and is a good use of schools' pupil premium funding. The EEF has designated Tutor Trust one of our Promising Projects because they demonstrated positive and cost-effective impact when we put them through the tough test of a randomised controlled trial. We're happy to recommend them to schools and to support their growth plan in the North of England.”

The rigorous quality assurance of our work is led by our Quality and Impact Team, which includes 11 qualified teachers (three of them former Headteachers). Tutor Trust has a ten-year track record of both growth and continuous improvement in its services; you can read our latest Impact Report and read some short case studies of our work with schools.

WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOUR SCHOOL

Tutoring for Y5 and Y6 in Primary, and for Y7-11 in Secondary
Specialist 1:1 tutoring service for LAC pupils, pupils in Alternative Provision and pupils at risk of exclusion
Maths, English or Science
Tutoring will be delivered in blocks of 15 hours in one subject
Tutoring can be face-to-face in school or online, and the online tutoring can be when the pupil is at home or in school (NB: face-to-face tutoring is strongly encouraged as the evidence shows it is far more effective than online)
Most tutoring will be delivered in small groups on a 1:3 tutor to pupil ratio Tutoring can be 1:1 if it is for vulnerable learners such as LAC pupils or pupils in Alternative Provision.

NB: To achieve the purpose of the NTP and in line with our goals as a charity, we are asking schools that at least 80% of pupils nominated for tutoring are ‘disadvantaged’, namely Pupil Premium, Looked After, in Alternative Provision or at risk of exclusion.

If you have any immediate questions, please consult our Frequently Asked Questions.

‘SCHOOL-LED TUTORING SCHEME’

In response to feedback from Headteachers, in June 2021 the Department for Education announced a second major tutoring scheme as part of its ‘education recovery’ programme. This new initiative is known as ‘school-led tutoring’ and the Government has committed over £500m to subsidise high-quality tutoring for schools. We are delighted that schools can choose to work with Tutor Trust under this scheme.

Under this programme, schools will receive £203 for 60% of all their pupils who are eligible for Pupil Premium (the figure is £529 per pupil for Alternative Provision settings, Special Schools and Hospital Schools). This money will be paid directly to schools by DfE; it is ring-fenced and must be spent on tutoring for pupils.

If they wish, schools can use this extra money to pay for tutors from the Tutor Trust. In 2021/22, this extra DfE money is covering 75% of the costs, with schools paying a contribution of just 25%. The level of subsidy for the ‘school-led tutoring programme’ is slightly higher than for the NTP this year; this means that the cost to schools is slightly lower under the ‘schools-led tutoring programme’ than under the NTP.

With School-led tutoring funding, a typical primary school of 200 pupils will receive £6,000 while a typical secondary school of 1,000 pupils will receive £35,000. This funding will cover the 75% cost element; schools can pay the 25% cost element using Recovery Premium funding or their regular Pupil Premium budget.

The DfE have stated that “schools will have flexibility to use this additional grant as they see fit in providing tuition support to pupils that can benefit most. Schools will have freedom to determine who is best placed to deliver tutoring support to meet their particular needs…Schools can exercise their discretion in determining which pupils are most in need of tutoring support, including using this grant to support tutoring for non-pupil-premium students, as they see fit…We recognise that schools are in the best position to identify the pupils in most need of tuition support and should use this money to support these students.”

However, Tutor Trust will still ask schools to ensure that a minimum of 80% of nominated tutees are ‘disadvantaged’, namely Pupil Premium, Looked After, in Alternative Provision or at risk of exclusion.

The full DfE guidance about the ‘school led tutoring’ programme is available here.

PUPPIES & PIRATES PROGRAMME FOR YEARS 5 AND 6

For Primary schools, we have a fun and engaging programme of tutoring called 'Puppies and Pirates'.  Nearly 30 schools successfully ran ‘Puppies and Pirates’ in 2020/21. You can access ‘Puppies and Pirates’ either through the National Tutoring Programme and/or the ‘school-led tutoring’ scheme.

