The School is committed to fostering student success through its Personal Academic Tutoring (PAT) system. Every student is assigned a dedicated tutor for academic and pastoral support. PATs provide guidance, assist with personal challenges, and connect students with additional resources. Coordinated by the Student Wellbeing Team, the PAT system enhances student inclusion, engagement, and confidence.
This Policy has been developed in line with the applicable laws, regulations, regulatory advice, and sector best practices, including the following:
The PAT system assigns each student a dedicated tutor to offer pastoral support, guidance, and a sense of belonging. PAT aims to enhance student engagement, self-confidence, and self-efficacy.
This approach ensures students have a reliable source of support, which promotes sustained engagement and personal growth, fostering a positive and inclusive educational experience.
PATs are responsible for:
These responsibilities ensure PATs support students holistically, addressing academic, personal, and professional needs, while coordinating with other teams to maximise student success.
PATs offer students:
This support helps students navigate the School’s resources, understand expectations, and maximise their personal and professional growth, contributing to their overall success and employability.
PATs assist students with:
This support helps students to navigate their development, understand feedback, and align their personal attributes with career opportunities, ensuring continuous improvement and effective career planning.
PATs collaborate with the Student Wellbeing Team to support students with issues such as mental health, homesickness, loneliness, accommodation problems, and stress. They should encourage students to contact the Student Wellbeing Team for informal support when necessary.
This ensures that students receive appropriate support for their personal challenges, promoting their overall wellbeing and enhancing their academic experience.
Each full-time student must attend at least 3 formal PAT sessions annually, including both group and individual meetings. For part-time or other students, the number of sessions will be adjusted on a pro-rata basis.
This ensures that all students receive adequate pastoral support tailored to their needs, fostering their academic and personal development throughout their time at the School.
Each student must have at least one PAT meeting within the first 3 weeks of enrolment. The PAT should arrange a mix of group and one-to-one sessions, ensuring that at least one of the three meetings is held individually. Sessions can be conducted in person at the School or via video link.
This approach ensures timely and personalised support for new students, helping them integrate into the School and start their academic journey effectively while accommodating different communication preferences.
Students must receive a minimum of 2 weeks' notice before any PAT meetings.
Providing at least 2 weeks' notice allows students ample time to prepare for and attend meetings, ensuring effective participation and support.
Students may request extra meetings beyond the formal PAT sessions for other reasons.
Allowing students to request additional meetings provides flexibility and ensures they receive the support they need for any issues or concerns that arise outside the scheduled sessions.
Students must actively participate in PAT sessions and keep their own notes on agreed actions.
Active engagement and personal record-keeping help students maximise the benefits of PAT sessions and track their progress effectively, supporting their overall development.
PAT tutors must offer support in a sensitive, objective, and non-judgmental manner, addressing diverse needs and contexts. They should refer students to the Student Wellbeing Team for specialised pastoral support or additional career planning assistance if required.
Providing support in a sensitive and unbiased manner ensures that all students feel respected and understood. Referring to specialised services when needed ensures students receive comprehensive support tailored to their individual needs.
PAT tutors must maintain brief, factual records of sessions and upload them to the AGS. These records will remain confidential and are subject to the School's data protection and retention policies.
Concise and accurate record-keeping ensures clarity and consistency, while confidentiality and adherence to data protection policies safeguard student privacy and comply with legal requirements.
PAT tutors must record student attendance during sessions, following the same procedures as for academic module attendance. This helps identify students who may need extra support or intervention.
Tracking attendance allows for early identification of students who might require additional support, ensuring timely intervention and promoting student success.
Each student will be assigned a PAT upon enrolment. The PAT details will be recorded in the student's portal on the AGS.
Assigning a PAT and recording the details ensures students have immediate access to their designated support, facilitating a smoother start to their academic journey and effective management of their support needs.
Students must be able to access their PAT’s contact details when logging into AGS. This information should also be clearly outlined in the student handbook.
Providing easy access to PAT contact details ensures students can promptly reach their assigned tutor for support. Clear information in the student handbook reinforces this access, aiding in effective communication and support.
The Student Wellbeing team will provide students with information on:
Providing clear guidelines ensures students understand how to initiate and maintain contact with their PAT, and know the steps to take if they miss a meeting. This promotes effective engagement and accountability.
Students may request a change of PAT by contacting the Student Wellbeing Team, who will review the circumstances.
This rule allows students to address any issues with their PAT, ensuring they receive the support they need to succeed.
Tutors may contact the Student Wellbeing Team to decline or withdraw from acting as a PAT for a student under exceptional circumstances.
This rule allows tutors to step down from their PAT role if necessary, ensuring that students receive the support from a suitable tutor.
Tutors must have their PAT responsibilities integrated into their academic workload, which includes:
Including PAT duties in the academic workload ensures that tutors have the necessary time and resources to fulfil their responsibilities effectively, supporting both their development and the students' needs.
Each PAT should be assigned no more than 50 tutees.
Limiting the number of tutees per PAT ensures manageable workloads, allowing PATs to provide effective support and maintain meaningful interactions with each student.
The Student Wellbeing Team will provide a PAT Handbook to ensure that PATs:
The PAT Handbook ensures PATs are well-informed about their responsibilities and the process, supporting effective performance and consistency in their role.
The Student Wellbeing Team will ensure that all tutoring staff stay current with their duties, including data protection, information security, mental health, safeguarding, and equality and diversity. This will be achieved through monitoring, evaluation, and training, all overseen by the Director of Operations.
Regular updates and training ensure that tutoring staff are well-informed about their responsibilities and compliant with relevant regulations, maintaining high standards of practice and safeguarding for students.
The Student Wellbeing Team must provide tutoring staff with access to relevant Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities and online resources to support their role.
This ensures that staff stay updated with best practices and have the necessary tools to effectively support students.
The Student Wellbeing Team must provide all Personal Academic Tutors (PATs) with appropriate support, including access to a designated Team member for advice.
This ensures PATs receive the guidance needed to perform their roles effectively and address any issues that arise.
The Student Wellbeing Team will ensure that tutoring staff are treated fairly and equitably in PAT operations, including workload allocation.
This guarantees that all staff members are given equal consideration and opportunities, promoting a balanced and supportive working environment.
The Student Wellbeing Team will ensure that all PATs are informed about when to refer issues for specialist support and how to handle serious concerns and crisis situations.
This ensures PATs are equipped to manage and escalate matters effectively, maintaining appropriate support for students in various situations.
The Director of Operations will oversee the implementation of this policy to ensure it is effectively executed.
This ensures that the policy is consistently applied and monitored, maintaining its effectiveness and alignment with institutional goals.
The Student Wellbeing Team will facilitate and encourage both students and tutors to provide feedback on their experience with the tutoring system using an appropriate mechanism.
This process helps improve the tutoring system by incorporating insights and suggestions from those directly involved, ensuring it meets the needs and expectations of both students and tutors.
The Student Wellbeing Team will assess the impact and effectiveness of the PAT system using retention and progression metrics.
Evaluating these metrics ensures that the PAT system supports student success effectively and helps identify areas for improvement.
The following metrics will be measured and regularly reviewed as performance indicators for the School to ensure the effectiveness of this policy and associated operations.