Evaluation Report Attainment Raising Projects: Academic tutoring 2023-24
Executive Summary
This evaluation examines the impact of a programme of English and Maths intensives and small group tutoring delivered to Year 11 students during the 2023 – 24 academic year. The programme aimed to raise GCSE attainment and improve students’ confidence, motivation, and engagement, with provision targeted towards underachieving boys, underachieving girls, underachieving SHINE students, and Grade 3 / 4 borderline students.
Overall, the programme achieved partial success. While there were small but positive improvements in students’ confidence and engagement, evidence of a direct and consistent impact on GCSE attainment was limited, with outcomes varying significantly by subject and student group.
English Intensives The English intensives demonstrated mixed effectiveness across groups. Underachieving SHINE students recorded the strongest outcomes:
• 39 % improved their GCSE grade, 39 % maintained, and 22 % declined.
• However, comparison with a non-attending group showed no statistically significant difference, suggesting improvements cannot be directly attributed to the intervention.
Underachieving girls showed the weakest outcomes:
• Only 24 % improved, while 35 % experienced a decline.
• Attendance had no statistically significant impact on final grades.
Underachieving boys showed similar overall improvement rates to girls( 25 % improved), but this group was the only one to demonstrate a statistically significant improvement when compared to non-attendees.
Attendance was shown to have a strong positive effect on boys’ final grades.
Across all English intensives, 30 % of students improved, while 70 % saw no improvement or a decline, indicating limited overall effectiveness. Final grades generally aligned with the final predicted grade, suggesting that outcomes were influenced by wider factors beyond the intervention.