NFER’s impact evaluation of the National Tutoring Programme’s third year (2022/23) has been published alongside its Evaluations and Reflections paper on the programme’s fourth year. The Government’s NTP was introduced in the 2020-21 academic year to help pupils in England recover the learning they missed due to Covid 19 disruption.
The impact evaluation sought to evaluate the impact of the third year of the NTP on English and maths outcomes at KS2 and KS4 for a) all pupils, b) pupils eligible for pupil premium (PP pupils) and c) pupils with prior low attainment. The research found participation in the school led tutoring (SLT) route was associated with small improvements in English and maths outcomes at KS2. The maths improvements were larger and more consistent than English, but still small.
The Evaluations and Reflections paper gathered data on the experiences of schools which had and had not participated in the NTP, via an online survey of senior leaders and interviews with a sub-sample of those senior leaders. Around three quarters of senior leaders who had participated in the NTP agreed that pupils had engaged with the content of the tutoring, had built positive relationships with tutors, had found tutoring beneficial and had enjoyed the tutoring sessions.
Commenting on today's two new reports on the National Tutoring Programme, Dr Ben Styles, NFER Co-Head of UK Policy and Practice and Head of Classroom Practice and Workforce, said:
“It is encouraging that our third impact evaluation suggests school-led tutoring via the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is associated with small improvements in English and maths outcomes for pupils at Key Stage 2. We’re also pleased to see some indication that the impact for pupil premium and low attaining pupils is slightly greater than for their peers.
“Meanwhile, it is clear from our recent survey in schools that most leaders remain satisfied with the programme, with many noting a perception of positive impact on pupils’ attainment and confidence. However, others reported a reluctance to prioritise tutoring for their disadvantaged pupils as they felt other interventions achieve higher levels of impact for their pupils.
“Overall, leaders want to continue with the programme, but we are seeing tutoring decreasing each year with reduced subsidies and there is no further subsidy from September 2024 as the NTP comes to its planned conclusion.”