A PRIMARY school is reaping the rewards of a tutoring programme which has allowed it to boost the learning of many of its children.

Throston Primary School, in Hartlepool, has reported huge improvements in pupils’ progress as a result of the National Tutoring Programme.

The Government funded programme, worth £1.1billion, will see six million packages of support delivered to pupils in England to help them catch up on lost learning.

Headteacher Mark Atkinson said they have been able to help scores of children catch up on their learning after a difficult two years following Covid.

He said: "We did a lot of online learning during the pandemic, and provided devices and broadband for a lot of families.

"But even with the best will in the world, some children got behind in their work – it was a difficult time for everyone and we understood that.

"Once they were back at school, we didn't want to be taking children who needed to catch up out of their lessons.

"We needed to get them to come before or after school, and knew the best way to get them excited about that was to let them use technology as they all enjoy that. And to help parents, we offered them free places at our before and after school clubs, so they also benefitted from free childcare while they did some learning and spent time with friends."

The tutoring is provided online, some being one-to-one, and some in small groups.

Along with the support of the pupil’s parents they also scheduled tutoring over the summer holidays to help maintain momentum in the children’s education that was disrupted over the pandemic. 

Primary school aged students can access catch-up tuition in literacy, numeracy and science, while secondary school aged students can access catch-up tuition in English, humanities, maths, modern foreign languages, and science.

Visit educationcatchup.campaign.gov.uk for full details on catch-up tuition and other resources to support your child’s physical and mental wellbeing.