Vertical Tutor Groups @ Secondary school

[MUM23ASD]

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 only 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...he is really bothered about bullying etc.

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

my school did this and it was good. In general the older kids looked out for the younger ones, helped to cheat with homework and it allowed children to make friends throughout the school rather than just their year group.

A school that i work at now - changed from the vertical system when they moved into a new building (school wasn't built to cope with vertical) and behaviour went downhill.

Are they incoporating a house system as well?

not sure about the house system... the cheating with homework sounds good to me ()

They did this at my DH's school 30 years ago and he always says how good a system it is. They may still do it, my sister works there now, so i will ask.

Our school has a vertical form system: and it has its pros and cons.

Sometimes form groups can become little ghettoes/gangs, and this doesn't tend to happen with vertical form groups. Also the older members of the form can help the new ones settle in. When it comes to reports the form teacher just has half a dozen form reports to do each time, rather than 30.

Some negatives: it can be hard to disseminate information across the school as all notices need to be given out by all form teachers, rather than just the yr7 teachers. Some older students (e.g yr9) are not always a positive influence on the younger ones.