Form tutor time in secondary schools can vary from 5 minutes to 20, twice a day. Apart from the register, many schools expect a meaningful activity during these sessions. When you already plan up to 20 and 30 lessons per week, this can seem an extra burden.
Bring a radio in and set it to a different radio station each day. Get your tutor group to listen for five minutes and use the remaining time for a discussion. Almost any radio station will provide topics: Radio 5 - the news; Radio 3 - “What was the mood of that piece of music? How did it make you feel? What was the composer feeling when he wrote it?”; Radio 1 - Discuss the lyrics, get pupils to keep you up to date on what is No. 1, why they like that group or performer. If you are not comfortable with spontaneous listening, pre-record a radio piece.
Ask your tutor group to cut out and bring in a newspaper or magazine article that interests them. The bonus is that because your pupils are doing the preparation, you will find out what makes them tick.
Finally, turn your TES into a short lesson planner. I cut out the Friday magazine “The Big Picture”. It laminates on to A3 after trimming. Then it makes a wonderful stimulus for discussion. The Third World, Old Age, Love and Economics have all been covered in the last 12 months. By laminating it you can pass the picture around, without it being ripped, and you have preserved the resource for next year Paul Johnston
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