Sixth form supervision- normal?

happy? close? loving?

Solid and stable, i'd say. They're both dead now and i had the typical 70s childhood of lots of freedom but my mum stayed at home with us and put all the early years playing, reading, spending time together in.

As we grew up, we learned to be independent and we were certainly encouraged in education but to be fully fledged adults by 18.

And - if we failed, we failed and faced the consequences. In fact, i did muck about at school and failed. Had to re sit most. My mum did find the 6th form college for me after school kicked me out so i did have a pick up there but, different times. No helicopter parents back then.

I'm a settled adult, capable with no MH issues so I guess they did a decent job. I really do not recall parents running round after their kids at all back then. But this thread isn't about me.

Thanks for asking, though!

I applied for Uni myself, took the train to view it myself. Got all my belongings there myself (parents did take me to station lol) and that was pretty typical at the time.

what was / is your relationship like with your parents?

Our sixth form has just brought this in. DS recently left school, but said that people pissed around in free periods, so this is the answer to try and make them do something productive. IMO If you can't be arsed at 16-18yo, then that's really your issue. Thing is it reflects badly on the school if they get poor grades as a result.

I have a few years on you at 57 and i don't recall any supervision but i went to a self contained 6th form college (not just a 6th form joined to a high school building) and we just were expected to work away ourselves in the library in free periods or we were at liberty to leave the building, be in the common room. There was no supervision. Free to come and go.

I applied for Uni myself, took the train to view it myself. Got all my belongings there myself (parents did take me to station lol) and that was pretty typical at the time. I was fortunate to go to uni in the age of grants (not loans) my dad needed to supply his income deets but i dealt with it all myself.

I can't recall any of my peers having much parental/teacher mentoring from teens on. If we went out of a night, even though our parents could drive, we just clubbed together for a taxi home. Parents weren't cool in those days. But, i have digressed!

My DD1 born 93 organised all her own study. Dd2 born 2007 - same school but lots of study clubs and supervision now that definitely was not there 15 years back. AND they need to stay on school premises now in free periods. That has changed.

what are you on about?

im 43
study sessions for year 12 first term were supervised

Yeah. Kids aren't the same as when i was that age back in the 80s. Education has changed and it's more important not to be kicked out of it these days. Plus of course this current generation have a background of being in private childcare when very young, and connected by tech as older kids and teens.

They don't mature at quickly. I even see a huge difference between how education was when my eldest was born in 1993 and my youngest in 2007.

Different world.

Yes. It happened at DD’s sixth form - they had 3 hours of supervised study per week, alongside free periods. For the vast majority of 16/17/18 year olds if they weren’t being supervised then not much ‘independent’ studying would be done whatsoever, if any!

We had this it's okay just do the the work. I got 3A* and if you just work effectively during school time so 9 to 3 for example you end up being free outside of school and it's super manageable. Of course if applying for uni then there will be stuff like interview prep and admission exams perhaps but I wouldn't worry about this monitored independent study it's a good place to do homework and revision

I will add that I also used to go out with mates etc in free periods if I felt I'd done all the work I needed to or I would go out but accept then I would need to catch up a little at home for example. But learning to work by yourself is still important

If they’re behaving well and getting on unaided, you do your preparation or marking. For your teacher’s wage. If they’re having difficulty, you help and support them. For your teacher’s wage.

Perfectly normal. Independent study (IS) is a timetabled session in my children's sixth form. Different from actually doing work by yourself in a 'free period'.

Things are different these days. Now that pupils are required to stay in education or training until 18, sixth forms have a lot more reluctant students than perhaps they did in the past.

sensitive soul! 😆

Shhh you mean? I had to do an MSc in shhhh. I’m glad that’s all I have to do. That and drink tea. I’d love to be paid a teachers wage to do this. Where do I sign on for the sixth form supervisor gig?

I was in VI form mid 1980s. W could go to the common room for unsupervised study or to a room with desks and a teacher for supervised study.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of them aren’t good at independent study! At our school they have four supervised silent study periods a fortnight. And lots of ‘frees’ where they are not supervised.

We have two areas: one quiet one (not supervised, but the pupils generally police it themselves) and one social area. The tours wouldn’t go through the social area as younger pupils wouldn’t have been in there.

We had this in my 6th Form in the 90s. It was just to ensure that noise was kept at the sort of level that meant those who wanted to study, could. As this was the 90s, none of us had personal devices of any sort but there were no restrictions on what you could do so, if you wanted to read or draw or something rather than do your homework, you could.
You could also go to the library, to the music rooms, to the gym or tennis courts, to the cafe and, in the afternoon, into town so there were various other options

Would you be interested know that this also has something to do with funding?

In order for the school to get their funding (around £4k per sixth former), they have to submit the total "planned learning hours" for the year, which have to be above a certain threshold (540h IIRC) in order to actually receive the funding.

If private study is supervised by a teacher then it is allowed to be included in the learning hours total, whereas unsupervised study isn't allowed to be included!

Hence lots of supervised study, so schools can guarantee their sixth form funding!

My DS has just started sixth form and has this. I think he has 5 supervised study periods. Tbh I like the idea. He has free periods too but at 6th form they need to do quite a lot of independent study, and it's a new thing for a lot of them in year 12. Many would just sit there not knowing what to do if it wasn't supervised. I think in year 13 they get some privileges.

Sounds like the communal area of a library. If there were no rules there it would be like another break time area where nobody could work as it only takes one loud person to spoil a study area.

I think it's standard.

When I was in sixth form, things were different in the first half term. We had to attend supervised study periods and stay on site until the end of the school day even if we had a free afternoon. After Oct half term things relaxed a bit. What you are describing does sound fairly strict compared to some.

they’ve only been in sixth form doe a couple of weeks
some of them will have only just turned 16

I think at A-level students need a mixture of structure/supervision. But the specific mixture depends on the student and where in their 6th form journey they are, and it takes into account work time outside of school hours as well. Schools also need to be considering whether they're creating an environment conducive to study or one that actively impedes studying, so they can't just leave each student to do whatever and make whatever noise they choose.

So instead of just assuming that this is how all studying is done for 6th form at the school and that students aren't keeping themselves on task or learning natural condequences of mucking about, I'd ask more questions:

1. Are students required to be in supervised study for all periods when they don't have a lesson throughout the school day? Can they earn privilages to spend free periods elsewhere? Does this change after the first few terms, or in Y13? It's September so I'd expect the closest supervision now.
2. When in supervised study, are they required to do school work or are they just not allowed to disturb other students? If they have access to phones/tablets/computers and aren't forced to be on task then they can still do plenty of time-wasting if they choose.
3. How many independent study periods will they have per day and how much work will students expect to do outside of those periods?