It was a Saturday morning and Garry Ratcliffe, chief executive of a multi-academy trust of primary schools in Kent, was in school early to supervise the start of tutoring sessions provided by the government’s national tutoring programme (NTP).
The programme aims to help pupils most in need of catching up after the disruption of Covid, and 12 children had been promised tuition. Ratcliffe’s school is in a deprived area with no culture of Saturday morning clubs, and parents had to be persuaded that it was worth sending in their children at the weekend.
