Education is changing rapidly and becoming more personalised so we have to look for new ways to support and guide our students. Many of the best/most improved schools in the country operate a system of Vertical Mentoring whereby tutor groups are a mixture of all ages and some of our staff and students have visited a selection of these to learn from their experiences.

• More accurately reflects the nature of society, as people rarely exclusively work with others their own age.
• Supports academic intervention - we have 40 tutors working with a small number of students from a targeted year group as well as the year specific Learning Managers.
• Older students have taken on responsibility for induction of younger students and positive relationships between younger and older students have flourished.
• Tutor teams will have a wide experience of the needs of a child in each year group – hence a more holistic approach is achieved.
• Students can observe the school journey through other students before it is their turn.
• Students can support each other through critical events like Options and GCSEs. Students learn most effectively from their peers.
• Assemblies have more of a community ethos8It has helped prevent pupils from getting “lost” in a big school with only 4 from each year group, the tutor gives attention and support intensively at key times
• There is now more individual guidance for curriculum choice and achievement during the 20 minutes registration so we can target support to the pupils when they need it most.