18 Friday May 27 2022 | the times
News
More children will receive tutoring and
extra lessons from September when the
government doubles the pandemic
catch-up money secondary schools
receive.
One-and-a-half million pupils have
already started courses under the
National Tutoring Programme, the
flagship scheme to help them recover
from learning lost during lockdown,
and more are expected to benefit next
year.
The government previously
announced a £1 billion fund to be
shared between schools, based on pupil
More pupils given tutoring to get back on track
numbers and need. From September,
secondary schools will receive £276 per
pupil — with the average school receiv-
ing £60,000 compared with £30,
last year.
However, the increase will not apply
to primary schools, which will receive
£7,000 on average.
In addition, schools will be given
more money for direct tutoring after
the government scrapped plans to use
the Dutch outsourcing giant Randstad.
Its contract will not be renewed and
schools will receive funding to organise
tuition themselves.
Data released yesterday showed that
Randstad has delivered only a third ofits tutoring targets, or 165,000 courses.
At the same time, schools have
arranged 913,000 tutoring courses.
Robin Walker, the school standards
minister, said the programme had
already transformed learning for
pupils.
He said: “The doubling of the recov-
ery premium for secondaries will
further bolster the support schools are
able to offer for pupils who need it,
helping each and every young person
— wherever they live — get back on
track and stay on track.”
Julia Harnden, a funding specialist at
the Association of School and College
Leaders, said the increase in cash wouldbe welcomed but added it was
disappointing that the primary school
allocation had not been included in the
rise. “The government has grossly
underestimated the scale of the issue
and needs to back schools with signifi-
cantly more money to help children
and young people whose education has
been profoundly affected by the endur-
ing disruption of the pandemic.”
Many schools have already made
tutoring part of their day. At Kings
Road Primary School in Chelmsford,
pupils in groups of three or four work
on core English and maths skills.
Karen Riches, the head teacher, said
the school felt that pupils would onlycatch up on lost learning with teachers
they knew and trusted — so its staff are
offering extra hours before and after
school to help them get back on track.
The scheme began in January and
the school has seen measurable
progress, Riches said. “A lot of pupils
around here do get private tuition, nor-
mally 11-plus tuition, but a lot of our
children can’t afford that so we need to
help them,” she added. “They value
having those small groups and time
with their teachers.”
James, 7, a pupil at the school, said: “I
used to be quite bad at my maths but
since I have been doing this I have
moved up to a better table.”Emma Yeomans
Kieran GairThe force is strong Light sabres shoot from London’s Battersea Power Station to
mark tonight’s launch of the Star Wars spinoff series Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+Furniture produced by Ikea in the 1950s
is fetching thousands of pounds at auc-
tion as collectors vie to secure rare
items from the company’s earliest days.
A £20 Cavelli armchair, which is one
of only five made in that style in 1959,
was recently sold by a Swedish auction
house for £15,500.
Bukowskis, a leading
auction house in Stock-
holm, said that the chair
was among a string of
items that were pur-
chased by collectors for
well above their original
price. A 1972 print, titled
The Girls Go in the Ring,
was recently sold for £290,
more than 100 times its
original price.
Prices have risen as
collectors have begun to
appreciate the clean,
classic Scandinavian design pioneered
by the world’s largest furniture retailer.Ikea’s earliest buyers are
now sitting on a fortune
Among the most sought after is the
“mushroom” or “clam” chair designed
in 1944 by Philip Arctander, the year
after Ikea was founded. Originals made
by Arctander sell for £50,000 but even
clones produced in the 1950s by Ikea
can fetch £2,000 each.
The demand for early Ikea furniture
was spotted by Barnebys, a search
engine that tracks sales from 2,
auction houses. Pontus Silfverstolpe,
co-founder of Barnebys, told the Daily
Mail: “It is especially designer furniture
from the 1950s and 1980s from Ikea that
costs more and more on the
second-hand market.”
Many of the most sought-
after items are ones that
flopped when they were
introduced. Their
prompt discontinua-
tion means that there
are few examples
around.A Cavelli chair that cost £20 in 1959
recently sold for £15,500 at auction