All boys at Northcote Lodge have a form teacher. In the Junior School (Shell and Form 2) the form teacher has both an administrative and a pastoral role. In the Senior School (Forms 3, Remove and 5) the role of the form teacher is largely restricted to an administrative one. The pastoral role is taken over by a personal tutor who will be a member of staff who teaches mostly in the Senior School and who is not a Junior School form teacher.

Each boy in the Senior School is allocated to a tutor. Each tutor will usually have a maximum of ten tutees and will be most likely to have in his/her tutor group boys from different Senior School year groups. Normally a boy will stay with the same tutor throughout his time in the Senior School.

In the Senior School it is the tutor who is the principal contact with parents. The tutor will have an overall view of how his tutees are progressing, both academically and socially. The tutor’s role is to build up a relationship with the boys based on friendship and trust, and to monitor their general progress in all areas of life at school.

Each tutor meets with his tutees every week to discuss any concerns that might have arisen during the week and the boy’s general progress.

It is the tutor who sends out the grade sheets at half-term with any appropriate comments, and who writes a tutor report at the end of each Michaelmas and Trinity term. At the end of the Hilary term parents will receive a comprehensive report written by the tutor on all aspects of the boys’ development at school that term.