The Tutor Learning Initiative began rolling out across Victorian schools in Term 1 and is designed to support students whose learning has been disrupted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In October 2021, the Victorian Government invested an additional $230 million of funding to extend the Tutor Learning Initiative for the 2022 school year, which aims to continue to provide school students with targeted learning support. This followed an initial investment of $250 million towards the initiative to engage 6,400 tutors to provide students, who struggled most during remote and flexible learning in 2020, with extra targeted learning support in 2021.
Every Victorian government school now has at least one tutor on board, with more than 5,600 tutors working to provide extra support for students who need it, exceeding the initial target of 4,100 tutors set for the 2022 school year.
Feedback on the initiative from Melton West Primary School, has been positive, with noticeable benefits for both students and teachers. ‘’The Tutor Learning Initiative funding has enabled us to provide additional time for teachers to respond to intervention as part of our professional learning community.’’ said Principal Michelle Costa.
Assistant Principal, Kathy Cvitkovic said, ‘’I’m seeing a real focus on their learning and I’m seeing students interacting a lot more energetically with each other and their teachers. A student said to me the other day, Mrs CV I’m so grateful that we’re doing this because I can go into my room and really read my words and I can understand the story.’’
The funding provided to the school for the initiative has allowed them to employ staff to teach the inquiry units of work in every classroom. During this time the classroom teachers are released for three hours per week to work with selected children from their class in small group settings.
