Support Systems
All Sixth Form students are assigned to tutor groups and their tutor has the role of Learning Manager. Unlike most lower school arrangements, at both schools there are vertical tutor groups in the Sixth Form, which means that students from Years 12, 13 and 14 will be together in the same group. At The John of Gaunt School these tutor groups are also in Houses, meaning that students will be in Newton, Franklin, Hawking or Greenfield House. Our Houses are named after famous scientists to reflect our Specialist School Status.
Each student will be seen at least three times per academic year for 1:1 mentoring with their Learning Manager. During these sessions students can discuss their Sixth Form progress and are able to raise concerns as part of an ongoing process of target setting during a Sixth Form career.
In addition to their tutor, students can expect support from their Year Head and Assistant Head of Year as well as senior staff. We have close links with the Connexions service and have an adviser based on site for part of the week. Students can make appointments for consultations directly with the adviser.
The Clarendon College has seven Parents’ Evening a year and students make appointments for their parents or carers by seeing individual subject teachers and recording their appointment details in their planners ahead of each Parents’ Evening. In addition to this, Clarendon conducts five Interim Assessments of student progress during Years 12 and 13. These assessments are posted home to parents or carers in advance of a Parents’ Evening in order that they can be used as a sensible starting point for discussions about academic progress.
At The John of Gaunt School we have a mixture of tutor and subject teacher evenings throughout the year. We hold two Interim Assessments of student progress during Years 12 and 13 and produce a formal academic report in April. Like The Clarendon College, should a student begin to experience difficulties in meeting the requirements of Sixth Form study, tutors will make early home contact and invite parents or carers to John of Gaunt or Clarendon for a discussion with the student. Our intention at these meetings is to negotiate a sensible way forward from the difficulties so that study suffers as few interruptions as possible.
