Warning over quality of tutors
(Picture: PA Wire)Some of the tutors on the government’s flagship Covid catch up scheme are not trained well enough to help with reading and are “not good with children”, headteachers warned on Tuesday.
School leaders criticised the National Tutoring Programme saying it was “variable”, “inconsistent” and a “bureaucratic nightmare.”
One headteacher suggested schools are struggling to find supply teachers because they are signing up to be tutors instead.
The NTP offers tuition to schoolchildren to help them make up for learning time lost in lockdown.
Ruth Holden, executive headteacher of the Mulberry Academy in Shoreditch told MPs on the education committee: “We found the National Tutoring Programme really variable and quite inconsistent.
“Some people were very good in terms of their specialism, but they weren’t necessarily very good with children, particularly children who need a particular style of engagement because they aren’t very able, or had connectivity issues or a whole host of things to do with deprivation.”
Jo Coton, executive head of NET Academies Trust, said a lot of tutors “tend not to be the most effective teachers”, adding: “Some of them at primary level don’t have the recent training to be as effective to implement the catch-up, particularly with early reading.”
Jill Thompson, head of Kelvin Grove school in Gateshead, said she routinely contacts five different teacher supply agencies but is often unable to find staff to take the place of teachers who are off sick.
She told MPs: “I don’t know if that’s because lots of them are doing the tutoring programme…How we physically get the bodies in classrooms is my biggest worry.”
Nicola Shipman, CEO of the Steel City Schools Partnership, said the initiative to entice retired teachers back to the classroom has not been successful.
She added: “We haven’t seen a deluge of recently retired teachers coming back and knocking on our door offering their services.”
She said taking retired teachers presents a challenge because they need to be DBS-checked, and they need to the curriculum of the school.
She said: “No disrespect to retired teachers - there are some incredibly skilled people out there. But they don’t have the most recent CPD (continuing professional development) that some of our schools have, to be able to deliver the curriculum in the way we need it to be delivered for children to catch up.”
A spokeswoman for the department for education said: “We are determined to support children from all backgrounds to catch up on lost learning and reach their potential.
“Over 300,000 courses were delivered in the last term alone and the programme remains on track to deliver the ambitious target of teaching two million courses this academic year.
“High quality tuition is key to the delivery of the National Tutoring Programme and there are a range of measures in place including ensuring tutors have appropriate qualifications and experience, along with training in safeguarding, to ensure all Tutoring Partners involved in the programme meet those standards.”