The 'puppies' programme is 15 hours of English tutoring and the 'pirates' programme is 15 hours of Maths tutoring.  It can be used with pupils in Year 5 and/or Year 6 and it was devised by the qualified teachers on our staff.  

The full content of the 'puppies and pirates' programme can be downloaded here.

SCHOOLS! PLEASE REGISTER YOUR INTEREST

Schools have already booked in tutors for over 1,000 pupils and we operate on a first come, first served basis. We urge schools, Virtual School Teams and PRUs to contact us as soon as possible to discuss their tuition needs.

In order to register your interest in either the National Tutoring Programme and/or the ‘school-led tutoring’ scheme, please complete the short Google doc form via the buttons at the top or the bottom of this page. There is one form for Secondary and one form for Primary. Please also use these forms for tutoring for LAC and AP pupils.

A member of our staff team in your city-region will reply personally to your enquiry within 48 hours of you registering your school’s interest in Tutor Trust.

OUR SUBSIDISED CHARGES TO SCHOOLS

The two subsidy schemes

As a charity, Tutor Trust has always charged a low cost to schools for our services.  Under the two Government schemes, the costs for schools are very low indeed because of the generous subsidies. Schools can use Recovery Premium funding or their regular Pupil Premium budget to cover their contributions.

The true cost of supporting pupils is the same for Tutor Trust under both schemes, but the level of Government subsidy is slightly different for the two schemes, so the charges are slightly different in 2021/22:

Under the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), the DfE is covering 70% of the costs, with schools paying a contribution of just 30%. The 70% will be paid directly by the NTP to Tutor Trust; we will invoice schools for the remaining 30%.

Under the ‘school-led tutoring’ programme, the extra DfE grant to schools is covering 75% of the costs, with schools paying a contribution of just 25%. We will invoice schools for all these costs.

What does this mean in practice?

Under both schemes, Tutor Trust will deliver most tutoring in small groups, with one tutor working with 3 pupils at a time (whether face-to-face or online). This 1:3 ratio is the most cost-effective model for schools.

Under the National Tutoring Programme, for tutoring on a 1:3 ratio, a block of 15 hours of tutoring in either Maths, English or Science will cost schools just £75 per pupil for the full programme.    

Under the ‘school-led tutoring’ programme, for tutoring on a 1:3 ratio, a block of 15 hours of tutoring in either Maths, English or Science will cost schools just £62.50p per pupil for the full programme.    

Below are the full details of the financial contributions from schools under the two programmes:  

		NTP ¹	'School-led tutoring' ²
Secondary School Block of Tutoring (15 children for 15 hours in one subject)	1:3	£1,125 (£75 per pupil)	£937.50 (£62.50 per pupil)
	1:2 (14 children)	£1,575 (£112.50 per pupil)	£2,415 (£172.50 per pupil) ³
	1:1 (per child)	£225 per pupil	£547.50 per pupil ³
	1:1 (per child)	£225 per pupil	£547.50 per pupil ³
Primary School Block of Tutoring (12 children for 15 hours in one subject)	1:3	£900 (£75 per pupil)	£750 (£62.50 per pupil)
	1:2	£1,350 (£112.50 per pupil)	£2,070 (£172.50 per pupil) ³
	1:1 (per child)	£225 per pupil	£547.50 per pupil ³
¹ Under NTP, schools will be invoiced for the subsidised tuition cost.
² Under the 'school-led tutoring' programme, schools will be invoiced for the full tuition cost based on £50 per hour but the DfE grant will reduce the cost to schools to the amounts shown.
³ The 'school-led tutoring' grant is capped at £13.50 per hour. As the full tuition cost is £50 per hour, on a 1:1 and 1:2 basis the 75% subsidy does not apply to the full cost with only the first £18 per hour per pupil being subsidised.

NEXT STEPS FOR SCHOOLS

As stated above, if you are interested in working with Tutor Trust either through the National Tutoring Programme and/or the ‘school-led tutoring’ scheme, please register your interest through the short Google doc. This will only take around 3 minutes to complete.

As soon as we receive your completed form, a member of staff from the Tutor Trust office in your city will be in touch with you within 48 hours to have a conversation.