DEPARTMENT FOR
EDUCATION AND SKILLS News Release (2007/0101) issued by The
Government News Network on 6 June 2007
-One-to-one
tuition in 484 schools from September 2007-
Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Alan Johnson, today
announced that 484 schools across England have been chosen to run
a major two-year pilot from September 2007. The pilot will trial
new ways to assess, report and stimulate progress in schools, so
that no child falls behind or gets stuck at any stage.
As part of the pilots, thousands of children who are making slow
progress will receive a short burst of 10 hours of extra
one-to-one tuition - in English and/or maths - on top of their
normal school hours, to help them get back on track. 21,500 pupils
will receive tuition in English and 21,500 in maths (though some
will receive both).
Pilot schools will be challenged to make sure that every child
makes progress - the quiet and undemanding 'invisible
child' who avoids the teacher's gaze at the back of the
class, as well as the gifted child at the front - with incentives
and extra support to help. They will have specific targets to help
more children to move up two National Curriculum levels in a key
stage. If the pilot succeeds, thousands of children will make
faster progress than they otherwise would have done.
Teachers in the pilot will track their pupils' progress to
make sure that they know where they are in their learning and what
the next steps should be. A range of different schools are
involved in the pilot - single-sex and mixed schools, middle
schools, grammar schools and academies.
Secretary of State for Education and Skills Alan Johnson said:
"I want to make sure that no child falls behind or gets
stuck at any stage and I am backing teachers up with extra
resources to test out these new approaches. I congratulate the
schools which will be running this exciting pilot. We will
thoroughly road-test and evaluate these plans.
"At the moment, parents and teachers can see how many pupils
are reaching above a certain grade in each school. This
transparency has brought about huge improvements and it is here to stay.
"But we also want to explore how teachers' day-to-day
judgements about the children in their classes can be better
interwoven with externally marked and set tests. Teachers and
schools deserve more credit when they have helped a child to
improve. Children - and their parents - need to know when they are
doing better, whether they are at the top or the bottom of their class.
"We think that good tracking by teachers, confirmed by
shorter, more frequent tests, will help schools to personalise
each child's learning. This will motivate all pupils to move
on and up by recognising what they have achieved and showing them
where they have to go next - just as a child who passes their
Grade 1 on the recorder feels excited to move on to playing harder tunes.
"All pupils in the pilot will still do tests by 11 and by
14, and the highest results of the tests will be aggregated into
performance tables that will still be published.
"Parents need to understand how their child is progressing.
I want a system which gives timely information to parents,
demonstrates simply whether a child is making good enough progress
at every stage of their education, and which motivates children to
achieve more in every lesson."
The Department also published a report, 'Making Great
Progress', which is based on the experiences of twenty
schools where children make excellent progress between the ages of
seven and eleven years old.
This report says that regular tracking of children's
progress is one of the most effective things that successful
primary schools do to help their pupils achieve the best they can.
It shows that strong, enthusiastic leaders create a culture where
learning is valued and 'boffins' are not bullied.
Teachers in these schools assume that every child - whatever their
background, race or gender - has it in them to succeed. This
practical resource - part of a series of reports on pupil
progression - will help all schools to push their pupils on and up
while new approaches to progression are piloted.
Schools Minister Jim Knight said:
"Today's report shows that good schools which make
excellent progress have a culture which celebrates learning; they
expect success from every child, whatever their background. The
attitudes and experience of teachers and heads are just as
important as the tools they use to help children achieve.
"The teachers whose pupils move up fastest understand what
real progress means for individual children and their life
chances. These schools use data intelligently to understand what
they have to do to get children to make the small steps between
each level. They carefully identify children who show early
promise, who have untapped potential, or who are in danger of
stalling or slowing down."
'Making Great Progress' examines the common features of
twenty schools where over 90% of children make excellent progress
between Key Stages 1 and 2.
It shows that common features of successful primary schools include:
* precise knowledge of how each child is doing and what each
child needs, tracking the progress of their pupils regularly and individually
* learning is celebrated, with a culture that inhibits
anti-intellectualism and bullying of 'boffins'
* an assumption by staff that every child has it in them to
succeed, whatever their background, race or gender
* enthusiastic heads and senior teachers and a stable leadership team
* a passion for order and thoroughness
* personal targets for each child are specific, challenging, set,
and followed up
* thinking aloud and explaining working out are important facets
of lessons
NOTES TO EDITORS
* To see the list of schools and download the report please go to
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/news
* The progression pilot will:
* help schools to motivate children to achieve more every day in
every class; teachers will be able to zero in on children who are
'coasting' or at risk of falling behind.
* test the impact of short bursts of one-to-one tuition in
English and maths
* enable teachers to enter pupils for a test at the next level
when they think that they are ready
* focus on the progress of children in the key transition years
from primary to secondary school, tracking them through Key Stages
2 and 3 (seven to fourteen years old).
* One to one tuition will be delivered by qualified teachers and
will take place at school outside school hours, at home or perhaps
at a local college or drop-in centre - the timing and location
will vary in different areas. The children who will receive
tutoring will depend on the school's assessment, but
generally it will be those pupils who are not making good
progress, and who started Key Stage 2 (age 7) below the expected
National Curriculum level (level 2), or who started Key Stage 3
(age 11) behind the expected National Curriculum level (level 4).
* The Department is funding the pilots with £20m for the academic
year 2007/8, with further funding to come for academic year 2008/9.
Examples of children moving up 2 levels in English and maths
Aruna is a Level 3 in reading. She can read independently,
identifying the main points when she is reading and she has good
literal comprehension. By the time that she has reached Level 5,
Aruna can understand and analyse what she reads. She has an
understanding of literary techniques used by writers and can
'read between the lines'.
Aruna is a Level 3 in writing. She writes in a simple style,
which is in the main clear and correct. By the time that she has
reached Level 5 Aruna has an understanding of rhetorical
techniques. Her own writing is now well organised and
paragraphed, and she is using more complex sentences. Aruna is
now using standard English as appropriate and is able to adapt her
writing for the audience and purpose.
Jamie is working at level 2 in mathematics. He can solve simple
problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication or
division and explain why his answer is correct. He knows the
names of common 2D and 3D shapes and can classify them by their
properties, for example the number of sides and corners for 2-D
shapes. He can display data in a table and a block graph.
By the time that Jamie is operating at level 4, he is using a
greater range of approaches when exploring mathematics and solving
problems. He can suggest different ways to tackle a problem and
can record his method in an organised way. He can use a range of
mental strategies to calculate with larger numbers in all four
operations, explaining his methods, and can use efficient written
methods to add numbers with up to two decimal places. He can
decide how to find the perimeter and area of shapes made from
rectangles and can draw and interpret bar charts and line graphs.
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