NSW Department of Education Small Group Tuition Program

The NSW Department of Education is providing a COVID learning support package that includes:

• $306 million to provide small-group tuition for eligible students across every NSW government school – primary, secondary and Schools for Specific Purposes (SSPs)
• $31 million for non-government schools with the greatest levels of need to provide small-group tuition

Funding has been allocated state-wide on student need and there is an expectation that tutors will be working with students from diverse backgrounds and needs, including English as an additional language or dialect, Aboriginal and disadvantaged students and school communities.  Schools are allocated the funds by the NSW Department of Education and schools pay for these services.

The program is already up and running. 

The NSW Department of Education identified the schools eligible for the program, the amount they are to receive and the approximate number of students to be supported as part of the program. These schools were notified in December 2020 when the NSW Government announced the program.

Cluey supplies and delivers their tutors and learning programs online, to supplement existing school programs.  Eligible students are combined into groups by their teacher.  Each group is made up of between 2 and 5 students, and students receive between 3 and 5 tutoring sessions per week, occurring throughout the school terms in 2021. Each learning session is 60 minutes.

Cluey supports schools with learning programs covering English and Mathematics in Years 3-12 and Chemistry in Years 11&12.  See here for detailed information on our group learning programs.

Group Learning programs (up to 5 students) in English and Mathematics for students in Years 3-10, including Mathematics 10A. NAPLAN Literacy and Numeracy content, including test simulations, is included in group programs in the months prior to the NAPLAN tests ​for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

Group Learning programs (up to 2 students) in English, Chemistry and Mathematics for students in Years 11-12, excluding Mathematics – Extension 2.

We also offer group tutoring programs for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in NAPLAN Literacy and Numeracy.

These programs are all fully aligned to the National Curriculum and the NSW syllabus.

All content used in our learning programs is designed, developed and quality assured by our full time in-house education team and teaching Faculty.  Our programs are designed to complement what students are doing in school by focusing on the key skills and knowledge specified in the syllabus. We use a spiral curriculum to ensure reinforcement of key ideas and place a focus on students applying and practising what they have learnt.

Numeracy programs

We provide students with the learning support they require to thrive alongside the traditional classroom setting. We offer mathematics catch up programs for every year level which are structured to cover all theory and examples needed to ensure learning outcomes can be achieved through an engaging and encouraging live online session with a tutor.

Our Education team manages the quality of learning programs, ensuring that learning sequences are designed around specific learning goals derived from content statements in both state and national curricula and are aligned to the National Numeracy Progressions.

NAPLAN learning content is included at the appropriate time in our programs for NAPLAN grades. They cover fundamental numeracy skills in a style similar to that found in the NAPLAN tests. Students complete a simulated test at the end of the NAPLAN preparation period which tutors review and provide feedback for prior to the NAPLAN test week.

Literacy programs

We offer English catch-up programs for every year level.  These are structured to cover all theory and examples needed to ensure learning outcomes can be achieved through an engaging and encouraging live online session with a tutor.

Learning sequences are designed around specific learning goals derived from content statements in both state and national curricula and are aligned to the National Literacy Progressions.

NAPLAN learning content is included at the appropriate time ​in our normal programs for NAPLAN grades. They cover fundamental literacy skills in a style similar to that found in the NAPLAN tests. Students complete a simulated test at the end of the NAPLAN preparation period which tutors review and provide feedback for prior to the NAPLAN test week.

Strategies for differentiation and personalisation are central to the onboarding and ongoing professional development of all our tutors. Our training includes support for students with specific learning needs, either diagnosed or otherwise, such as reading interventions, dyslexia, dyscalculia, auditory processing disorder, ASD, ADHD and E/ALD, with a focus on how best to support these students in the context of the Cluey live learning session.

In addition to being subject experts, tutors are supported by a dynamic and flexible online content platform and interactive whiteboard that allows tutors to adapt and modify content for students in real time. This allows for instant content engagement and adaptations live in sessions. Tutors also have direct access to Cluey Learning’s highly experienced Education Team if further guidance and support are needed. This support is complemented by our quality assurance process, which involves thorough review of tutor sessions and extensive personalised feedback to our tutors. These tutor reviews assess their impact on student learning, with feedback related to student engagement, demonstrated usefulness to the student and evidence of learning.

As modelled in our pilot program with a selection of DoE schools in Term 4, 2020, Cluey Learning works directly with individual schools to ensure that content 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. The schools we work with allocate the membership of each small group based on their knowledge of their students and we choose the appropriate level of academic program. The Cluey School Academic Advisor acts as a conduit between the school, the Education team and our tutors to ensure that our tutors are fully informed about the needs of each student. Our extensive post-session reports are shared with each student’s classroom teacher as a transparent channel of communication.

To see how our platform works for group learning, simply view one of the videos below.

Group Learning – Primary Mathematics

Group Learning – Primary English

Group Learning – Secondary Mathematics

Group Learning – Secondary English

Cluey has delivered more than 300,000 online learning sessions to 25,000 Australian students. As such, our platforms, learning programs and pedagogy have been tested and proven. 

