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Online tutoring

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Dear West Sussex County Council,

I am writing to you to request information under the Freedom of Information Act.

Please tell me:

-How many pupils have received online tutoring at home that was paid for by the council between September 1 2017 and August 31 2018? Please indicate how many children were primary school age and how many children were secondary school age.

Note: I am requesting information relating to ALL children who receive some or all of their schooling at home. This would include those who are electively home-schooled, as well as those who have some or all of their classes at home as part of their mainstream schooling, or as part of alternative provision.

For these children, I am requesting information relating to online learning. This would include children who receive some or all of their tuition over Skype (or similar services), or using e-learning tutoring tools. It would include instances where the council has hired a member of staff specifically to carry out this online tuition, as well as instances where an external company is being paid to provide the service.

-Please provide the same information (total number of pupils, broken down by primary/secondary) for the same period (Sept 1 - Aug 31) for each of these years: 2016/17, 2015/16, 2014/15 and 2013/14.

-How much was spent on providing this online tutoring? Please provide the figure in pounds for each of the school years listed above (2013/14 - 2017/18), broken down by school year.

-Please provide the name(s) of the organisation(s) providing the online tutoring for home-schooled children.

Yours faithfully,
Shanti Das

Freedom of Information Act,

Dear Mr/Ms Das,

Thank you for your enquiry, which has been forwarded to the appropriate officers for a response. The usual timescale for a response is twenty working days, that is by or on 28th June.

If for any reason the Council needs to extend this timescale you will be notified in accordance with the relevant legislation.

Please note that in 2012 the County Council adopted a position in principle that FoI and EIR requests to West Sussex County Council and the Council's responses may be published on the Council's website in a suitably anonymised form. This is in addition to the individual response to the requestor, and in line with the Council's commitment to transparency and open data.

Yours sincerely,

Kerry Rickman

Freedom Of Information, Communities Directorate | West Sussex County Council | Location: County Hall, Chichester PO19 1RQ | E-mail: [email address]

show quoted sections

Andrew Parker,

 

Dear Mr/Ms Das,

 

I refer to your request of 31^st May 2019 submitted to our offices with
has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. 

 

You requested;

 

-How many pupils have received online tutoring at home that was paid for
by the council between September 1 2017 and August 31 2018? Please
indicate how many children were primary school age and how many children
were secondary school age.

 

Note: I am requesting information relating to ALL children who receive
some or all of their schooling at home. This would include those who are
electively home-schooled, as well as those who have some or all of their
classes at home as part of their mainstream schooling, or as part of
alternative provision.

 

For these children, I am requesting information relating to online
learning. This would include children who receive some or all of their
tuition over Skype (or similar services), or using e-learning tutoring
tools. It would include instances where the council has hired a member of
staff specifically to carry out this online tuition, as well as instances
where an external company is being paid to provide the service.

 

-Please provide the same information (total number of pupils, broken down
by primary/secondary) for the same period (Sept 1 - Aug 31) for each of
these years: 2016/17, 2015/16, 2014/15 and 2013/14.

 

-How much was spent on providing this online tutoring? Please provide the
figure in pounds for each of the school years listed above (2013/14 -
2017/18), broken down by school year.

 

-Please provide the name(s) of the organisation(s) providing the online
tutoring for home-schooled children.

 

 

We have now completed a search of information you have requested and I can
confirm the Authority holds some information relevant to the request. 

 

Parents who have made the decision to take responsibility for their
child’s education and are Electively Home Educating do not receive any
funding for the provisions they make, therefore West Sussex County Council
does not fund any on-line tutoring to Electively Home Educated Students.

 

Individual schools may provide some form of on-line tutoring to students
as part of their mainstream schooling or alternative provision. West
Sussex County Council does not hold this data and I would advise you
approach individual schools who would hold data for their establishments.

 

Pupils who are in need of the statutory provision due to their health
needs prohibiting them from attending school, access an online/home tutor
package called Blended Learning. This package is short term, considering
the nature of the health issue.

 

West Sussex County Council commissions the West Sussex Alternative
Provision College for Blended Learning.  A place may be used by several
children during a school year. Each Blended Learning place costs £10,000.
West Sussex County Council commissions 72 places per year at a cost of
£720,000

 

 

The data for this cohort is as follows;

 

Please note, the data below is a revised number from the data given in
your FOI request dated 18^th April 2019.

 

We apologise for the incorrect data initially given, this was due to an
administrative error when the numbers were put into the table.

 

Total number of pupils accessing BL during the  school year;

 

Year 2017/18 2016/17 2015/16 2014/15
Primary 0 1 5 5
Secondary 34 32 30 54
Total 34 32 35 59
         

 

 

 

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your
own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for
the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for example commercial
publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Most
documents supplied by us will be copyright of West Sussex County Council.

 

Information you receive which is not subject to WSCC copyright continues
to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from
which the information originated. You must ensure that you gain their
permission before reproducing any third party (non WSCC) information.

 

If you have any queries about this response, please contact me.

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you may
wish to ask for a review of our decision via [1][email address]. 

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally,
the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our internal
review procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

 

The Information Commissioner's Office,
                                                                                       

Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

 

Kind regards

 

 

[2]Andrew Parker | Manager : Pupil Entitlement Investigations

Pupil Entitlement: People Services.

[3]West Sussex County Council |

Location: 2rd Floor, Centenary House, Worthing, West Sussex, BN13 2QB

| External: 0330 222 8509  | E-mail: [4][email address]

 

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