Pupils' right to one-to-one catch-up tuition ended

[telsa]

Oh great. First they come for the students......and then the little ones.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11718968

Hmm.
In our area, the person in charge of the scheme has delivered training to the tutors regarding best practice for the sessions, as well as schools for how to identify those pupils who would have the greatest benefit, and how to link the tutors' work into the work in class so that the most effective use is made from the financial input.
Is that all a waste of time, then Siasl?

Besides, think of all the lovely money pouring into academies/free schools - well, for long enough to wreck the other local schools anyway - and this is probably a relative drop in the ocean.

curlymama - we probably agree on what is needed. My concern is that unless funding is ringfenced, it does tend to disappear into the general 'pot'......

Frankly yes i think it is a waste of precious resources. I would far prefer the teachers on the ground to decide what he priorities are and how to allocate resources. I don't see any reason for a top-down approach. We need to reduce the size of the state to get the economy back on track.

But the teachers decide who needs the support!!!!!
How the hell is that 'top-down'?

ClenchedBottom - probably, yes! If only we could trust the people in charge to make it happen.

curlymama - I agree.
Sad, isn't it?

I mean, sad that we can't always trust the people in charge, not sad that we agree!

Why do we need constant initiatives from the government?

We seem to have had thirteen years of government initiatives in education, one replacing another. All they seem to do is create more and more quangos & beauracracy. More and more layers between the top and those on the front-line, more and more waste.

This may be a really good initiative and it may be a shame to stop it. But with resources only getting tighter, it seems a real luxury to give one-to-one tuition to children.

'Real luxury' for some.
Essential for others. If there were other protected measures in place we probably wouldn't need the system, but too many children fall through the gaps.

siasl you're wrong- as is always the way with new initiatives, public sector bureaucrats have to fit these schemes in on top of their normal workload- it's just one fewer thing to do for us.

It is a shame the scheme is going, but it is hardly News- the scheme was abandoned in the wash-up of parliament before the general election, as it was part of the abandoned education bill.

Of course it would be nice if schools were funded enough not to need schemes like this; that there were enough resources to support those falling behind in the first place.

DP being an antagonistic arse? Nice to see nothing ever changes on mn.

We must be very luck then. DS gets one-to-one every day for his numeracy. I guess that's unusual?

It may seem like a real luxury to give one-to-one help to children, but without it children like my DD will end up unemployable, and on benefits forever. So it's a short-term financial pain for a longer term financial gain. And from what I've seen at the school (I volunteer to help teach reception & Y1 reading), even the dc whose parents can't be arsed (and yes there are some) to help their dc to learn to read are fully fluent readers without help from this scheme by mid-way throgh Y1. The only dc that would benefit from this scheme are those with SEN.

Which is who does end up on these schemes. It's just a round-about way of dropping the tiny bit of funding there is for SEN.

2shoes - I agree that SEN and SN are two different thngs, but often the two of them go hand in hand as in my DD's case.

ADream, I may well be wrong ... it happens all the time!

I do know that the size of the public sector just gets bigger each year, with the private sector that pays for them getting smaller.

We're all going to have to work harder and longer for less money and get taxed on more of it. That's just where we are. But if people complain about these small changes I don't what the're going to do when the real cutbacks are made. The current stuff is just a flea bite compared to what's coming.

I don't understand the certain distrust of teachers and headteachers on this thread. Surely they know where to allocate resources to help children better than LEA and DoE bureaucrats.

It's distrust of a small number of HTs, huddspur, who would prefer not to fund SEN etc and get a reputation that their school is not good for pupils with SEN, which puts parents of pupils with SEN off - really helps with the league tables.

I'm not saying that all HTs are like this!!!! Some are fantastic, most are dedicated and hardworking. But there are a few rotten eggs.

And what about the 'LEA bureaucrats' who go into schools and advise on what pupils need, but cannot get the schools to actually do anything about it? Not everyone who works for a LA is a pen-pushing bureaucrat.

Hudd - I don't distrust all HT's, the HT at DD's secondary is wonderful, and runs an excelent school that benefits and progresses all it's puils, from the furthest behind to the furthest ahead. However, I know throgh experience that not all HT's are like that, and there are quite a few out there that would rather spend money meant for SEN pupils on tarting up the outside of the school to attract more MC parents, and ignoring the SEN dc until they either leave Y6 (massively behind where they should be) or are transferred to other schools with better HT's.

So many people (that can drive) have pulled their SEN dc out of this primary, but those who rely on public transport have no choice as there are no other local schools with spaces, they are all inaccessible by bus. So the richer SEN dc get moved, the poorer SEN dc are stuck stagnating. WIth no help.

," particularly summer-born boys REALLY struggle - it's not their (or their parents') fault that they are 11 months younger than some of the children in their class, and without intervention, these kids really can fall through the cracks. If your parents work, there is precious little time to do the 'reading recovery' which is needed, and which I have seen make MASSIVE amounts of difference - it helps them when they need the help, which then enables them to access the rest of the curriculum."

you have to agree that some of the reasons fo 1 to 1 are a bit lacking in thought as you see from the post above that was at the start of the thread.
surely working parents , or the child be young should not be reasons for the use of expensive recourse's like this

Agree 2shoes. Ridiculous reasons.

one - to - one tuition was a specific drive that was not aimed at SEN pupils, it was for those not making expected progress(without SEN issues). It was supposed to be done by teachers not TAs and has struggled to appoint tutors. Very useful in some cases but was limited to 10 hours per child at a cost of about £27 per hour plus admin costs and tutor training costs.
In the current climate it is probably better that headteachers use the money in the way to best suit their school.

Looks as though we'll have to expect the parents to put extra time into educating their children. Fair enough. Although they should be doing that anyway.

Will catch up with latest posts later but we are in an odd situation with my DH's twins. One is naturally good at literacy, the other really struggles and has had various dyslexia tests. I could waffle on for ages but basically if she lived with us she would probably need a lot less catch-up/support because she does not get any help from her mum. :(