Year 11 and 13 exams have finished- It’s a really exciting time for most, as I feel really positive about how we’ve rounded off the year. So many have worked incredibly hard and showed up even in those last moments when it really mattered.

So, first and foremost, I’m just incredibly proud of my students, and inevitably it leaves me thinking about how I have supported them and how to build on my practice moving forwards- what the key successes have been, within the context of inclusion, which is where the majority of my work takes place. I think as a tutor I grapple with similar questions that parents do: how much to support versus how much space to give them. For the kinds of students I work with, a lot of this is thinking about emotional support and attending to their needs judiciously- knowing when to challenge, when to nudge, when to hold back. For some, this decision is harder than others, depending on the nature of their needs. Increasingly, I get the sense that the vast majority of teenagers don’t want to be told what to do. They want a supportive adult, or community of adults, who are there to properly listen to them and help them act more autonomously and congruously- whether it’s thinking through next steps, revision timetables, or what to do for a particular exam. Being too directive can have consequences for the interpersonal relationship.

One parent reflected to me that they had decided to try and trust the process a bit more when it comes to navigating the exam schedules, particularly for Year 10 mocks. Year 10 is an interesting time, where we want them to step up to the plate and start putting in those good revision habits and good learning habits, but they’re not yet stuck with the pressure of Year 11. However, it’s natural that schools and students and parents feel the increased tension in the household, as a result of schools implementing that feeling of urgency. That’s where the insecurity starts to settle in- whether it’s the insecurity of the kids wondering if they’re going to pass, or the insecurity of the parents wondering if they’re doing enough. Teachers experience this too: I suppose it’s about playing the long game, making those meaningful investments early on that are ultimately going to pay off.

Year 11 naturally has to look different, and taking the reins might be the equivalent of offering a lifeline to a student who has otherwise been struggling, and letting them know ‘we’ve got this’. But again, it depends very much on where they’re at and what they most need. I’ve had wonderful success with a Year 11 student this year who had been somewhat left in the dark about writing and exam strategy up until Year 11, and had expressed to me that, as a result, she was lacking a lot of confidence. But that doesn’t mean that I suddenly went into overly ‘prescriptive mode’- we still did our best to carve out time and breathing space, reduce demands where possible, and co-construct strategies for her writing that worked around her strengths, even with that shorter amount of time. If a student is open-minded, and if I’m able to establish trust in a short space of time, we can build something really wonderful together. So we pre-prepared some concepts and some stylistic choices (for example, around describing nature and using imagery) that became non-negotiables in the exam. But part of the creative preparation process was her taking ownership of that, not me imposing a structure as if there’s only one way to do it. And I know, as teachers, that can be incredibly tempting when we just want to give students the answers. But I do feel that even in the case of Year 11, kids need to feel that they have ownership of the work in order for skills to be truly embedded.

So as parents, teachers, tutors- it all comes down to how much support and space we give them. And the concept of scaffolding is central to teaching and learning fundamentals, suggesting that we initially demonstrate and give lots of support, and gradually relinquish that support towards more autonomous learning throughout the process. In an ideal world, we can think really carefully about what this process looks like over the course of a few years, and make really smart, research-informed decisions about how learning and skills are incrementally built.

Read part 2 for more details on how I am exploring this, summarising my experience of ResearchEd Birmingham.