Children doubled their literacy scores after a term of being tutored by university students, analysis of a pilot scheme has found.
The initiative could now be applied nationwide. It was one of the recommendations of the year-long Times Education Commission, which published its findings last year and was supported by Robert Halfon, the universities minister, as a way of tackling inequalities in the wake of Covid-19.
Academics at Exeter University, who set up the scheme, said teachers asked for help with pupils in Year 8 who were struggling to write basic sentences.
The 12 and 13-year-olds in the trial were assessed before and after a term of tutoring and their marks were found to have doubled.
