Last week, the Tutor Trust held its final round of CPD events for the academic year in all three cities. This CPD allowed tutors to ‘swap’ resources with one another and discuss other techniques for producing effective materials for their tuition sessions. 

Tutors were invited to bring with them to the CPD any resource they had found valuable in their time as a tutor. These formed the basis of discussion in each CPD and meant that tutors could use their ideas to assist one another. Former tutors that now work in the Tutor Trust office led each event, making sure the focus was on the work of our tutors and their experiences. 

This was the first time a Resources Swap CPD had been organised by Tutor Trust; this new event was also the fifth optional CPD put on for tutors this calendar year. Tutor Trust want to ensure our tutors always feel comfortable and able to improve their skills and so organising regular CPD is key to maintaining our impact. We have confidence in the competency of our tutors; designing a CPD that allows them to advise and teach one another provided a great opportunity for tutors to practice and improve their skills in an informal, interactive way. 

During the session, tutors that attended were: 

• - Able to discuss what makes a good resource and how to make limited resources even more effective 
• - Invited to share some of the best resources they’d designed in their time as tutors 
• - Given a pack of resource materials each – specific to the subjects they teach – which included games, helpful website links, comprehension booklets and a whiteboard and pen 

As well as engaging with physical resources, we showed all tutors how to use Seneca Learning, an online base of education materials that can help teachers set work for their pupils, use interactive teaching techniques and familiarise themselves with the topics of various subjects and exam boards. 

The feedback from tutors following the CPD was that it was incredibly beneficial – at the event held in Manchester, 80% of attendees rated it “excellent” and 20% rated it “good”. 

According to one tutor, the thing they found most useful was “hearing the other tutors talk about what they have learnt”, whilst another tutor said they enjoyed “finding out about alternative resources that I wasn’t aware of” and that the “pack provided for Maths and English was useful”. 

We were delighted with the success of these CPD events and were pleased to see our tutors and former tutors get so involved with leading the sessions. Our tutors are constantly providing great resources for their pupils; giving them the chance to share these meant attendees left with even more appreciation of the difference a good resource can make. 

For more information on website links and advice for resources, please contact our Tutor Coordinator Will at [email protected]