Homework clubs and mentors aim to close grade gap

Free homework clubs and university mentors are some of the tools being used to try to improve A-level results in north-east England.

The gap in the proportion of top A-level grades achieved by youngsters between the North East and London has grown to its largest level since the Covid-19 pandemic, says charity Schools North East.

But it says this gap is more significant in parts of the North East, with Hartlepool and Sunderland performing poorly.

Education charity IntoUniversity, which opened a branch in Hartlepool last year, said it was confident its efforts would help close the grade gap. Skills minister Jacqui Smith said the government was also "absolutely determined" to achieve this.

In 2026, about 23.1% of A-level entries in the North East were awarded A or A* compared to 32.7% in London.

But in Hartlepool, 10.5% entries were awarded A or A*, and in Sunderland 13.2% were given those grades - some of the lowest scores in the country.

Hartlepool's IntoUniversity head, Eve Hemsley, said she understood the problems facing youngsters in the town as she had similar experiences growing up.

"I'm from Hartlepool," she said. "Like a lot of my peers, we moved away because there's no jobs, there's no opportunities… it's a real barrier for young people in their confidence in themselves."

Hemsley said simple interventions could have a major impact on the education of local teenagers.

This included free after-school homework clubs the charity provided, as well as pairing pupils with current university students to act as mentors and role models, she said.

Hemsley said the charity was also trying to normalise university for its pupils.

One of the ways the charity had done this earlier in the summer was by taking pupils to Newcastle University for a mock graduation so both them and their families could gain experience of campus life.

Newcastle's Jesmond Park Academy headteacher, Steve Campbell, said economic inequality was behind much of the grade gap between the North East and London.

He said this had been exacerbated during the pandemic during the transition to online learning.

"We had examples of homes where there were four or five students in a household who couldn't get access on to the computer," he said.

"They were trying to watch lessons through the phone and the internet quality wasn't good enough."

He said the pandemic's impact was still being felt by children today especially those who were younger during lockdown.

"It just gives them a bigger mountain to climb," he said.

Social mobility charity Sutton Trust official Rocky Lorusso also pointed to work the charity had carried out earlier this year, which suggested white British children achieved the lowest school results compared to other ethnic groups.

He said this was explained partly by the fact many working class white British families felt “disengaged” by education and "how it's going to help them".

Hemsley, who said there was still plenty of space at the branch's after-school clubs, said it was too early to predict the long-term impact of the charity in Hartlepool.

But she also said she saw young people every week who were excited to go to their after-school clubs. "That short-term impact is just as valuable," she said.

"We're going to be here for a very long time."

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