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Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

Original poster

Being asked to provide copies of marked work for private tutors to see

51 replies

hydehere · 06/01/2019 21:09

I wonder if anyone has experienced this or has a view on it.

I have been asked to allow a student (KS4) to take her assessments home so that her tutor (privately employed by her family) can see them and work on them with her. I'm not sure how I feel about it, though I'm not sure why. We don't normally send this stuff home and I have gone through it in the class, so not sure what a tutor can add. Obviously I can see the benefits of a tutor, but am less sure about them going through stuff I've already marked. However, I may well be being ridiculous.

There is also the fact that the work will have to be photocopied, which is a bit of a pita as there is quite a bit of it, and the request has been phrased quite curtly, which makes me less inclined to put myself out. But, again, I may be being a complete arse.

Just wondered what others think...

OP posts:
ourkidmolly · 06/01/2019 21:10

What's the school policy? Just follow that. Ask your line manager.

AlfieTheRailwayCat · 06/01/2019 21:10

We wouldn’t allow this as assessments are used again and therefore it would no longer be secure.

Original poster
hydehere · 06/01/2019 21:13

There's no policy. Ours is not the sort of school where tutors are an issue!

OP posts:
noblegiraffe · 06/01/2019 21:13

I’m a maths teacher, kids always take their tests home (why would we keep them?) and loads of them go through them with tutors, so this wouldn’t even cause me to blink.

Having to photocopy them would be a pain especially as we have restricted photocopying budgets. Scanning and emailing would be cheaper although still extra work.

Could she take the assessment home and bring it back? I really don’t understand why you keep them!

rillette · 06/01/2019 21:15

Got asked this for a child in my class (primary though). We ended up photocopying a few pages of extended writing because the Mum was a total PITA. Wouldn't have let her take the book though. The school would have backed me if I'd said no, but it made for an easier life to let it happen (everyone is 11+ mad round here and the Mums get scary!)

PurpleCrowbar · 06/01/2019 21:17

Nope.

Because a) you aren't your student's secretary b) she can take a photo of her returned work on her phone & email it to the tutor, who can then print it if they like c) a half decent tutor will be providing EXTRA ideas & resources, not just 'going over' what you've done in class. If the tutor is worth having, they will be able to access resources from TES or whatever to support the KS4 course, if not come up with their own.

(& the thing about keeping assessments secure, I suppose, though I think these days that's a forlorn hope).

I teach in an international school - we get a lot of this. Best to be firm from the outset, & make it clear to the parents that if the tutor isn't providing added, independent value, they're taking the piss.

Piggywaspushed · 07/01/2019 16:41

Personally, I think you are maybe being a bit paranoid ( I know tutors can be very critical of teaching and marking, so can see why)

I also have never understood the preciousness of schools keeping all students' work at school. How are they supposed to learn from their errors? Surley, the ideal is for them to look over their work again several times? I know I did when I was at school. But this seems a very old fashioned view these days. Because Ofsted.

I think mocks ought to be stored in school for year 11s, but everything else is fair game to go home. I neither want nor need it!

ohreallyohreallyoh · 07/01/2019 18:53

I tutor (on top of teaching). It does help to see where students are at. Without an actual assessment in hand, you only have their word for it that they are working at a certain grade. Of course, I would argue the tutor could do their own baseline assessments....

MaisyPops · 07/01/2019 22:35

I dont see why the student couldn't arrange a copy of their work to show the tutor.

What bothers me more about tutors is the number of them who ask for examples of work and then decide to tell students why what their main teacher is teaching is wrong or tell them to ignore guidance in class etc. Then I get irritated because you get them saying 'I have an X% pass rate'. No you don't. You've done maybe 15 lessons during y11 and have spent too much time creating issues back in school when child A tells half the group that 'my tutor said we don't have to learn... because it's not going to be on the exam and you don't get marks for it' (for something that is in the course and the tutor is suggesting an easier route that limits high marks).

physicskate · 08/01/2019 08:00

Data protection - isn't this like a subject access request? The work is the student's and therefore theirs?

cdtaylornats · 08/01/2019 14:33

Unless the school has specified the work belongs to them then copyright in the answers belongs to the student, the marking to you.

RomanyRoots · 08/01/2019 14:40

No, the tutor is being paid to come up with their own assessment surely.
At ks4 I'd hope the tutor was a specialist in the subject they were tutoring and would need no assistance from the class teacher.

IAmAllowedAnOpinion · 08/01/2019 14:59

Tutor aside why on earth aren't your students alloeed to take their marked assessmenys home Confused

Piggywaspushed · 08/01/2019 15:05

Oh, come on this isn't Data Protection! This is a student engaged in the perfectly normal activity of taking their work home!

