Manning’s Partner Advisory Board Meeting
12th January 2023
WRITTEN BY JULIA SILVER, BA, QTS, NPQH
In a private dining room at the foot of the iconic Shard tower, twelve educators gathered to discuss tutoring over pork bao and diet cokes. The host, Johnny Manning, gathered together school leaders, tutors and tutor trainers to discuss the integration of tutoring in schools. Thrilled to be amongst like-minded people and far removed from the school gates, the participants quickly warmed to each other, sharing stories of tutoring successes and challenges across prawn crackers and seafood skewers.
Johnny invited us to introduce ourselves, and identify one key challenge that we face with tutoring.
TS: I have been working with Manning’s since 2010. We will always be loyal to Manning’s. Due to the cost-of-living crisis, we decided to use the NTP funding for our own staff this year. The NTP has been very well received and we have tried to extend beyond Pupil Premiums (PP). I feel tuition and tutoring should be about kids who can’t afford it, and those who feel no one cares. At the moment, targeting Y13s and A Level students is proving to be a challenge. I initially had reservations with online tutoring, but Manning’s have been doing it very well. The kids are buzzing about it!
JM: Yes, online is normalised – very few tutors want to do in person tuition anymore.
JS: I was Deputy Head in a primary school before I launched Qualified Tutor. I am also a mother of five awesome people ranging in age from seven to seventeen. I got into supporting tutors’ well-being because I know that the best way to improve outcomes for students is to develop the adults who work with them. Tutoring brings a solution to many of the problems in education today, and so I bring all my energy to raising standards in this space.
My big challenge is that I have been ahead of the curve in supporting tutors for four years. Finally, training for tutors is becoming an expectation rather than a ‘nice to have’. It is very exciting to see tutoring stepping up. It is wonderful to be a part of such a powerful development in education.
WS: We have been with Manning’s for three years. I went to a few different companies but what stood out was the Manning’s team, they were the most personable. For us online has always worked.
We have a few different schemes with Manning’s. Our NTP schemes with Manning’s run for 45 minutes a lesson. We had to split down the 15-hour requirement into 20 sessions (instead of 15). Manning’s were very accommodating.
At school, we’ve done some curriculum modifications. If our boys are not doing well in one lesson (GCSE), we take them out of it and fill that slot with tutoring.
We do have a demand problem. We have a long list of A Level students and a long list of Y11 students needing tuition. Originally tutoring was tailored to disadvantaged boys. Now we have far higher numbers needing tuition. This is good news for Manning’s, but difficult for us. We have a face-to-face maths tutor who works with KS3 (not a Manning’s tutor).
GS: I am a deputy head teacher at a SEND school. I have been there since September. This time last year, I was chasing A Level and GCSE results because people were chasing me for outcomes. What I do now…What I am able to do is care. This is revolutionary. I couldn’t before as everything was so fast paced.
One of the many schools I worked with was so hard to manage. There were lots of students, lots of gangs and violence. Maths was such a challenge. Bringing something new and fresh like tutoring – the kids responded so well to it.
Tutors helped so much. We had 7 or 8 tutors and the kids started to do really well. Kids would come in on a Saturday morning in their school uniforms.
Then I went to a school on one of the islands. When I said, “Now I’m going to give you a tutor”, jaws would fall on the floor. Students were shocked. There was nothing on the island. No ambition. Tutoring changed that. The tutors had a really positive influence on students and their families
IS: I am the Tutoring Lead at my school. This is a new role. Managing tutoring was previously done by various members of staff. Now we have 60% PP. Grants and NTP provided a massive stream of funding and we needed someone to organise this. Manning’s Tutors are used for a few different things.
This year we trialled our Oxbridge group. We are breaking the cycle of poverty even with just 1-2 students applying to Oxbridge. We are offering something so valuable to students who would never even think of it. It makes them feel so special.
We value the in-person tuition for those students who are not doing so well. They get extra help in core subjects.
A lot of the students doing tutoring are those who struggle at school and generally have behavioural problems. This dedicated 1-to-1 time makes them feel valued. Feels incredibly successful.
We have a lot of refugees now too. Those students getting extra help is nice. Someone described to me post Covid that, in terms of class, there is a K-like shape which appears on a graph. The performance of middle-class students has gone up because parents were able to help them. Working class is going down.
MS: I was previously with another school. I was responsible for interventions and then I was responsible for funding. I used two tutoring companies in the first year: Manning’s and another one. I continued with Manning’s. 200+ students went through the tutoring programme. It was an all-girls catholic school, a high achieving school with high parental engagement.