In the grammar school where I teach, the vast majority of pupils are tutored – not just for the highly competitive 11-plus entrance exam, but often throughout their school career and sometimes even beyond.

Places at my school are seen as the golden ticket to success. Primary pupils are ferried back and forth to tuition centres several times a week, years before the 11-plus. Some of these centres run intensive holiday courses in years 4 and 5, asking for all-day attendance for a whole week at a time. Children are entered for numerous mock exams. When we hold open evenings, 11-plus tutors tout for business outside the school gates.

Tension in the classroom on exam day is high and parents will challenge the slightest detail in the delivery of the tests. A dropped pencil, a missed question, the child distracting everyone by coughing – any of these might lead to a vital point being lost. Some parents go on to query results in baseline Cat tests at the beginning of year 7, which don’t always match 11-plus performance. The tests are different, after all, and their children haven’t been coached in those specific questions.

This culture of and reliance on intensive tuition continues into secondary school. Try arranging after-school activities – clubs, intervention or even detention – and parents will inevitably ring in saying that their child is unable to attend because of a prearranged tuition class.

Even though the tuition our pupils receive often supports our teaching and helps us achieve excellent results, many of us find that tutors’ input can also be a hindrance.

We’ve seen coursework pieces submitted that we know could never have been written by our pupils unaided. We set internal exams based on past exam papers for Ucas predictions, but know there is probably a child who has already done those papers with their tutor. When we introduce a really difficult new concept at KS4, the child at the back won’t be paying attention because they know their tutor will be spoonfeeding them the answers to the homework. Then there’s the conversation at parents’ evening that we all dread, which starts with “So you’re predicting a B, but the tutor says ...”

Don’t misunderstand me. I know there are some wonderful private tutors out there, who make a real difference to my pupils’ (and my own) results. Like most teachers I have done my fair share of private work, and I’ve sometimes paid people to give my own children a bit of help. I know that it’s impossible for a teacher to give targeted help to every child in a large class. But the tutoring culture I see in my area goes far beyond this.

It leads pupils and parents to believe that they can only pass the next exam if they have one-to-one input. It fosters a lack of self reliance, prevents students from becoming independent learners and encourages the idea – widely held by some of my more challenging pupils – that the lessons their parents have paid for are more valuable than those they receive for free in school.

I also have concerns that this is creating an ever more unequal playing field. The parents of children from less advantaged families are unlikely to be able to afford tuition on this scale throughout their secondary school career. In fact, many of them will be unable to pay for the tuition to get their children into grammar school in the first place unless the selection process is radically revised.

Those advocating an expansion of grammar schools need to show that their selection system really does pick out the brightest and the best, not just those with the best tutors.

There’s also the matter of what all this tutoring is replacing. As my year 7s run off at the end of the day to their parents waiting in cars, I am aware that some of them will be spending another couple of hours in tuition centres before attempting their homework. Meanwhile, groups of children from the comprehensive down the road – which regularly produces high-flying students – are making their way to the bus stops, and then home to relax. That’s how childhood should be, isn’t it?

I sometimes feel sorry for the children I teach and hope that Theresa May’s reforms – if they happen – might mean that grammar schools are no longer seen as the only option for those with the financial and organisational wherewithal to access the system.

It wouldn’t just be the working class children who would benefit from a more diverse intake, but the children I already teach. Maybe having classmates who are allowed to have some fun after school would lead some of my pupils to question why they are sacrificing so much of their precious childhood to a system that demands that they do more and more to achieve that top grade.

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