Extend free catch-up tuition offer to 16-18 year olds

[JenBam]

I wanted to share my friends important petition. Christine is a former College Principle and gran who is rightly concerned about the impact that coronavirus will have on her 16-year-old granddaughter's education. We're calling on the Government to reverse their decision to drop 16 to 18-year-olds from their plan to provide free catch-up tuition. Please sign in support!

www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-extend-free-catch-up-tuition-offer-to-16-18-year-olds

Many young people have missed out on months of education with the closure of schools and colleges due to coronavirus. Surveys of teachers suggest that 16-year-olds have received no or very little teaching during this time. I attended a further education college as a teenager and I don't think it's fair that these students are excluded from receiving this support.

That not good.

There is one source of completely free tutoring for this age group which absolutely isn't a solution for the whole cohort but is at least helping some - students are volunteering to tutor kids who can't afford to pay. It was mentioned on the MNHQ 'random links' thread, but I only really know about it because my DD, who is third year Cambridge engineering student, is helping a couple of kids with their A level maths. It might be of interest to some people (either with schoolkids or willing and able student dc).

coronavirustutoring.co.uk

I think current year 12 absolutely need it.

The government‘s offer is not as good as it looks. Schools will have to pay for some of the tuition offered by private tutoring agencies (that’s 350million) so will have to lose that money from their budgets. Also, the remaining 650 million is being offered to schools at the same time as the govt are quietly withdrawing intervention budgets that already exist, so schools will lose that part of their exiting budgets. The 650 million equates to £80 per pupil. The agency I work for pays 28-30 per hour.

Part of the problem is presumably that there simply aren't anything like enough tutors available.