Sixth form supervision- normal?

[Baker111]

Hi all,

I attended a secondary school open morning yesterday with my Y6 daughter. I’m just wondering if what I saw is normal in schools now?

We were taken into the sixth form area to be shown the facilities. There was a large group of sixth formers there (40 ish) all doing ‘independent study’. What I thought was strange though was that they had a teacher supervising them- not to answer questions- simply telling them to be quiet. So not independent at all. This has made me feel quite uncomfortable, my recollection of doing A-levels is about learning how to study by yourself- which might sometimes mean mucking about in a free period and then regretting it when you have two essays to write that evening- but taught me a valuable lesson!

My question is. Is such supervision normal now in schools? If it is I guess I have to get over it, but I can’t help thinking this is a general reflection of the schools ethos to behaviour and that they will be extremely strict.

Yes, we do this. It enables everyone to have quiet study time. Otherwise there will be loud and silly behaviour and no-one can get work done.

40 is a lot of people.

My Dd found the sixth form unbearably noisy

So the messing about people were harming her more than themselves.

I would have been glad if the teachers had enforced minimum standards of behaviours in the private study areas

i’m sure nobody would be forcing them to be in there for their free period – and there is plenty of mooching around the time in the purely social areas

Definitely normal, my school 20 years ago did this. We had a combination of supervised sessions which we had to register for and then ‘free’ lessons which were more as you remember

Ours get registered for one silent study period per week. The rest of their frees they can use how they like, but if we didn't have this, then some of them would waste it all. We have to provide a supervised quiet space in fairness for some students. Some of them learn self regulation that way as well.

Yes, our school has this too.

A quiet study area that is supervised by a member of staff and then a comnon room wheee students can socialise with their peers

The system works well

when I did my A-levels there was a library which had both a silent area, and a collaboration area where talking quietly was allowed. However we also had a few small study areas throughout the building where you could speak freely and those got pretty noisy.

At my DS school, they were banned from playing cards! They didn't have a social area because the whole sixth form block was unstable and had to come down so there was limited space but I thought that was very harsh. I think they were only allowed at lunchtime, otherwise they had to work.

In my sixth form we had half of our free periods as study sessions like you describe. The other half you could do what you wanted.

Thank you all.

I can see the value of this- both supervised and unsupervised areas or times. At my school we went to the library (which was supervised) if we need more quiet. But I didn’t get the impression that this was the case in this school- they suggested everyone was supervised for every free period. It wasn’t as if the teacher was sitting at a desk doing their work, and occasionally telling them to be quiet either. She was actively roaming around- almost exam invigilator style.

I'm mean, if you take it further, the Uni library was vast, but still had staff about - mainly returning books, or finding obscure stuff - but they would boot out people who were bring a PITA. So even then, there was a level of supervision.

Yes, that's fairly standard. It ensures that non lesson time is used constructively, and that quiet study time is available to all, without disruption.

totally normal

think of her role akin to a librarian

obviously based on her experience with this year group that you weren’t privy to

I retired over a decade ago and was timetabled for sixth form (Y12) private study supervision/support for many years before that.
Not all young people enter sixth form with well-developed independent study skills. Some can be disruptive and distracting to others. This practice helps everyone.

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?

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

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.

I think it's standard.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.