The City of Leicester College
The City of Leicester College is the biggest school in Leicester. Of 1750, 25% are from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Their focus with MyTutor was on providing additional support and filling learning gaps in the wake of COVID-19.
The challenge
Leicester was subject to three lockdowns during the pandemic. The City of Leicester College has been trying to account for the deficit caused to their pupil’s learning.
In particular, they wanted to provide additional support for underprivileged pupils and their high proportion of pupils (70%) for whom English is an additional language.
The programme
Using a combination of 1:1 and 3:1 sessions the college offered tutoring for 25 weeks with a focus on their Pupil Premium pupils.
They also reviewed their end of Year 10 and beginning of Year 11 test data and offered tutoring to those pupils who needed support in core subjects like English, Maths and Science.
The impact
So far, the impact has been hugely positive and the pupils have welcomed the opportunity to engage with tutoring sessions.
Raising attendance
"We've found that tuition is becoming a real culture in our school; with student attendance on the rise every year," says Deputy Headteacher Harriet Hurdley-Lees.
Most of the students who got stuck in with their MyTutor sessions said it made a difference in their learning and understanding of the topics they were covering. "We also ran a Student Voice survey and found 92% would recommend tutoring to the next year, and 95% would recommend their specific tutor."
Improved confidence
The qualitative feedback from pupils has proved the impact of tutoring on things like self-confidence and self-esteem.
“One pupil said that it has made them infinitely more confident in maths," says Harriet. "Another told us that tutoring helped them to learn new writing techniques and perform written assessments more independently."
The experience
The City of Leicester College has had such a positive experience with MyTutor that they say:
“We would absolutely recommend MyTutor to other schools," says Harriet. "I’m the Chair of the Senior Leaders Group for Leicester City, so I regularly talk to senior school leaders about the effect of out of school support.
"It seems like many schools haven’t picked up external tutoring. I can understand as it can involve a lot of admin. However, the results and positive impact make it worthwhile."
A top tip or word of advice from the school
"Make sure to celebrate the tuition programme winder in your school. Make sure it's communicated and well-known among the staff and student body to get that buy-in."
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