In a Year 6 of six, every pupil got their own tutor and grew in confidence

Our school has a very small Year 6 cohort

This year I’ve only had 6 pupils in my year 6 class, so they haven’t got a lot of space to hide when they don’t know something. It’s different with the one to one tuition, and I think they feel it is quite safe because they are there with their headphones on, they don’t feel threatened by the tuition, they build quite a good relationship with their tutors and it is done in a fun way. They know that their tutor is going to help them and explain.

In the sessions I don’t think any of our children feel particularly worried about what their peers think, they’re on their own and no one else can really hear them and they can be really honest about what they don’t get. It’s good for the children in lots of ways from that point of view.

It has improved pupils’ confidence in their ability

Children have certainly felt more confident with their maths and it is another tool to use in helping them get to that point so we think it has had a positive impact. At the beginning, I was a bit sceptical of the remoteness of it being online but I hadn’t truly valued the one to one nature of it and the impact it would have.

The assessments have been helpful in highlighting small weaknesses from previous years

The pupils respond really positively, it really helps with filling in any little gaps. Obviously, as their teacher I have a good idea of what I think their gaps are but doing the initial diagnostic assessment is always interesting, and seeing what they are fast to answer or slow to answer surprised me. It’s good because it’s a slightly different way of looking at it. It’s good to have an outsider’s point of view.

It’s a great tool to use when I’m thinking about what I want them to work on and it doesn’t take very long to do it. It’s pretty simple and quick. The pupils also enjoy the assessment, it is a chance to do something different; a bit of a treat.

We use the intervention to supplement work in class around SATs

We use Third Space Learning to reinforce material we’re doing in class. Sometimes it might take them two or three sessions to get through a topic but that’s fine because obviously they’ve needed to go at that pace and I would much rather that than they skim through a topic and it not have the impact you hoped it would.

The range of lessons is good; there’s enough choice without it being overwhelming. They cover all the main bases. I used the tool that listed which modules were likely to come up in the SATs and the current level of the pupil in that area, and that’s really helpful as it makes it a clearer choice when assigning a topic and structuring our classroom syllabus.