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

Proportion of students with tutors: ‘ever had tutoring’

Of the 3515 students who responded, 27% indicated that they had received tutoring at some
point during their school career (26% in years 6 and 11, 29.5% in year 13). There were no
significant differences between males and females so data from all students were combined
for the next analyses.

More students had tutoring in mathematics, followed by English, science and other subjects
(Table 2). The percentage of students with tutors for mathematics was very similar in each
age group, with 17% of year 6, 18% year 11 and 19% year 13 indicating that they had ever
had a tutor for this subject. In English, more students reported having a tutor in year 6 (16%)
than year 11 (10%) and year 13 (8%). Fewer students had tutoring in science and the figures
were similar across the three year groups. A small proportion of year 6 students had tutoring
to help them with ability tests such as the 11+ and verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests.
These tests are used by some secondary schools to select the more able students.

In each year group small numbers of students had tutoring in a variety of other subjects.
These included art & design, Spanish, Arabic and PE in year 6, and art & design, business
studies, child development, electronics and food technology in year 11. So although the core
curriculum subjects of mathematics, English and science are the ones that attract most private
tuition, students receive additional help in a wide range of other subjects (Table 2).

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