By Meic
Griffiths
The Imperium
Federation is a community of two special schools in London;
Waterside Social Emotional Mental Health Needs (SEMH) Primary and
King's Oak School, previously called Moatbridge.
Executive Headteacher, Meic Griffiths, shares his experience
using the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) to support pupils at
the federation.
Selecting pupils for tutoring
When selecting which pupils to bring forward for tutoring, we
firstly considered our disadvantaged pupils in the year groups
that had missed the most learning during COVID-19. We looked at
assessment data to identify knowledge and skills gaps so we could
develop personalised intervention plans.
Tailoring tuition to meet each pupil's needs
As our school specialises in supporting pupils with SEND, we
recognised that having highly trained staff who were already
familiar with the pupils' needs was vital.
For this reason, we chose to use the school-led tutoring route.
We also considered how the sessions were delivered. Delivering
face-to face tutoring during the school day allowed teachers to
build on existing relationships with pupils and tailor their
sessions accordingly.
The pupils' individual timetables were adjusted to accommodate
the tutoring as an intervention, which was planned and resourced
by subject leaders and delivered by our higher level teaching
assistant staff.
The impact
Most of our pupils who receive tutoring have significantly
improved their outcomes and show better engagement in all areas
of intervention, as well as in class teaching.
In practice, this has meant that pupils have attained improved
results in their GCSE mocks, moved forward a minimum of 16 months
in reading and have needed less ‘time out' of their usual classes
in order to maintain their behaviours.
Tutoring has also encouraged the pupils to give things a go and
not to worry about getting it right first time, as they know it
is a safe space for them to learn.
A year 8 pupil said:
"I felt safe to explore the parts of my work that I found
difficult with a member of staff I know and trust. This meant
that I have chosen GCSE subjects that I may otherwise have
decided not to try."
Advice for other special schools considering
tutoring
I would definitely recommend the NTP to other special schools.
As specialist provision units, it is essential that we look past
the pupil's behaviour and mental health and see the child within.
We tailor our curriculum delivery accordingly to ensure that they
can achieve and succeed as well as, if not better, than their
mainstream counterparts.
NTP helps us focus on our academic strengths and prepare pupils
for the end of key stage 2 assessments and GCSEs. Our GCSE
results show a consistent improvement and hopefully we'll see the
same improvement this year.
Embedding tutoring
We will continue to offer tutoring and will evolve our delivery
to meet the needs of our new cohorts. We'll ensure that our focus
remains on academic achievements as well as emotional progress.
Further information:
