Personal Tutoring - Guidance Notes
(see also the Staff Handbook for further information, including copies of the Partnership Agreement and Codes of Practice on Personal Tutorials, Attendance and Assessment).
Personal Tutorial Meetings
Tutors must meet their personal tutees on a one-to-one basis at least once per semester, twice in semester one of the first year. Staff are responsible for arranging these meetings, and students must attend.
It is vital that tutors establish some kind of ground rules at the initial meeting, outlining what they can help with, and what they can’t. This is the ideal time to reinforce the tutor’s role in acting as a bridge or broker between the student and the student support network. Links to the relevant webpages of the student support network are given on the School Learning and Teaching webpages.
Tutors should feel free to develop their own approach to these meetings, but
below is a list of suggested questions that could be used as a framework.
- Ask what your tutee has been doing since you last met (e.g. over summer or other holidays).
- Review your tutee’s marks from the previous semester (you can get this information from the School L&T webpages). Talk about what degree result they should be aiming for, and how to get there.
- Ask about the current semester. Get some feedback on what is good/bad, and whether they have got any marks back (and what these might mean for their degree).
- Ask your tutee to look forward to what is coming next, whether it is the rest of the semester, exams, fieldtrip or project. This gives them a chance to ask questions about the course that might be praying on their mind.
- Ask them about the accommodation. Landlord or housemate problems are not very common, but they do occur.
- Ask them how their money situation is, and whether they have a part time job (useful to know since this can impact on attendance and achievement).
- For second semester meetings or final years tutees, ask about the future. Do they have plans for the summer or after their degree (helps focus them on sorting these things out).
- Finish with a really open question like "How’s life in general?" or "Are there any other issues affecting your work that you would like to raise?" This is usually where any problems will arise, particularly since the previous questions are quite straightforward and should hopefully have made the student feel relaxed and comfortable.
Tutors are responsible for keeping a record of tutorial meetings that have taken place, and for noting when a student declines to attend. A proforma is available on the School Learning and Teaching webpages for those who wish to use one. Notes on meetings should be filed in tutors' filing cabinets, but any key special circumstances that will affect performance/attendance should also be passed to the undergraduate office.
Personal Tutors who need any help or advice should feel free to contact either Julie Philpott or our Pastoral Support Advisor, Janet Humphreys