Personalising relationships: vertical tutoring

Deep support (and within that vertical tutoring) is at the heart of the ethos of Lipson Community College. It promotes independence, enables students to have the confidence to take action, gives every child a sense of belonging, gives students roles of responsibility and leadership and, above all, creates a safe and secure environment for students to have fun in their specialist subject.

Lipson Community College is a performing arts college serving a very deprived catchment area in inner city Plymouth. As a result of deprived and culturally changing communities in which children don’t always have a solid and secure home life, providing a safe environment for them to excel in was the foundation of the vertical system. The tutorial period lasts from 8:40am to 9am every morning and is split into six mini-schools (called guilds).

Sue Williamson, in her ‘Deep Support’ pamphlet (from the series A new shape for schooling) notes a move from schools to revisit the role of the tutor to support students’ individual needs. It became apparent at Lipson that there was a need to provide new and exciting opportunities to engage students from the very start of the school day. The move towards vertical tutoring began with the college choir, in which a new member of staff worked every morning with a group of 30 students across the college to join as a new vocal specialist tutor group. This had a magnificent effect on the student’s confidence and sense of belonging to a group. In no time, the tutor group had grown to 60, with two staff, and the first vertical guild was born in the form of Players Guild (specialising in the Performing Arts).

Lipson currently has six guilds specialising in a variety of subject areas:

• Players Guild – performing arts
• Coopers Guild – communication (modern foreign languages and English)
• Chandlers Guild – sport
• Mariners Guild – humanities
• Merchants Guild – science and maths
• Surfers Guild – ICT and art

Students in year 6 opt (or audition) for their desired guild and can spend seven years in the same guild -even in the same tutor group if they wish - building successful relationships with parents, external support systems and staff with the child’s development  at the centre.

Lead learners

As recently showcased on Teachers TV, Lipson’s use of lead learners is an important aspect of the guild system. Lead learners are used in a variety of ways to develop self-management and confidence in the older students. These students undertake a series of roles within their guild and tutor group:

• helping younger students read
• listening and talking to others in their tutor group
• signing and checking student planners
• setting up tutor rooms to maximise time for morning activities
• helping students with their homework.
• running circle time activities.

This practice is now being spread to curriculum time and lead learners are chosen in specific subject areas to support teaching and learning.

Student voice

Student voice is an integral part of college development. Lead learners and other students are used to guide college improvement, guild improvement and tutor improvement. Within each tutor group, there are two elected candidates to represent the views of the other students. This then feeds into the student voice group (college council) consisting of two representatives from each guild. This, in turn, is managed by our vice principal in charge of deep support and therefore provides a direct link with the governors and senior management team. The map below shows how the student voice is embedded as part of the whole college.

Staffing structure

Each guild has a central triage team, which consists of two to three members of support staff. These staff are a point of contact for children who are known to have difficulties settling into college life on a day-to-day basis, those who have family or personal issues or those with pastoral issues. Triage staff can then assess the child’s need and allocate them the required support, whether that be sending them to the student pastoral room, referring them to the head of guild, tutor, guild assistant, special educational needs team (if appropriate) or contacting parents. Every effort is made to ensure that children are not pushed into lessons they are not mentally ready for.

This structure also allows for excellent professional development within the structure itself. Tutors are encouraged to take action and leadership within their own tutor groups and make professional judgements about their tutees every day. If they wish, they can become part of the triage team or work towards becoming a head of guild. Across some guilds, we are currently operating a dual leadership approach using support staff (non-teaching) as a head of guild responsible for the pastoral issues. These staff have no commitment in the classroom and are therefore available every hour of the day to meet with students, parents and staff. The other head of guild is responsible for mentoring achievement and coaching the students. This system ensures that every child receives the support necessary at all times and knows where to go for pastoral issues or academic problems.

Vertical tutoring carries many advantages; as a way of creating a true community; enabling students to feel that they belong and giving them the opportunity to lead and take action – as well developing the whole child, preparing him or her for life outside of the school gates.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mr Matthew Oakes is an Assistant Principal at Lipson Community College in his fourth year in teaching. Matthew trained as a music teacher and has taken roles such as Head of Citizenship, Head of Guild and now Head of Specialism. He has been Head of Players Guild for the last 2 years which focusses on the Performing Arts (the College's specialism). Matthew won Outstanding New Teacher of the Year in 2006.

 

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