Looking for extra support in English or maths?
Join our research trial and you could be selected for free, small-group tutoring outside of class to boost your confidence and skills.
Sign up today by clicking the button under the information below…
This trial is being run by Get Further and the University of Warwick. Together, we’re researching how effective small-group tutoring is for helping students pass their GCSE maths or English resits.
If you’re selected for the tutoring programme, you’ll get:
- Weekly, small-group tutoring sessions.
- Booklets with exam tips and practice questions.
- Personalised goal setting and tailored support.
Before you decide whether to take part, it’s important to understand why we’re doing this research and what’s involved for you. Watch the video and read the information below to help you decide.
You can only take part in this study if you:
- Are in your first year of GCSE resits
- Are not taking. Functional Skills in the subject you would like to sign up for.
- Did not sit the November resit exam in the subject you. would like to sign up for
If you choose to take part, you’ll be randomly placed in either the control group or the tutoring group — there’s a 50/50 chance of being in each.
On signing-up you will be asked to complete a short survey to share your views on English or maths and your learning experience. This will be repeated towards the end of the trial (April 2026). These take 5–10 minutes and are kept confidential.
If you’re in the tutoring group, you’ll continue with your regular classes and also attend a one-hour, small-group tutoring session each week. These sessions take place during college hours, at times when you don’t have any other classes scheduled. You will be expected to attend every session during term time. As well as attending these sessions:
- You will be asked to do short surveys during the programme (in tutoring time) to monitor progress and share feedback.
- Some of your sessions may be observed by a researcher, but they will focus on the tutor and won’t assess or collect data from you.
- You may be invited to participate in a small group discussion with other students in the summer term, 2026.
If you’re in the control group, you’ll continue with your usual English or maths classes at college but not receive tutoring.
- Tutoring sessions take place at the same time every week during term time, and they will be held in college.
- Get Further will find a time which suits you best, so that you don’t miss any other classes, and will group you with two other students.
- There’s no extra homework and Get Further will provide booklets with all the activities, practice questions and exam tips you will need.
- You’ll have the same tutor each week, so you’ll get to know each other quickly, and they’ll understand your strengths, challenges, goals and how you like to learn.
As part of this trial, we will be collecting:
From you:
- Full name
- Date of Birth
- Contact details (e.g. email/mobile).
- College name and GCSE resit subject
From your college:
- Your original GCSE scores
- Your GCSE resit scores.
- Your attendance register
We need to collect all of this information so that we can allocate you to a group, let you know which group you are in, arrange tuition (for half of you) and then link your details to a database so that we can analyse the results.
If you are in the tutoring group, we will also collect:
- Tutoring attendance register.
- Demographic information (e.g. postcode).
What will happen to my data?
All your information will be:
- Kept safe and secure until July 2035.
- Shared only with the research team, Get Further, and the people funding the trial (Education Endowment Foundation).
- Anonymised in the final report (that means your name won’t appear anywhere).
No.
- Participation in this study is completely voluntary.
- You can stop taking part in the trial, without giving a reason (just let one of the research team, your college, or your Get Further tutor know).
- If you choose to withdraw, you will be asked if we can keep the data we have collected so far, or if you would like us to remove and delete it.
If you decide to take part in this study, you could benefit from a free tutoring programme, which has previously helped many GCSE resit students pass their Maths or English GCSE resit.
There is a 50% chance that, even if you would like to take part in the tutoring programme, you will not get randomly allocated to the tutoring group. However, whether you’re in the tutoring group or not, you’re helping with research that could make a real difference for students doing their GCSE resits in future.
Once the trial is finished, the results will be put into a report by the Education Endowment Foundation and shared online. That way, teachers and schools can use what we learn to better support future GCSE resit students. The data will also be archived by the EEF which will be open to the research community for future analysis.
- The full participant information sheet for students can be found here. This provides more details about the answers provided on this page.
- You might also want to talk to your English/maths teachers about the trial or discuss the information with your parents/carers before signing up.
- There is an information sheet for parents and carers here, which provides useful information for them about the trial.
If you have additional questions about the trial that aren’t answered on this page or in the participation information sheet, you can contact Dr. Katie Crompton by email: Katie.Crompton@Warwick.ac.uk