DS1 came home distressed today as 'apparently' from this september his school are implementing what he has been told is called 'Vertical Tutor Groups'

this means rather than each tutor group being comprised soley of one year group- there will be 3 children from each year group- including 6th formers.

He goes to his tutor group for breaks and for 20 mins registration daily.
All other lessons will be as always- with his own year group.

i'm just curious...before i phone the school...whether this is practised elsewhere...and any advice any of you have for my AS son? he is really bothered about bullying etc.

additionally DS2 goes up this year- and is AS too--and is imature emotionally and has anger management probs.

have posted here- as on SEN threads don't always get seen elsewhere!!!

thanks guys!

My secondary school did mixed year tutor groups - yr8 - yr11 (yr7s and 6th formers were seperate).

It worked very well (though it was intimidating to go into). There were 4-5 members of each year in it. Was very supportive of the younger pupils as they had older pupils they knew (and in most cases who would keep an eye on them). You had the same tutor (bar them leaving) for the whole time you were there.

We were seperated for assemblies 2x week (1x week would be a lower school assembly and 1x would be an upper school). I remember being terrified going into it, but I would actually recommend it.

It did make the school a friendlier place as the older children didn't seem so intimidating as you knew some of them. My school didn't really have a bullying problem though and I don't know anything about ASD.

This is quite a new thing and is generaly seen as being v positive.

massive amount of work for the form tutor

They don't get taught in these groups though

Thanks for that- i have googled a bit since posting and have thought of a few positives myself.

I just hate the way as always...no letter is sent home...

Is your son in mainsteam or at a special school?

I work at a secondary special school which has vertical tutor groups or family groups as your son describes. It works very well as the groups are small and really does feel like a family. It has the advantage that there are not a whole form of new year 7s. Its lovely seeing the older children looking after the new children. However the school I work at is tiny and everyone knows everyone.

However I am not sure what vertical grouping would be like in a large mainsteam school. What happens about teaching subjects like PHSE? In the special school I work in all the children have lessons with their age group, but they are grouped by ablity.

its a mainstream school with 1300 pupils!

He's not statemented and will be yr10 in sept.

We had pse sep to tutor groups - was another lesson timetabled - we were seperated into houses and they but all e.g. all yr8s in that house (or maybe split into 2 groups - can't remember size) into 1 class for teaching.

I went to a large school (around 1200 at the time).

i've looked into the family groups thing- and it does make sense. i can imagine my ds2 starting there- and knowing no different- settling to it. Its my ds1 i am concerned about as he was very uptight about it all.

Armadillo- one of the ways my son having ASD impacts this is that he hates change and loves routine- so he is already started to panic

The thing with these tutor groups is that rather than staying with the same people every year, they change as the older ones leave and the younger ones join and it can change the 'feel' of the group.

...in that ds1 hates change!!!! !!!