Decrease in schools using National Tutoring Programme

New DfE data suggests that more than 55 per cent of schools have so far participated in the National Tutoring Programme in the 2023 to 2024 academic year, down from 76 per cent at this point in the 2022/23 academic year.

The National Tutoring Programme was established to help pupils catch up with lost learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is the last academic year that schools will receive funding from government to provide tutoring.

Commenting, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Many schools are facing severe financial pressures, so it is not surprising that fewer schools were able to run the National Tutoring Programme after the last government cut its subsidy.

“While the National Tutoring Programme has not been perfect, it undoubtedly provided many schools with funding which made a real difference to pupils whose learning was harmed by the pandemic.

“What is critical is that with the subsidy for the programme ending entirely from September, the funding attached to the programme is not lost to the system – especially after a decade in which the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children has widened.”