NTP Tuition Partner Case Study - Equal Education

SHARING YOUR SUCCESS

Sharing your success – NTP Tuition Partner,
Equal Education

Equal Education and the National Tutoring Programme

Equal Education is a social enterprise that provides specialist one-to-one tuition with qualified teachers. The
organisation strives to improve outcomes and narrow the attainment gap for the UK’s most vulnerable pupils.
This includes Children Looked After (CLA), those who are adopted and those with Special Educational Needs
and Disabilities (SEND), along with those who have attainment rates persistently and significantly lower than
their peers.

Equal Education have an ethos of early intervention and long-term support to transform outcomes. They only
work with qualified teachers across the country who have specialist knowledge of varying needs (such as
autism, anxiety, global development delay, ADHD, and social and emotional mental health) and provide tuition across all subjects and key stages.

Erdington Academy

For many years, Equal Education have supported Erdington Academy through one-to-one tuition. Erdington Academy prides itself on equipping pupils with both soft and academic skills required to navigate an
ethnically diverse and multicultural society and maximise their levels of achievement both inside and outside
the classroom.

Supporting Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC)

While working with Erdington Academy, Equal Education were commissioned to support some of their
Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) by providing English as an Additional Language (EAL)
tuition. As the pupils had only recently arrived in the country and were not yet fluent in English, the school
was looking to build pupils' confidence and skills with English speaking in time for the next academic year.
With pupils’ UASC background in mind, the tutor took a trauma-informed approach by building rapport with
the pupils and creating a comfortable environment. There was a focus on grammar, pronunciation, and
building their confidence and speaking skills.

Maths tuition was also provided by Equal Education to further boost confidence and reduce the attainment
gap. The one-to-one, personalised tuition played a significant role in their success with their ongoing
schooling.

Tutors would assign learning goals for the pupils to meet for each session, ensuring these were achievable
with an appropriate level of challenge, within the wider long-term planning for continuous process. For
example, a pupil would be tasked with reading an article and answering several questions that refer to the
text and images in the article, or a session would focus on speaking and listening to bolster conversational skills. Such exercises were designed to help to promote critical thinking and boost confidence.

Summer tuition

Erdington Academy's summer tuition was delivered by Equal Education via the National Tutoring Programme and worked exceptionally well. The tuition took place from July to August 2022, with two new arrivals to the country whose first languages were Urdu and Pashto. As the pupils had recently joined the school in the summer term, Equal Education were enlisted to provide one-to-one tuition to build their confidence in English before term started in September. The tutoring was arranged with the carers and a mutually agreeable timetable was agreed.

Both students had identified communication, interaction, cognition and learning needs. Therefore, a tutor with a specialist skillset including SEND and EAL experience, alongside their QTS qualification was allocated. Equal Education provide their tutors with monthly training to boost their expertise with varying needs such as these. 

The initial focus of tuition was building rapport with the students to lay the foundations for a strong,
mutually respected relationship and allow the tutor to tailor the sessions to individual student interests. The tutor kept the carers informed about pupil progress throughout the duration. 

The tuition was centred around speaking and listening, as well as strengthening writing abilities. The sessions involved tasks such as examining short passages of text and a range of literature. This was also planned alongside the school curriculum to support for the autumn term.

As the tutor gained a further understanding of the pupils' interests, he was able to incorporate these
into the sessions. For example, a pupil took a particular interest in cricket. The tutor was able to
source reading material on this topic, further increasing the pupils’ interest and engagement in the sessions.

As the programme of tuition has been so successful, Erdington Academy requested for it to continue into the
autumn and spring terms. Throughout these terms, the pupil displayed consistent engagement with the
sessions, making steady progress towards advancing their English.

“My tutor was very nice and helped me a lot.” – NTP pupil.

“I enjoy reading questions. I enjoy answering questions. I enjoy tutoring because it helps me more than
what I learn in school. Tutoring has helped me read and write.” - NTP pupil.

“The tuition is at regular set times and we have formed a nice routine. [The tutor] is happy to take time to
provide me with detailed feedback which is something I really appreciate…[The pupils] don’t usually like
school but are happy to attend their lessons with them.” - Carer of NTP pupil.

“[The tutor] also provided the most amazing resources so they have things to work on at home. Tuition has
moved face-to-face…and both students are making great progress [and] never miss a session.” Carer of NTP
pupil. 

“I have found everyone at Equal Education to be of the highest standard. They can't do enough to help.” -
Teacher.