An independent schools group has launched an online tutoring provision that it hopes will “set a new gold standard in online tuition”.
Cognita, which has 40 schools in the UK including Colchester High School, Southbank International School and Quinton House School, decided to launch the service fully after a “successful” pilot in the summer.
With research showing the average school pupil has lost up to a third of learning time during Covid 19, Cognita Tutoring hopes to help children build their confidence and achieve their full academic potential.
Sessions will be aided by intelligent learning platform CENTURY, which helps to support progress with personalised learning.
Ian Thistlewood, general manager for Cognita Tutoring, said: “As a global group of independent schools, Cognita invests heavily to ensure our students continue to progress academically, even despite disruptions due to Covid.
“Our new tutoring service has been designed for children outside our group, whose parents are concerned they may be ‘falling behind’ in their education or could do with a boost in confidence to help them get the results that they are capable of achieving.”
Thistlewood compared the current tutoring market to “the wild west”.
“We spoke to lots of parents and existing tutors to understand what a gold standard tutoring service would look like for families from across the country. We discovered the tutoring market is like the wild west: it’s unregulated by government, anyone can set themselves up as a tutor regardless of qualifications or experience, and there are massive variances in quality.
“It became clear that there was a need to professionalise this cottage industry by ensuring all our tutors are qualified teachers, supporting their students with the best learning technology, and building a genuine parent partnership into how we do things. We think tutoring should complement and enhance a child’s attainment and confidence in class.”
Cognita Tutoring plans to create a giving programme in order to make the service accessible for deprived and low-income families.
