Inside the 1970s buildings of Chifley College Shalvey Campus, with its popcorn ceilings and painted exposed brick, something big was about to happen to Jayden Browne.
“We learnt how to solve … how to separate the words into like, different syllables and sound them out. So they taught me how to do that,” says Jayden.
Jayden Browne said he’s gone from failing to passing in all his subjects thanks to help in small group tuition.Credit: Louie Douvis
Since he was in year 7, Jayden has benefited from one-on-one tuition in which he could finesse his reading skills. He is now in year 9 and hopes to be a builder some day. His current reading material is a driver’s handbook so he can get his learner’s permit.
“I went from pretty much a fail in every class to a pass in every class. It’s definitely helped a lot in my learning and education.”
The NSW government will this year boost funding for small group tuition to $80 million a year.
University students studying education will be among those employed as tutors, the program will be extended from 10 to 15 weeks, and students will take mandatory tests before and after they do the program to assess progress.
“In addition to this funding boost for small group tuition, the new reporting guidelines will make sure we are monitoring student progress,” Education Minister Prue Car said.
The original point of small group tuition, as rolled out by the former Coalition government, was to help children who did not physically attend school during the pandemic to catch up. Labor has made it permanent.
In NSW, 29.4 per cent of year 7 students failed to meet baseline proficiency standards in reading, last year’s NAPLAN results showed. About 10 per cent of the cohort in NSW is classified as “needs additional support”.
Last year a NSW Auditor-General’s evaluation of small group tutoring when it was first implemented found it had “minimal” effects. Teachers questioned the wisdom of pulling students out of class for tutoring and it had no impact on attendance.
Grattan Institute research found that internationally, tutoring could be a useful way to help students, but it had to be implemented correctly.
After tutoring students as a student liason support officer, Darlene Guillermo plans to work at the school.Credit: Louie Douvis
Centre for Independent Studies education research fellow Trisha Jha, who has researched small group tutoring programs, said whole-of-class interventions by a teacher were better value for money.
“It is an idea which sounds wonderful. When we’re looking at the limited resources we have, it is very hard to argue it’s going to be a good bet,” she said.
However, she said NSW’s small group tutoring had the potential to be successful if implemented correctly with non-teachers used to run it.
“Research does show if you use a high quality, scripted program, you can have the teacher in the classroom and you’re not sacrificing the quality of the teaching happening in the tutoring,” she said.
Chifley College Shalvey Campus has hired university students such as Darlene Guillermo to do tutoring. Principal Jenny Linklater said employing university students for tutoring had the additional benefit of attracting staff.
“That’s helping us address the teacher shortage at this school,” Linklater said.
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