CHRIS JONES is the Managing Director of Meshed Learning® and has been a tutor and teacher for over 18 years. He has run more than 10 large scale research projects improving the speed of learning with STEM subjects. He and his team do bespoke work with schools and teaching centres to improve what they do and work to learn how to improve tuition in the best way possible.
Chris writes: “As a teacher with 18 years experience in teaching in Bristol, Cardiff and London I was shocked to learn that Wales had 3 types of widening gaps in terms of academic achievement. As a high school science teacher I could do little to impact students outside of my school work.
“One of the provisions available during lockdown: the National Tutor Programme, gave 27% of students on free school meals access to tuition (Sutton Trust, 2024). However, the National Tutor Programme has been discontinued (Uk Gov, 2024). Obviously, this will lead to a serious dip in results beyond where we are currently.
“As many schools will be expected to pay expensive tutoring companies out of pupil premium pay, that tuition may not happen. I decided this is unacceptable and would lead to lower student outcomes and life prospects, particularly in Wales. For me the best course of action, to close the widening gap, was to set up Meshed Learning® and make tuition so cheap that everyone in Wales could attend revision sessions if they desired.
“In offering free tuition we could mitigate the impact of: high levels of supply teaching being used in some schools; schools in special measures; science/maths departments under performing, and; expensive tuition giving a boost only to those who could afford it. We want to help the people of Wales close the widening gap between the haves and the have nots. We, as a society, benefit if more people understand science and maths.
“We do better if students can get into apprenticeship programmes, college courses or jump into the jobs market and start making an impact. Having at least 5 A*-Cs seriously empower young people to take on these positive pathways. Additionally, better pass rates increase Wales’ position on the world stage and gives us the ability to climb back up the educational rankings.
“What have we done since our inception? We have started our Saturday and Sunday Free Revision Sessions for Welsh students, with DBS checked tutors delivering Meshed Learning® tuition, which have been proven to be more effective than conventional teaching. We created over 1000 test questions covering all areas of Biology, Chemistry and Physics, which are allowing students, with pinpoint accuracy, to identify areas they need to revise, reducing revision time.
“If this sounds good to you, send the children in your care to the Meshed Learning® site (meshedlearning.com/tuition) and get them to sign up to our sessions over the following weekends. Alternatively, have a conversation with us and then send the children in your care our way. You can access the revision diagnostics on the page above too.
“More than the free tuition, there are diagnostics for all of science available on our tuition page. Students simply need to sign up (we never sell data to other companies) and use our diagnostic tools, which will highlight specific knowledge that might be missing.
“Using this targeting process makes revision more efficient and therefore aids us in closing the widening gap. We look forward to supporting you and the children in your care. Please do not hesitate to contact us.”
Meshed Learning® can be contacted via email: [email protected]
