Efficacy Trial of Get Further Tutoring Programme

Trial Summary

The University of Warwick is partnering with the University of Birmingham and Leeds Beckett University, to evaluate the effectiveness of small-group tuition for improving the outcomes of students resitting GCSE maths/English. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has commissioned the research team to undertake an evaluation of Get Futher's resit tuition programmes.​

Get Further is a charity that was set up in 2018 with a mission to support students in further education from disadvantaged backgrounds to secure English and maths GCSE qualifications.​ Get Further’s GCSE Resit Tuition Programme is a small-group tuition programme designed for post-16 students who are resitting GCSE English and maths. Students are supported by tutors who go into colleges and work with up to three students per session. For one hour a week, the tutors work through Get Further’s bespoke curriculum with students. The programme aims to increase student knowledge of key subject areas, along with their attendance, confidence and motivation, leading to improved GCSE attainment.

The evaluation will consist of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) and an implementation and process evaluation (IPE) which will take place in the 2025/26 academic year.​

​What we are aiming to find out?

We want to find whether the Get Further tutoring programme works, by running an efficacy trial across Further Education colleges nationally. Specifically we want to know:

1. Does Get Further tutoring improve attainment for learners aged 16-19 resitting English or Maths GCSE in post-16 settings?
2. Does Get Further tutoring improve non-academic outcomes (e.g., confidence, motivation, and self-efficacy) for learners aged 16-19 resitting GCSE in post-16 settings?
3. What mechanisms and moderators are associated with the impact of Get Further tutoring and what has been their contribution to the estimated impact of the trial

How are we going to do this?

Eligible students from consenting colleges will be randomly assigned to either the teaching as usual group or the intervention group. This group will receive the Get Further programme, alongside their regular teaching. The RCT will collect original GCSE scores for Maths or English and then compare these to resit GCSE scores at the end of the 25/26 academic year. We are also interested in academic confidence and motivation, which we will measure using questionnaires at the beginning and end of the trail.

The IPE will gather data to help us evaluate the efficacy of the Get Further intervention using a range of methods including: observations of tutoring sessions; student surveys; student, staff and tutor interviews and focus groups; and Get Further documentation.

The privace notice for this evaluation can be found here.

Who funds the study?

This study is funded by the Education Endowment Foundation 

Members of the research team

Co-lead investigators

Dr. Rebecca Morris (Associate Professor, University of Warwick), Dr. Tom Perry (Associate Professor, University of Warwick).

Research Team

Dr. Paul Thompson (Associate Professor, University of Birmingham), Dr. Ellie Willard (Senior Lecturer, Leeds Beckett University), Dr. Katie Crompton (Research Fellow, University of Warwick)