Form Time
In PP2 I have been attached to a vertical tutor group of about 25 lovely pupils. I've made good relationships with most of them over the past two months, and I enjoy form time because I chat to them and we have a bit of a laugh.
But the original form tutor doesn't usually do anything with them: no circle time or games or debates or discussion of the news. I don't think there's anything wrong with this, as these things are optional at this school and there is no real guidance on what things to do in form time (apart from Wednesdays when it's silent reading, and Fridays when there's a quiz).
The problem with this is, I have had no experience of running a form time "lesson", and I know that next year (i.e. two and a half weeks from now) I will be expected to do this.
People have been blogging about good and bad maths lessons they've had, but no one has really mentioned form time. Similarly, when I talk to maths PGCEs in real life, we never seem to talk about form time, only lessons.
I'm not really sure what the point of this post is. If anyone's reading this, please could you leave a comment sharing your experiences with your form group? I'd find that really helpful.
Emma x x x
14 Jun 2011 18:34
| 
Comments (4)
| 
Report a problem
Loading…
As you probably know, my tutor group do something every day. We do Admin. (checking planners, uniform check and now an equipment check) on Monday. Circle Time on Tuesday, Reading Wednesday, a game on Thursday like Banana or giving them a topic and they have to go through the alphabet thinking of something on that topic beginning with each letter. We try to get everybody involved and the children are used to it now so they accept and enjoy it. Friday is the quiz (which we won the week before last!!)
I think tutor time is what you make of it and it is a big chunk of the week to just let it pass. We do let them have a chat in the afternoons,however.
I hope this helps.
14 Jun 2011, 19:24
You’ll get a bit more guidance on what to do for form time at your new job!
There’s a 20-minute session every day after lunch. 1 day per week is house assembly, 1 day on “house business”, the others are ususally spent on some sort of themed work – healthy living, memories of the school, first moon landing, STEM, poetry competitions, etc. There’s occasionally a free session where you’ll have to come up with something to do, though. All forms all have a co-tutor, to aid with passport checking and so on.
The offical NQT guidelines state that we should not have a form group unless we are given sufficient training on what to do with them, or something like that. If you aren’t told, kick up a fuss!
15 Jun 2011, 19:30
Thanks for that Jack, I didn’t know that bit about NQTs and form groups. Now that I think about it, I think they said at the interview that I might be a co-tutor in my first year. Sounds like my new school has a good form time structure, so that should be quite straigtforward.
16 Jun 2011, 17:10
Laura Mews
I played deal or no deal with the powerpoint from RWP, and envelopes instead of matchstick boxes.
I played some of the video from a documentary the other week, where children live in slums on rubbish tips (the theme was recycling and they wanted to know why they should)
I plan next week to get them to stand in a circle and throw a ball of string to someone whilst asking them a question.
I found a booklet of STEM ideas, and many of them can be done in the classroom. little tricks really, but they liked those.
Also wordsearches and sudoku on easter went down well, especially when they realised there was a creme egg in it for them!?
I looked at positives and negatives every friday, and disucss with some of them why.
I used the sixth formers (also vertical tutor group) to help me develop debate, but this only happened once.
We were supposed to do something on the schools’ core values about a month ago, but I havent thought of anything interesting enough yet!
We did some maths questions, and they were in teams. this lasted about 10 minutes! sometimes the school sends round a termly maths puzzle and each tutor group is epcted to contirbute an entry.
There was a literacy competition also, where I managed to convince one student in my form to enter. It was to write a letter to your idol.
Sometimes I try and get them to tell me what they did at the weekend, but this isnt always altogether, but me going round chatting to individual groups.
25 Jun 2011, 14:49
Add a comment
You are not allowed to comment on this entry as it has restricted commenting permissions.