Abigail Shapiro, Susannah Hardman and Sarah Waite are pictured with the letter outside 10 Downing Street

500 schools back call to Government to extend tutoring programme

We are continuing to campaign at the highest level for tutoring funding, and returned to Number 10 this week to hand in a letter signed by more than 500 school leaders.

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We returned to Westminster yesterday – backed by school leaders from across the country – to call on the Prime Minister for more funding.

More than 500 schools signed a letter to Rishi Sunak, Gillian Keegan and Jeremy Hunt calling for more National Tutoring Programme funding in next month’s spring Budget. Yesterday our Co-Founder and Executive Director Abigail Shapiro visited Downing Street with Susannah Hardyman from Action Tutoring and Sarah Waite from Get Further to hand deliver the letter. 

Yesterday’s visit was the latest meeting with government officials to ensure tutoring continues to have a place in mainstream education. 

Karl Mackey, Headteacher at St. John Fisher Voluntary Catholic Academy, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, signed the letter and is clear about the need for NTP provision to continue.

NTP funding has allowed us to provide targeted tuition support from Tutor Trust for many students at St John Fisher.  This is driving progress in English and Maths and supporting them to achieve better grades. Once the funding stops, it is highly unlikely that we will be able to continue to provide this essential support, due to the financial challenges that we - like many other schools - face in the current climate.  I would absolutely welcome, and request, an extension to NTP funding from the government."
Karl Mackey, Headteacher at St. John Fisher Voluntary Catholic Academy, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire

Abigail is passionate about maintaining support for tuition

Many schools have already stated that they will not be able to continue with tutoring after this academic year if they do not have the additional funding that’s currently provided by the National Tutoring Programme. This letter makes it clear that we as tutoring providers, and schools, firmly believe that, if funding is removed the attainment gap will continue to widen and it will be those who are already most in need of support that will be impacted most significantly.

“The after-effects of lost or disrupted learning as a result of the pandemic are still being felt by young people, particularly those in the north of England. This is why we need the government to commit to a sustainable future of accessible tutoring for all. The voice of school leaders is essential in ensuring the continued provision of additional academic support to young people who need it most."
Abigail Shapiro, Co-Founder and Executive Director

In recent years, additional tutoring funding has helped thousands of schools provide targeted academic support for hundreds of thousands of pupils - particularly those from low-income communities.  All with minimal strain on school budgets and already stretched staff workloads. 

Despite the evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways of raising attainment, school funding for tutoring is due to stop at the end of this academic year with the closure of the National Tutoring Programme. 

At a time when millions of children require extra support, and school budgets and staff are under huge pressure, it is essential that this funding is continued.

Our latest visit to Westminster follows the launch of our co-sponsored report, The Future of Tutoring, in July, which showed that 77% of parents who were polled support an increase in tutoring provision, 73% think that the government should pay for tutoring for pupils from low-income backgrounds and 85% said tutoring had positively impacted their child's confidence. In addition, recent research from Public First also highlights the strong economic impact of the NTP on the economy, with post-Covid tutoring contributing over £4.3 billion of economic growth. 

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Door of 10 Downing Street (Photo: Sergeant Tom Robinson RLC/MOD)

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