5 ways Yipiyap tutors deliver effective intervention
Author: Anne Morris
Former Maths teacher Anne founded Yipiyap in 2012 and has been its CEO for over a decade since.
Being the largest dedicated employer of academic tutors in the UK and partnering with schools and colleges all over the country, Yipiyap delivers a LOT of tutoring. Let’s start with a little context.
What settings do Yipiyap support?
Yipiyap employs over 100 tutors who work in a wide variety of settings from primary schools right the way through to Sixth Form colleges. Yipiyap tutors support learners in mainstream education as well as those with bespoke educational requirements.
Those bespoke needs might include learners with SEND and mild to moderate learning disabilities, those with social anxiety who may require an alternative provision, looked-after children and even those gifted and talented learners who have their sights set on the very top grades at A-Level and beyond.
We really do support in every kind of setting.
How do Yipiyap make sure tuition is top quality?
Because we support in so many settings, our Regional Directors carry out dozens of school and college visits every year, advising individual tutors how to tailor their tuition to their particular placement setting and achieve the very best outcomes for their learners. We also encourage schools to carry out their own ‘school-led’ observations and share their learnings with us between our scheduled visits.
What makes a great tutoring session?
All of these observations are carefully documented and, as well as giving incredibly useful feedback to the tutors being observed, the learnings offer a wealth of good practice that would be a useful resource for any tutor. So, read on to find out the tips and tricks that we’ve picked up as a direct result of Yipiyap tutor observations in 2022-23! In this post, we’re going to focus on five key themes that came up again and again:
1. Build great relationships with students
This is the number one! Relationship building is mentioned in virtually all of our feedback and is clearly the thing that stands out above all else.
Strong working relationships with students are what underpins the specific elements of successful teaching, and the quality of relationship shows itself very openly in a learner’s behaviour – the way they trust their tutor, having an interest in and enjoying their sessions, communicating well, good behaviour, punctuality, proactivity, and a whole host of other indicators that the young person is in the right environment and frame of mind for learning.
In order to build good relationships, Yipiyap tutors often have a slight head start on other tutors because, as recent school-leavers, they quickly become relatable peer-mentors to those they’re tutoring - able to communicate with them on a different level than other teachers and tutors. However, even if you’re not a recent school-leaver, there are lots of ways you can quickly build relationships with learners, for example:
Showing genuine interest in your students as people with lives and interests away from the subject you’re tutoring. What do they like to do in their free time? What’s their favourite school subject? How are they feeling about an upcoming event, project, school play, or big game?
Finding out what you have in common. Do you support the same football team, have a shared love of Stranger Things or easily spend time discussing the possible openings of a game of chess? Whatever it is, your genuine connection will provide a good starting point for tutoring - and you may well be able to tailor your resources to these subject areas in your sessions.
Going above and beyond. No-one gets terribly excited working solidly through a workbook from cover to cover. So, how can you bring your sessions to life and give your own unique twist to learning that shows that the learner’s experience of your sessions is important to you? If you show you care, they’re much more likely to respond well to your efforts.
However you go about it, listening is key. Look for clues in throwaway comments or the way learners present themselves - for example, my teen’s AC/DC T-shirt collection is a big clue to her musical preferences! - and be genuine in your questions and responses to whatever they choose to share with you.
Observations: How do Yipiyap tutors build great relationships?
"Builds good relationships right from the get go, asking students how they are, what they’ve done today, if they had a nice weekend etc." (EB)
"Having conversations on the way to where the session is being held - nice display of relationship building." (AM)
"Encourage students to engage in subject outside of school e.g. ask what books they’re reading." (NM)
2. Giving clear instructions as a tutor
Being clear about what your objectives are for the session and giving clear instructions at each stage really sets the tone for your learners.
There’s nothing worse from a student’s point of view than being unsure about what you’re asking them to do – especially in the early days, they may feel silly or embarrassed asking you for more information. That in turn will get in the way of building trust between you and developing those all-important relationships.
Students may already feel very nervous about getting things wrong in your subject area - for example, they may have already struggled with spelling for years - so make it easy for them to get working and achieving right from the start.
Observations: How do Yipiyap tutors give learners clear instructions?
"Set clear objectives/outcomes for each session. Students need to know what knowledge they are working to acquire and why that is important. Plenary to judge if met." (IB)
3. Pacing lessons well
When a lesson is well organised, it allows the participants to relax and focus on soaking up the content, rather than worry about the logistics of how the session is being run. Starting on time, having good lesson structure and moving at the right pace for your learners is fundamental in order to lead the session with purpose.
Again, listening is important here so keep checking in with your learners to make sure the pace is right for them.
Always plan to finish 2-3 minutes before the end of your allotted time so the ending isn’t rushed. You can always use those extra minutes to recap or do a final example if you do have time.
Observations: How do Yipiyaps create a good pace for tutoring?
"Maybe use first 15-20 mins of lesson to do targeted work, then use 30 mins for specific subject learning, then 10 minutes to do a game potentially." (EB)
4. Getting learners settled
Young people have lots going on in their day-to-day as well as (hopefully) looking forward to your tutoring session.
Relationships with family and friends, social media, outside interests, and even what they had for lunch or the weather can really affect their mood when they arrive at your lesson. You may be faced with any emotion, from deliriously happy and excited to upset, angry or frustrated - before you’ve even said a word!
It’s worth bearing in mind that these emotions may present largely through non-verbal communications as well as verbally through conversation.
This is where having built strong relationships over the weeks will really help you spot changes in your learners’ moods and know how best to help them settle before you begin. Having consistency in the structure of your sessions will mean learners know what to expect and will be quicker to settle into the task they’re working on.
Observations: How do Yipiyap tutors encourage good student behaviour and wellbeing?
"Behaviour warnings are good, polite and positive, aims to get the group settled and focused." (BH)
"Asked student how day was - she said it was a very bad day, told M a couple of minor non-safeguarding issues, M said “Aw, that doesn't sound like a good day, sorry to hear that, shall we try and make it good now?" - student agreed and the session began."" (MF)
5. Circling the classroom
Finally, the core elements of good practice in one-to-one or small group sessions are set out above, but sometimes tuition takes place within a teacher-led class. In this case there is one tool in the toolkit that really shines – circling the room.
Circling the room has a host of benefits, it means you can observe students’ work easily, offer help that they might be too shy to ask for, and quietly praise and reassure when you see they’re on the right track - plus, silently maintain good behaviour with only a look or simply by standing in a certain area of the room.
The key thing to remember is that the tutor is there supporting the class teacher, so they should make sure to understand what they want and keep circling back to students who have been identified as being below target or needing additional support.
Observations: How do Yipiyap tutors support in the classroom?
"Actively checking students’ work. Frequently look over students’ shoulders and initiates conversations to check their work." (HA)
"Student needed to leave the lesson, A took over the student's note-taking for them so they wouldn't miss out." (AA)