After running a successful pilot program (read more about that here) with the NSW Department of Education in Term 4 of 2020, Cluey Learning was selected to help roll out their previously announced $337 million “tutoring in schools” program for 2021, across the state to high priority schools.
Throughout the 2021 school year Cluey helped support a large number of schools across NSW in metro and regional areas, both primary and secondary, with keeping up, catching up, extension work and NAPLAN prep.
Due to the success of the program to date – Cluey will also be supporting the rollout of the 2022 program.
What is it?
After all the COVID-19 related disruptions to the 2020 & 2021 school years, the “Tutoring in Schools” program has been extended for 2022 to provide more than 2,000 NSW Department of Education schools with some much-needed learning support. The schools involved will be given access to small group tutoring for selected students, delivered by accredited and qualified NSW teachers and tutors.
How does it work?
In 2022, the NSW government is allocating $383 million of funding, in addition to the $337 million made available in 2021, to schools across the state that need the extra support—students from diverse backgrounds and needs, including Aboriginal, English as an additional language or dialect, disadvantaged students and school communities. These schools will then bring one of the four chosen tutoring companies on board.
What’s our approach?
We’ll do what we at Cluey do best—supply and deliver expert tutors and learning programs through our interactive online platform to students who need our help through our Cluey For Schools product. In this case, eligible students will be combined into groups of up to 5 by their teacher. Each Cluey tutoring session will cover content that is aligned to the needs of the students and the school-identified areas of focus, whether curriculum-related or concentrated on literacy and/or numeracy.
We’re excited to be involved and have significantly increased our pool of qualified and NSW accredited teachers and support staff to accommodate schools who wish to use our service as part of the program.
What people are saying
Lenise Hollis, Principal of Fennell Bay Public School was involved in the pilot program which reported very high levels of student engagement, academic success and confidence building, with 88% of post-program student feedback rating the Cluey Learning tutoring sessions positively. Lenise noted her students were eager to participate.
“Our staff were particularly impressed with the professionalism and flexibility of the tutors, both during lesson implementation and when providing weekly lesson reports. The Cluey administrative team were also readily available and willing to help and support our staff in the implementation of the program at all times.”
Cluey Chief Learning Officer, Dr Selina Samuels said there couldn’t be a better time for this program.
“With so much disruption occurring over 2-years of schooling in 2020 & 2021, the NSW Government tutoring initiative has arrived at the perfect time. Having been involved with the pilot program and seeing first-hand how students can benefit from supplementary, targeted attention in small groups, we’re excited to be rolling this out across the state. All our tutors for the program are qualified and NSW accredited teachers, and are very well equipped to provide the support that the schools and students need.”
In order to deliver on this initiative, we have significantly increased our pool of tutors and support staff. Trevor McDougall, Cluey’s COO said we’re well equipped to handle the needs of the schools.
“We know that schools require the right support, particularly around reporting and feedback on student progress. Having already delivered in excess of 500,000 online tutoring sessions to school students in Australia, our systems, processes and learning analytics are configured to provide this at scale.”
Professor Garry Falloon, Director of International Engagement and Professor of STEM Education in the Macquarie University School of Education and Chair of Cluey’s Education Advisory Board, says COVID-19 school closures were challenging for teachers, parents and their children.
“Emerging studies suggest school closures during COVID-19 may have negatively impacted upon learning in areas like literacy and mathematics, with some groups being more adversely affected than others, such as those located in remote, rural or lower socio-economic regions. Individual or small group tutoring can potentially help these students make up this lost ground, as it can be tailored to address specific learning gaps in a more individualised manner, through personalised and targeted programs of support.”
The program is available to eligible schools throughout 2022, with sessions intended to be run during the school day that will be focused on helping students catch up in literacy and numeracy.
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Find out more about our NSW Department of Education Small Group Tuition Program: https://clueylearning.com.au/schools/nsw-doe-tuition/
NSW Department of Education Application Process: https://education.nsw.gov.au/inside-the-department/covid-intensive-learning-support-program/tutoring-companies/cluey#Program0
Find out more about our Cluey In Schools product: https://clueylearning.com.au/schools/
Become an online tutor with Cluey here: https://clueylearning.com.au/become-an-online-tutor/
