Unit seven, again
An intermediate class is on unit seven of the coursebook. Three new students joined on Monday. One came up from pre-intermediate, where she did units five to eight of a different book. Another moved from another intermediate class that was two units ahead. A cover teacher is in on Wednesday and has no idea where the class got to on Tuesday.
A student who has been at the school for ten weeks complains that she has done the same grammar point three times with three teachers, and missed the conditional completely.
Why continuity breaks in rolling classes
- The class is continuous, but its members change every week.
- Students move between classes and levels, carrying gaps and repeats with them.
- What was taught is recorded in each teacher's own notebook, if at all.
- Cover teachers arrive without a handover.
- Coursebooks are supplemented with the teacher's own material, which is invisible to others.
Nobody chose this. It is a side effect of a model that is good for students and hard on continuity.
Exam classes add another twist. A student preparing for an external exam over eight weeks needs to meet every part of the exam at least once, and a class that students join in week three and week five has to cover the early parts again for them without boring the ones who were there from the start. Without a record, the teacher has to ask the students, and students are not reliable witnesses to what they did a month ago.
What it costs students and the school
Long-stay students notice repetition and gaps, and it shows in feedback and in agent conversations. Teachers spend preparation time working out where students are. Cover lessons are wasted repeating material. And when a student or agent asks what has been covered on the course, there is no clear answer.
The class records we build
- Your syllabus is set up as a list of units, grammar points and skills per level, based on your coursebooks and your own material.
- After each lesson, the teacher ticks what they covered and can add a line of notes, on a phone or the classroom PC. It takes a minute.
- Every student present is credited with what was covered, using the register, so each student builds a personal record.
- When a student joins a class or moves level, the teacher sees what they have and have not covered against the class's current position.
- Cover teachers see the last few lessons, the notes and the plan for the day.
- The director of studies can see coverage across classes at a level, to spot points that are commonly missed.
- Each student's coverage can be included in their progress report or certificate appendix if you want.
| Who | What they see |
|---|---|
| Class teacher | Class position and each student's gaps |
| Cover teacher | Recent lessons, notes, today's plan |
| Director of studies | Coverage across classes and levels |
| Student | What they have covered, if you choose |
| Agent or parent | Coverage summary in reports, if you choose |
Planning with the whole class in view
On Monday, the teacher sees the three new students and exactly which of the class's recent units each has missed or already done. She sets a short catch-up task for one and gives another extension work. The cover teacher on Wednesday picks up where Tuesday left off. The student who complained about the conditional can see that it is now covered, and the director of studies notices it was missed across two classes and adds it to the syllabus checklist.
None of this changes how teachers teach. It only makes the result of their teaching visible to the next teacher.
Signs continuity is slipping
- Long-stay students report repeating the same material.
- Teachers keep what they covered in personal notebooks.
- Cover teachers start without knowing where the class is.
- Students who move class bring unknown gaps.
- You cannot tell an agent what a student has covered.