Some schools are beginning to experiment with distance learning, especially in non-mainstream examination subjects. Pupils can be taught, through video-conferencing, by a tutor perhaps hundreds of miles away. It is a two-way process which allows the tutors to get to know the strengths and weaknesses of individual students; written work is emailed and marked in the conventional way. Examination results have been encouraging.

The advantage to pupils in schools which lack relevant specialists (eg sociologists) is that the subject can be taught and accessed in a different and exciting way. But individual student motivation is essential just as it is in higher education. Sometimes tutorial groups involve a non-specialist teacher from within the school.