Innovative tutoring programme helping to boost children’s literacy skills, analysis shows

An innovative tutoring programme which pairs university students with children is helping boost their literacy skills, new analysis shows.

The pioneering project, led by the University of Exeter, involves undergraduates supporting twelve and 13-year-old pupils and its success has led to the programme being expanded around England.

The Crafting Accurate Sentences Tutoring Programme is aimed at those from under-resourced backgrounds who require further support with their writing. It was designed by the Ted Wragg Trust’s Director of Education and former Headteacher Lindsay Skinner, who put together the learning exercises as well as the tutor training materials. Children receive 9 sessions of extra tuition on a range of literacy skills, ranging from basic sentence structures and grammar through to devising complex sentences. Pupils are tutored in person in small groups of two or three.

The tutoring is part of the work of the South-West Social Mobility Commission and is funded by a coalition of funders including the University of Exeter’s Policy Support Fund, the Cobalt Trust and the UPP Foundation, amongst other donors.

New research shows the overall literacy assessment scores of children who took part this academic year increased by an average of over 25% following the intervention, with particularly strong improvements seen in pupils’ use of complex sentences.

Professor Lee Elliot Major, from the South-West Social Mobility Commission, said: “This programme shows pairing university students and pupils can be a “win-win-win model” – boosting attainment amongst less advantaged children, giving undergraduate students invaluable life experience and skills and helping to revitalise local communities.

“We are pleased to see evidence of the impact on children’s attainment through this external evaluation.”

This year the University of Exeter collaborated with Next Steps South West, who now provide the tutoring programme as part of the Uni Connect programme, funded by the Office for Students. The tutoring programme is also offered by Uni Connect partners in Gloucestershire and across the North East of England.

The evaluation was carried out with ImpactEd Evaluation. It explores the outcomes from six schools over the autumn term 2023: three schools partnering with the University of Exeter and three schools partnering with Next Steps South West. Results from the wider set of delivery partners will be published in autumn 2024.

Year 8 students from six schools who were participating in the Crafting Accurate Sentences Tutoring Programme were asked to complete a survey before and after the tutoring took place.

Overall, students’ motivation and self-efficacy scores remained steady over the course of the tutoring programme. Almost all students enjoyed the tutoring.

Tutor feedback was positive with tutors reporting that they felt well-prepared and supported to deliver the tutoring sessions. They all found managing the engagement and behaviour of the students “somewhat/sometimes easy” or “relatively easy”. They all said that they enjoyed the tutoring sessions with 92% selecting “Yes – a lot”.

Tutor Tabitha Elwell, who is going on to teacher training, said: “The tutoring has provided a chance for me to give back to the local community as an ambassador of the university. The programme has reaffirmed my love for teaching.”