Piggywaspushed · 08/01/2019 15:08

What the tutor can do romany is spend real 1:1 quality time with a child going over their erros, strength, misconceptions, redoing and redrafting stuff, where helpful. As a teacher, I am so grateful that some lucky kids get this level of support at home to supplement the 1:30 support I can only practiclly give them. It's just a shame they don't all have that advantage and privilege.

Maybe I am unusual, but i don't find that threatening, although I do know some tutors are like the ones maisy describes... I also don't want the tutor to teach them something new!

KindleAndCake · 08/01/2019 15:12

Surely the best interest here is the child and their learning?

steppemum · 08/01/2019 15:14

I am an ex teacher (primary) and I tutor.

I think that possibly (being nice here) the tutor wants to see where their weaknesses are so that they can work on them specifically.

But I do think it is odd that they want the assigments to go over. Why aren't they doing their own work with the child?

I think I would repsond - not allowed to take home, not possible to photocopy, student can take photos of one as an example if that helps. I would then add a comment about tutor providing added value, not rehashing teacher's work.

PickleFish · 08/01/2019 16:32

I'm a tutor and I sometimes ask for this - particularly if the child says that they thought they knew the topic, but they struggled with the way the question was worded on the tests. Or if they said that they couldn't do 'the thing with the triangles' (or worse, if it's a word problem, telling me what the word problem was about - 'the one about the batteries' or something). It can be quite hard to get information about exactly which bits were difficult, and looking at their errors on an assessment can be very helpful in figuring out what precisely went wrong. We can do lots of practice questions as well, but sometimes it's just faster and more helpful to the child if they can ask about the specific questions they had trouble with, or if I can spot a pattern to the type of question they are struggling with on the assessment. I'm quite happy if they bring the assessment, or copy the questions from it, or take a photo, or any method of getting it, and obviously if it turns out to be confidential and they can't bring it home, then we'll work on similar questions ourselves that I've designed or found resources for. But it really can be useful, just to see what is going on at school and why they haven't managed to do something that we had gone over beforehand. They may have gone over it in class, but I find that children often just end up writing down the right answer at that point, and are still left unclear about what they did wrong, or how they could have figured out what to do.

MaisyPops · 08/01/2019 17:57

I agree piggy. I have no issues with tutors in general.
I only have an issue if they act in a way to undermine school staff (e.g. by telling students they don't need to know things I've taught, telling them to ignore my exam strategies etc) or they make unreasonable demands (E.g. can I email them my lessons and my planning and material or their student to work through!!?? Aka do their planning).
Any decent tutor knows they are supporting school and anyone vaguely competent in a subject would be able to tutor whilst supporting the student in their teacher's method - just like we all do when we do revision sessions.

puzzledsiena · 13/01/2019 22:22

Maybe a five to ten minute phone call once a term say between tutor and teacher would be enough to keep them on the same page?

2019Dancerz · 13/01/2019 23:36

Yes that’s in our contracts, talking to tutors on the phone.
This stuff is why dh and I spent this evening trying to work out if we’ve enough money to do other jobs (we don’t)

MiniMum97 · 14/01/2019 00:26

Why wouldn't a student be able to take this home? It's their assessment not yours!

Piggywaspushed · 14/01/2019 07:05

Your contracts say you need to tlak to tutors on the phone?? Goodness ,me. They are paid more per hour than we are. If one emails me, I reply. If students ask to take work home, I say fine. I am not going to eb the one doing the running!

What kind of fresh hell is that??

The onyl tiutors I speak to are Medical Needs tutors, which is a different ball game.

jessstan2 · 14/01/2019 07:08

They probably want to get an idea of how the student is doing, what needs to be worked on, etc. I wouldn't read anything more into it than that and no-one has to do it they don't feel comfortable about it. To me it seems quite straightforward though never had anything to do with tutors

MaisyPops · 14/01/2019 07:10

mini
It may depend on the assessment and what else is going on.

E.g. I do redrafting of assessments once they are marked and I've gone through errors, ways to improve. That's in my lesson planning and I don't really want to be in a situation where I have to alter my lesson planning because one student's tutor has already gone through an assessment, given different advice and had them do improvements.

I also keep assessments in school for a period of time for evidence of progress and any internal moderation evenings we have etc. Later in the term I sometimes get their older assessment out and get studebts to compare their latest and last assessment so they can see how they're getting better too.

I don't mind tutors seeing work, but do mind when they expect me to sort extra stuff out for them when they are paid more per hour than me.

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