As one of the inaugural tuition partners of the National Tutoring Programme, we launched The Brilliant Tutoring Programme in 2020. Over the three years of the programme, we worked to help boost students’ confidence, knowledge, and skills in core subjects. Our trained postgraduate tutors helped raise academic attainment through small group tutoring.
Between 2020-23:
My tutor was amazing! He broke work down and made it enjoyable yet challenging at the same time. I couldn’t appreciate his hard work enough. Even when my chat wasn’t working, he found a solution and still made me able to engage with each tutorial. I learnt to be more confident with my answers and that anything can be easy no matter how hard it looks. It just needs breaking down and consistent attempts. Thank you!!!
The disadvantage gap between the most and the least advantaged students in GCSE English and maths widened to 18.8 months in 2022 (up from 18.1 months in 2023). The gap is now at its largest since 2012. For persistently disadvantaged students, meaning students that are eligible for free school meals for 80 per cent or more of their school lives, the gap is 22.7 months. This means that students from low-income families are almost a whole two years behind their peers.
GCSE attainment is a crucial indicator of a young person’s educational outcomes: the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that the better someone scores at GCSE, the more likely they are to hold advanced qualifications, and that it is ‘extremely unlikely’ for someone in the bottom fifth of GCSE scores to earn a university degree by their mid-20s.
In November 2023, new research into data from the Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) showed that Scholars Programme students have higher GCSE scores than Local Authority students with similar Key Stage 2 prior attainment. Students with average prior attainment were twice as likely to achieve a 9-5 in maths and English at GCSE after taking part in The Scholars Programme in Year 10.
We also know that Scholars Programme students show a significant improvement in attainment-related outcomes. For students who complete the programme, we consistently see improvements in academic self-efficacy, critical thinking, subject knowledge and written communication.
In 2023, after three years of experience delivering The Brilliant Tutoring Programme, we launched the pilot of a brand-new attainment-raising programme, Make your Mark, in partnership with the University of Sussex.
Make your Mark is aimed at boosting attainment and improving academic self-efficacy and study strategy use for year 10 students in core curriculum subjects.
If you are a school or university interested in The Scholars Programme or Make your Mark, get in touch today!
Teaching on BTP has assisted me in my development of understanding teaching, learning and the student experience better... I found it incredibly rewarding watching the pupils grow in confidence during each lesson. I wholeheartedly looked forward to teaching every lesson due to the pupils' kindness, politeness and enthusiasm to learn. It felt great to help support a state school based in the north of England, similar to my own school background.