All Cluey tutoring is delivered online using Cluey’s proprietary video, audio and collaborative whiteboard learning platform, and includes all the relevant content.  This means that Cluey’s services are available anywhere, provided the student has access to a computer with camera, headset, microphone and stable internet. It is important to note that students in the same group do NOT need to be in the same location – the Cluey platform provides a live, seamless, interactive and collaborative learning environment.   This is different to Zoom/Teams other meeting software as the integrated Cluey platform allows interactive activities. It enables the tutor to focus on teaching and supporting students in their learning rather than creating/managing the content for the session. By knowing what’s being covered when, we are also able to provide a much more detailed picture of what’s actually going on during the learning sessions.

In addition to this, by using the Cluey platform students can complete practice questions on their own between sessions and their work will be automatically visible to the group in the next session for review (by the tutor and the peers).

Cluey delivers its group tutoring services before school, during school, after school and on weekends.  It is entirely up to the individual school/teacher to determine when they wish the tutoring support to occur.  

As an approved NSW DoE provider, all Cluey tutors delivering services under this initiative are qualified teachers, with an Approval to Teach from the NSW DoE. 

Our Education team is responsible for the quality of every learning program, ensuring that learning sequences are designed around specific learning goals derived from content statements in both state and national curricula and are aligned to the National Literacy and Numeracy Progressions.

All Cluey tutors delivering services under this initiative are qualified teachers.  Our tutors undergo an extensive recruitment and onboarding process.  This includes WWCC and Code of Conduct trained.  In addition, all tutors are trained and experienced in using the Cluey Learning programs, content, platforms and reporting.  Tutors are also trained in all relevant Department policies including the Code of Conduct as part of their NSW Teacher Accreditation process.

Our extensive onboarding process includes training in:

• Group learning structure
• Group teaching strategies, including peer to peer learning.
• Technical skills, including using content in the learning platform.
• Literacy and numeracy skills
• Subject specific instruction
• Reflection and feedback
• Assigning practice
• Compliance and well-being
• Policies such as Code of Conduct, Child Protection Policy and Procedures, Working Remotely, Online Etiquette

These are supported by first session and pulse reviews conducted by our Education team and Lead Tutors who provide ongoing feedback to tutors. Our training programs enable tutors to consume information through videos, webinars, and eLearning modules.

Tutors are only eligible for group learning sessions after completing 10 hours of private 1:1 tutoring and demonstrating their ability to deliver the right learning outcomes, use our learning platform effectively and provide meaningful feedback after each session.

Cluey Learning engages our tutors in ongoing training, including but not limited to:

• Anxiety and Depression
• ADHD
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Auditory Processing Disorder
• Reading Interventions
• NAPLAN

All our tutors are recruited using a process which assesses their IT skills at each step.

The quality of our teaching and learning is overseen by an independent Education Advisory Board, chaired by Professor Garry Falloon, Director of International Engagement and Professor of STEM Education and Digital Learning in the Macquarie School of Education.

Cluey provides access to progress reporting for all Group Learning sessions. This is where we align learning sessions to the student’s long-term goals and areas of focus. Leveraging our data science infrastructure, we are able to gain deep understanding of the group’s progress and provide progress snapshots on:

• the content covered in relation to the learning goals for all completed sessions;
• completion rates and time spent at a topic/concept level; and
• confidence indicators such as practice completion rates.

We use this to provide actionable recommendations to our tutors to enhance ongoing learning outcomes.

Post Session Feedback Report
This is provided to the teacher/school after each group session.

Group Progress Report
Teachers/schools can access this at any time via Cluey’s Customer Hub. The report provides an overview of all the learning goals and concepts covered, practice questions set and completed as well as time spent on specific topics and concepts.

The Cluey Session Support Team focuses on supporting students and tutors entering sessions. As part of this process, our Customer Relationship Management system identifies any students who have not attended a session. Regardless of when (before, at the start or after each session) we are informed of non-attendance, this information is tracked against the specific session on that date and time.  As such we are able to provide attendance reporting to each school on a daily, weekly and/or monthly basis.

Session Monitoring System
Cluey’s Session Support team view this to see if any students are running late or experiencing technical issues to minimise downtime and disruption during sessions.

Schools are responsible for all student assessments and monitoring and evaluating overall student progress.  In addition, Cluey uses qualitative and quantitative learning data to generate weekly progress reports for each student.  These reports are provided to the school/teacher.

All Cluey tutoring is delivered online using Cluey’s proprietary video, audio and collaborative whiteboard learning platform, and includes all the relevant content.  This means that Cluey’s services are available anywhere, provided the student has access to a computer with camera, headset, microphone and stable internet.

We have a proactive and reactive technical support process. Our team provides all schools with a simple hardware and network test at the time of enrolment.

We have a Session Support Team of 25 staff who focus on supporting students and tutors with technical and other issues.

Each time a student enters a session, the Cluey learning platform guides them through a short audio, video and connectivity test. If there are any issues, our Session Support Team will be able to identify that there is an issue and will initiate contact to help resolve this.

We have a Session Monitoring system which gives us visibility on all sessions running and identifies any risks such as a student not entering the session or having access issues. This enables our Session Support Team to react to session issues quickly. 

Our rates are the same irrespective of when the tutoring occurs – before, during or after school.

• Year 3-10: $135 (GST inclusive) per 1 hour group session for up to 5 students
• Year 11-12: $135 (GST inclusive) per 1 hour group session for up to 2 students