Written question asked by Harry Cohen (Labour) on Wednesday, 25 June 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 30 June 2008. It was answered by Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour) on Monday, 7 July 2008 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Teaching Methods

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will make it his policy to implement one-to-one tuition as provided under the Making Good Progress pilots in areas with high levels of educational under-achievement.

Answer: The Government have already committed to the delivery of national one to one tuition for 300,000 pupils in English and 300,000 pupils to pupils in mathematics by 2010-11. National implementation of one-to-one tuition across the country, including in areas with high levels of educational under-achievement will begin in 2009-10.We are also developing plans to provide additional support and flexibility for one-to-one tuition in National Challenge schools: schools where less than 30 per cent. of pupils get five or more A*-C GCSEs, including English and mathematics. This will enable those schools to extend the tuition being trialled in the ““Making Good Progress”” pilot to pupils in key stage 4.Tuition in the ““Making Good Progress”” pilot is offered to pupils according to educational need and targeted at a pupil's specific learning gaps as identified by their class teacher. Lessons learned from the ““Making Good Progress”” pilot will inform the design of the national tuition programme.

Secondary information