14th November 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A tutoring scheme in Manchester has won funding to pilot providing private tuition to many disadvantaged students in the area. Reported in the Manchester Evening News, The Tutor Trust was awarded £180,000 by the Educational Endowment Fund (EEF) which allows the programme to run for three years. The charity will work with GCSE students from some of the most deprived local communities.
The Tutor Trust is already in talks with ten local schools in Manchester, and the success of this pilot will determine whether they are able to expand operations to many more schools, also offering a greater range of subjects at A Level as well as GCSE level.
The charity has been founded by Abigail Shapiro and Nick Bent, who said that private tuition is something used by a few students throughout their education, but their plan is to make tutoring available to as many students as possible. He added “Even in great schools you still have a group of children who need extra help to achieve their potential for whatever reason. This top-up tuition is something that will complement the great work teachers do in the classroom.”
Peter Lampl, chairman of the EEF said that all grants awarded were rigorously tested to ensure that they are effective, but also to test that the projects can be scaled up if initially successful. Projects have to be cost effective in raising the achievement of disadvantaged pupils.