Does anyone have any experience with Vertical Tutoring at their DC's school?
DDs school want to bring this in although there appears to be nothing wrong with the present system of one class each year.
Very few of the girls want their forms mixed up in this way and apocryphal
stories of bullying abound.
Any info. appreciated.

Do you mean in primary school?

I have had pupils from one form schools where the children are set in maths across 2 years and one of my daughter's friends was in with Year 6 at her school when she was in Year 4. I think this would be useful for more able children who need stretching. Certainly I find many single form entry pupils without a proper top maths class (rather than top table within class) tend to be operating below their potential.

LSS has a vertical tutoring system - it seems to work really well in my DS's form, the older boys are seen as less remote and scary. They are also more supportive and as a result of better relations, this means bullying is not a major problem.

They use it at Skipton girls, just for form time and tutorial time (20 mins a day)

Each "form" has 3 girls from each of the 7 years and there are hence 35 forms. Ideally they keep the same tutors for several years.
apocryphally it decreases bullying as the girls have friends in other forms and can chat about things to them.

Both the schools we are looking at for our DD to start next year have this. The theory is that it stops bullying as you have older girls looking out for the younger ones, it also stops that phenomenon of 1st years are scared of everyone above, 2nd years hate 1st years, envy 3rd years and are ignored by the years above, 3rd years hate everyone above and below etc.....(or was that just my high school?)

I do like the idea. When we looked around one of the schools, we were shown around by a year 9 girl and one of the things we liked was how she greeted, and was greeted by, girls of all ages. She enjoyed pointing out friends who were in pictures on the walls "That's my friend X, she's in year 7, that's Y, she's year 10"

The older girls are also encouraged to help the younger ones with school/homework. The thinking being that it helps the older ones as it refreshes in their minds work they may have done last year, and the younger ones get another girls perspective as well as the teachers.

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One of our local upper schools brought it in fairly recently to counteract bullying and I have heard from parents with children there that it works well. Each class will have approx 6 children from each year group. It only really affects "form time" as the different year groups obviously have their own lessons.

Sounds a bit like the old fashioned house system which works well at DS1's school. They have chapel in house groups (year7-13) at least once a week (I know, state school with its own chapel what is the world coming to )

DS1 seems to know more older and younger boys in his house than other form groups.

It also gives a role model influence, in our case so far positive.

steve

DD2 goes to an all girls non-selective school which introduced the vertical tutoring system about four years ago and I can whole heartedly agree that the theory about stopping bullying has worked brilliantly.
When DD started in year 7 she had a year 8 mentor in her tutor group to give any help needed, and often at lunch times when she had no-one to sit next to, year 10 girls would call to her across the cafeteria to come sit with them. At other times the older girls gave good advice about problems, which younger girls would not have had the knowledge or experience to answer. Now she's in year 8 , she is a mentor herself and has grown in confidence enormously.

The trial has been so successful that another local school adopted the scheme this year.

Your schools all sound much "nicer" than DDs!
We are worried about DD2 and her really nice friends being exposed to ghastly year 10 snogging their dreadful boyfriends through the wire fence every lunchtime - pass the bucket please and GET A ROOM !!!!
Also, DD1 is in year 12 and although she does not especially want to spend every lunch time listening to year 13 discussing their UCAS forms it is next year she really dreads when the current year 11 share their space.
Best described as Paris Hiltons new best friends they are Orange( Its the bad fake tan, see..) and "sneery" - referred to by members of staff as "a bad year" and not what DD1 needs when it is her turn to complete the dreaded UCAS form!!!!!!!!!!

Just in case there are any prospective parents reading this who know which school magwich2's daughters attend, may I say my daughter goes there too and magwich2's description does not reflect our experience at all!

Sometimes it's a good thing we're all different...