ABSTRACT
Tutoring in tough schools can be frustrating. Pupils don’t always turn up to registration. There are at least two or three persistent truants in an average tutor group of 25 and between three and ten pupils who will truant an afternoon here and a day there unless you are ‘on their backs’ all the time. These tutor groups are often unstable due to high mobility, with students leaving to go to a ‘better’ school when a place comes up and excluded pupils from other schools trying to get in to replace them. There is the casual intake of pupils who are new to the country or new to the area. They often bring a whole host of language and attendance problems with them.
