Personal tuition for strugglers

MORE than £1.5 million will be handed to education bosses in Oldham to provide one-to-one tuition for students struggling with English and maths.

Under plans announced by Schools Secretary Ed Balls, it is expected 838 pupils aged seven-10 across the borough will benefit from intensive bursts of 10 hours of individual tuition with a qualified tutor this academic year, along with 801 pupils aged 11-16.

The money is part of a £315 million pot split between authorities to drive up standards in the core subjects — mainly targeted at primary schools.

Mr Balls wants an army of tutors, including newly-qualified, existing, retired and part-time teachers, to drive up pupils’ progress and improve their own professional development.

Tutors will get paid an hourly rate of between £25 to £29 out of school hours and schools can take on full-time tutors so that tuition can take place during normal classroom hours, as well as evenings and weekends.

Mr Balls said: “In the last decade we have seen a transformation in primary standards.

“Many schools have been turned around against the odds by a relentless focus on the 3Rs through the national strategies, schemes like Every Child a Reader and better leadership, all backed up by record investment and more staff on the front line.

“But we must maintain our focus to make sure that every child is given the best start in life.

“Every parent wants their child to go to a good school where they can reach their full potential. We know that primary education is vital in setting children up for success later in life and I will not stand by while any child goes to a school where results are persistently low.

“It’s now down to local authorities to get all schools making progress all of the time and we are putting in place a package of measures which they can use to help them improve their local schools.”

In addition to the funding, Mr Balls has called for all local authorities to come up with a plan to help their schools become world class primaries.

Nationally primary league tables revealed last week that more than 1,400 schools are failing to hit the Government’s minimum target of 55 per cent of pupils reaching level 4 in both English and maths national curriculum tests.