HM Government

Personalising learning

The solution in education is to move even further towards personalised learning and away from a one-size- fits-all approach. Personalising learning means meeting the individual needs of each child, regardless of social class or family income. Recognising that every child is different and has unique needs and abilities is something which benefits all pupils. Successful schools are increasingly tailoring their curriculum and teaching methods to individual pupil needs, and supporting the progress of each child in different subjects by tracking their progress, reporting regularly to parents, and ensuring that each pupil gets the support they need to take the next step forward. From 2010 each child in secondary school will have a personal tutor, someone who knows them well, checks progress and responds quickly if any problems emerge. As we roll out extended schools, the opportunities for all pupils to develop a particular skill, from musical to sporting, have never been greater.

Though personalisation is for all pupils, it works particularly well for those at risk of falling behind. That is why we have introduced successful targeted intervention programmes for those in the bottom 5%, such as Every Child a Reader/Writer, and now Every Child Counts, which provide intensive one-to-one tuition, with a teacher sitting down with the child for half an hour a day. The results have been striking - 8 out of 10 children supported by this programme catch up with their peers within 20 weeks. From 2010, 30,000 six- and seven- year-olds will benefit from this support annually.

Later in primary school, and for those making the transition into secondary school, we have gone further than catch-up for the bottom 5%. We will make one-to-one tuition an entitlement from 2010/11 for every child in Key Stage 2 who has already fallen behind, thus ensuring that every child leaves primary school ready for secondary education. The results from the pilots have been impressive: nearly every headteacher surveyed believes that it has contributed to increased progress in their school, and has helped parents to understand much better the power of focusing on their own child’s individual strengths and weaknesses. From September this year we will invest £1.6 billion nationally in personalisation including one-to-one tuition; and by 2010 this will support up to 300,000 pupils a year in English and a further 300,000 in mathematics.

Personalisation is just as relevant for older age-groups. One example is the additional mentoring and other support for gifted and talented pupils who come from disadvantaged families, enabling them to compete for places at the most selective universities and enter challenging careers. Each academic year we are supporting a further cohort of up to 1,500 students in Year 10, as we progressively extend support through Years 10-13. Every registered student benefits from a tailored programme with access to a core programme of Progression Academies (two days per term across the full four year cycle) and receives through their school or college an annual bursary of £400 to meet the cost of these and other out-of-hours learning opportunities. In chapter 5 we set out what more we will do to identify and support pupils from low income backgrounds to benefit from higher education.