User:Peterbarnard

=Vertical Tutoring=

Briefing
Vertical Tutoring in its modern form is a contribution to organisational philosophy and is, in many respects, a reaction to the massive prescription and centralisation practised by UK government and exercised through the DCFS and the damage this has caused. The roots of VT lie in the House systems of independent schools and the university idea of academic tutorials. Arguably, the first school to begin VT in its modern form was The Winston Churchill School in Woking, Surrey. This school was right at the forefront of data use and had built links with a local software company. The intention was to use data creatively not only within departments as a tracking tool but with parents and students as an assessment for learning model. In order to achieve organisational coherence as opposed to the bolt on systems forced on schools by the DCFS thus making UK schools into the most complex and (nearly) unmanageable organisations they currently are. The key players in developing VT and the use of software (STAATS as it was then)were Nikki Knight (now a Headteacher), Roger Freeman (retired) and Peter Barnard (former Headteacher and now authorv and training consultant). Sadly, when these people left the school, VT was abandoned and the school lost its 'outstanding' Ofsted status. Peter Barnard joined Sharnbrook Upper School, Bedfordshire, as Principal which is now a mature VT school and which has recently achieved its fourth outstanding Ofsted.

Backgound reading includes Barnard P.,'Chaos, Culture and Third Millennium Schools' 2000, published by Acopolypse Press, Guildford: ISBN 0 9525906-1-1. A second book on systems and VT is about to be published on-line (watch this space). More information at

Many schools go 'vertical' but most fail to understand VT and see VT as merely change to the pastoral system and fail to realise the change of culture that VT can bring. It is not a change to the pastoral system as such and must contain key components built on the central and full role of the tutor within the school as an organisation.