IHETC School
Starting secondary — ten teachers, ten contracts
One adult knew the child entirely; ten adults each know them one hour a week. The pupil becomes responsible for their own tracking: what they write down, what they bring home, what they flag when they do not understand. That is an organisational skill, and it can be taught.
What changes at this transition
One adult knew the child entirely; ten adults each know them one hour a week. The pupil becomes responsible for their own tracking: what they write down, what they bring home, what they flag when they do not understand. That is an organisational skill, and it can be taught.
- The planner carries the work due, subject by subject
- Notes taken in class can be reread and understood that evening
- A difficulty is raised with the teacher concerned
- Fractions and proportion hold without hesitation
- The bag is packed the night before, without reminders
They say all is fine and bring little work home
The first months of secondary absorb attention into logistics: finding the room, keeping the planner, holding ten exercise books. Personal study then slips into the background without anyone deciding it. Tracking makes that visible immediately — subjects opened, real time, concepts revisited — and the adjustment takes weeks rather than terms. It is the point in the year where one hour invested is worth three later.
What the tutor works on first
- 01
A written week
Work is placed in named slots, not in an intention. What is written gets done; what stays in the head gets postponed.
- 02
Notes worth rereading
The tutor has a lesson from that day reviewed and checks that it makes sense the same evening. That is the test that matters.
- 03
The primary prerequisites
Fractions, proportion, instruction reading: three ideas that govern the whole year and consolidate quickly.
- 04
Naming the difficulty
Saying « I am stuck on setting up the equation » opens up help; saying « I dislike maths » closes it down. It takes a few sessions to learn.
Subjects covered at this stage
All are included in the same subscription: a pupil moving from a maths difficulty to a reading difficulty changes subject without changing plan. The cycle governs, never an add-on option.
- subjects in lower secondary
- 6
- subjects from primary to upper secondary
- 13
- stages to validate one concept
- 4
- Mathematics
- French
- English
- Life and earth sciences
- Physics and chemistry
- History and geography
Parents' questions
How much personal study should we plan?
Thirty to forty-five minutes a day is enough at this level, provided they sit at a fixed time and cover active work: redoing an exercise, self-quizzing on the lesson, restating it. An hour spent rereading achieves less than twenty minutes of active recall.
Should we cover every subject from the start?
All are open in the subscription, and usage naturally concentrates on two or three. The initial assessment shows where to start, and tracking then shows where the pupil goes spontaneously — often the most useful information of the first fortnight.