Q: I struggle with a characterful year 10 tutor group who resent tutorial time. As Michael says, they challenge the idea of it being a useful way of spending their time. But how best to address this? Suggestions welcome...
A: Thanks for your question.
Effective tutorial programmes are not bought in from a catalogue or imposed from above but created by the tutors themselves. You need to be sure of the relevance and direction of tutorial work before you can endorse it fully or teach it with enthusiasm. If you feel the material is not relevant and you cannot approach it with enthusiasm then this is quickly translated to your students. Sticking plaster courses never seem to have any real impact. Suggest to your line manager that each tutor devises 6 tutorials. Active, engaging and genuinely useful lessons. Share the lessons between the team and create a tutorial that is tailored to your school, and the needs of your students. Don't pretend that anyone is going to be motivated by a certificate. Create a rationale that is intelligent, linked with future pathways and relevant to the needs of the students.
If you have no control over the curriculum you need to make this time relevant for them without undermining what is happening elsewhere in the tutorial team. Draw out what is genuinely useful and build on it. Use the time to help them structure their independent learning, invite students to lead the tutorial, make it less teacher led and more balanced.
Change your own approach to the tutorial time. They are influenced by your perceived lack of enthusiasm. Raise your expectations of what can be achieved and be over excited about seeing them! Their disinterest may be a tactic that they use elsewhere, ‘what's the point of maths.....', ‘my dad says that History is a waste of time' etc. You need to strike a balance between making the content appropriate and not making the curriculum optional. I think that once you have revamped what you are delivering you can make a fresh start with gusto.
Good luck.