One-to-One Tuition Infant School Case Study
Northland Infants School and Nursery
Context
Northlands Infants school is in Pitsea, near Basildon and has 203 pupils on roll. The
Headteacher is focussed on ensuring all pupils make expected or better than
expected progress. She welcomed funding for One-to-One Tuition as an opportunity
to support pupils in Years 1 and 2 who were vulnerable to under achievement. She
has also used some of the Pupil Premium funding for One-to-One Tuition.
One to One Tuition
Background
One-to-one tuition has been in place since September 2014 for children not on track
to make expected progress. The school employs one tutor for Year 2 pupils, who
comes into school twice a week. Year 1 children are supported by another tutor who
concentrates mainly on phonics. Most of the children tutored are receiving free
school meals.
The school recognises the value of involving parents. Structured conversations are
held with parents about how one-to-one tuition will support that their children’s
progress. A pre-tuition discussion document is completed to record the views of the
parent, pupil and child on targets and the support the pupil will receive. During the
ten tuition sessions, parents are kept informed of their child’s progress through use
of the pupil passport. Teachers have also talked to parents about how they can
support their children at home.
Tuition is linked to classroom learning as much as possible. The tutors meet each
week with the class teachers to discuss pupil’s progress and next steps. In the tuition
session the children work in their classbooks and the tutor also writes comments in
these.
Tuition is included as an intervention on the whole school provision map and is also
included in the Pupil Premium report .
The school values their tutors and ensure they have the necessary resources and a
comfortable area to work in.
8 pupils received 1:1 tuition over the Autumn term. All of the children have made
expected progress (2 points in a term) for their writing and 38% have made better
than expected (4 points progress) over one term
The Tuition session
The tuition session observed was in English and the pupil was a girl in Year 2. She
was working at Level 1B at the end of the Summer term in Year 1. The purpose of
the tuition was to improve her writing skills to enable her to achieve level 2A by the
end of year 2, she is now a 2C.
Tuition took place in a bright colourful room used for interventions. The pupil and
tutor sat at a round table. There were displays of words, phrases and pictures which
the tutor referred to during the session.
The learning objective was “To be able to write direct speech” and the purpose was
to prepare the pupil for work she was going to do later in class. The tutor had met
with the pupil prior to this session to go over homework.
During the session the tutor used the following resources: story cards; magic wand;
learning objective on card; mini whiteboards; coloured pens; speech bubbles relating
to the story, strips of paper for the pupil to record key phrases.
The session followed the recommended tuition sequence: Introduction; Remember;
Model; Try; Apply; Secure; Review/Reflect
Introduction/Remember:
The tutor started the session by referring to the work the pupil had been doing in the
classroom on “Cinderella” and asking her to re-tell the story. The tutor had a
storyboard of pictures to help the pupil remember the key parts. She also had a
magic wand! The tutor skilfully prompted the pupil to help her remember elements of
the story.
They then looked together at the pupil’s class book and at this point the tutor clearly
explained the purpose of the session (see learning objective above). She explained
how what they were doing in this session linked to what the pupil had already done
in class and how today’s session would help her to learn more and improve her
writing.
Modelling
The tutor showed the pupil how to change words in a speech bubble into direct
speech, using speech marks “six-six” and “nine-nine”. The tutor talked through what
she was thinking and verbalised the process she was going through.
Try
The pupil was invited to take another speech bubble and have a go herself at writing
the words from the bubble as direct speech. As the speech was a question “Who are
you?” the pupil needed to add a question mark when writing. To help her choose the
correct punctuation the tutor drew different punctuation marks on a whiteboard for
the pupil to choose the correct one. She was asked to name it, which she did
correctly. To enhance the writing, the tutor asked the pupil to add who was saying
“Who are you?”. The pupil wrote “Cinderella” and the tutor asked the child if the word
said could be improved. She referred the child to a range of “speech” words on the
display and the pupil chose “asked” and completed the sentence “Who are you?”
asked Cinderella. The completed sentence was added to the wall display.
Apply
The pupil was then asked to apply what she had learned into writing a sentence of
her own, which included direct speech, in her book. The child was guided to use
alternative words for “said” from the display and re-minded about using capital letters
in the correct places. The pupil was asked to read through the sentence and the tutor
praised the sentence and said the pupil had “made a picture in the reader’s mind”.
Secure/Review
The tutor explained to the pupil the work she would be doing in class and how this
would help her.
Homework was given and the tutor filled in the pupil passport for the pupil to take
home. The pupil was praised for her work and a “bumblebee” sticker given in line
with the school’s reward system. Throughout the session there was a warm
relationship between the pupil and tutor, who built the confidence of the pupil through
praise and encouragement.
Further ideas to enhance this session:
 Drama could be used to re-enact the story and rehearse the speech words such
as “shouted” and “whispered”
 The words for “said” could be added to a word bank which the pupil could also
use in class