Private tutoring at transition points in the English education system: its nature, extent and purpose

other students’ answers. The researcher circulated around the room and answered queries.
Year 6 and Year 13 questionnaires were administered during the autumn term and Year 11
towards the end of the spring term or early in the summer term. Year 11 questionnaires were
completed in two waves one year apart with 7 schools in the first wave and 22 in the second.
Each student was handed an envelope containing a questionnaire to take home for their
parents to complete and return to the research team in a freepost envelope. Pupils were
advised that if their parents had difficulty with English, they could help by reading the
questions to them and recording their answers; a phone number was also provided on the front
of each questionnaire for parents to ring if they required help completing the questionnaire.

Results

Responses to the questionnaires from students in all three year groups were entered into a
combined SPSS data base for analysis. The first set of analyses provides information on the
subjects for which tutoring was received and the duration of tutoring in years 6, 11 and 13.

Nature, extent and duration of tutoring

Students were asked if they had a private tutor now or in the past (‘ever had’ a tutor) and, if
so, to indicate the subjects for which they received tutoring and the terms in which tutors had
been employed for each subject. The latter information was used to estimate the extent of
tutoring at the time of the survey (‘tutoring now’).

11

<<   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   >>

More intriguing information