Tutorful's Parent Survey Results Show the True Value of Tuition

Now that exams are over and the new school year is in full swing, we’ve taken some time to reflect on the past year and how our students did in their exams.?

This year was the first time students have sat exams in two years. For A-Level students who didn’t have the chance to sit their GCSEs, this is the first major exam they have ever taken, so it’s safe to say that this was a pretty nerve-wracking experience for many students.

As we head towards the end of these unprecedented times, we wanted to reach out to the parents of some of our students who have just sat their exams, to find out more about how they fared and how their parents were feeling.

Parents were disappointed with help from schools and the government

Part of the government’s ￡1 billion catch-up plan included the NTP - the National Tutoring Programme. This was designed to provide government-funded private tuition to children across the UK who needed extra help following the disruption to education caused by COVID.?

Of the 185 parents who responded to our survey, less than 10% had received any help from the NTP. Furthering this disappointment, less than half of parents felt that the school had provided adequate support in helping their child catch up.

Tutoring made a huge difference this year

Despite the hardships that students faced this year, more than 75% of those surveyed achieved the grades they needed in their exams. Considering that students have missed out on months and months of learning, are out of practice sitting exams, and had to sit exams that didn’t take into consideration the disruption to education, this number is pretty impressive.

We asked parents how much impact they think their Tutorful tutor had on their child’s grades, and we are pleased to report that more than three quarters of them told us their tutor had lots of impact/high levels of impact.

We also asked parents to tell us how many grades their child had improved by with the help of their tutor. Whilst the majority had improved by one or two grades - a fantastic achievement - over 10% had improved by more than four grades! To put that into perspective, that’s equivalent to going from an E to an A* at A-Level!

What we’ve learned

From our research, we found out a few key facts:

• Parents are still worried about the impact of COVID, however they feel their children are starting to catch up.
• They didn’t get any help from the government, and schools didn’t provide adequate help either.
• Having a private tutor had a high impact on the grades their child achieved, and many students saw improvements of multiple grades.

This September was busier than ever here at Tutorful. Our two most popular subjects at the moment are English and maths, which means that parents across the country understand that regular lessons with a trusted, experienced tutor is the key to success.