The school's spreadsheet template
A secondary school contracts your agency to tutor a group of Year 10 pupils in maths, in small groups, over two terms. The school needs a register for every session, a short note on progress each half term, and an invoice each month against the purchase order. They send a spreadsheet template to fill in.
Your tutors take registers on paper at the school. The office types them into the template. Some sessions are moved because of school events; some pupils are absent for trips. The invoice has to match the sessions that actually happened. At the end of the term, the school asks for attendance by pupil, and the office spends two days reconciling.
Why school work is admin-heavy
- Schools need evidence at pupil level, not just session level.
- Each school has its own template and reporting schedule.
- Sessions move around school events, exams and trips.
- Invoices must match purchase orders and the sessions delivered.
- Tutors working in schools record things on paper, then someone types them up.
What evidence a school or a funding programme requires is set by them. We do not interpret funding rules. We build the records to produce whatever the school asks for.
What the admin costs
Office time that can make school contracts much less profitable than they look. Late or messy reports that make it harder to win the contract again next year. Invoices queried by school finance teams because they do not match the purchase order. Tutors doing paperwork after sessions instead of teaching.
The school contract system we build
- Each contract is set up with the school, the purchase order, the pupils, the groups and the planned sessions.
- Tutors take the register on their phone at the start of each session, with absence reasons from the school's list if it has one.
- Tutors add a short note per pupil or per group after each session.
- Moved or cancelled sessions are recorded with the reason, so the delivered total is always clear.
- Reports are produced in the school's template: attendance by pupil, sessions delivered, progress summaries drafted from notes for the tutor to approve.
- Invoices are produced against the purchase order for sessions delivered, in your accounting package.
- The owner sees delivery against the contract for every school, so shortfalls are visible before the end of term.
| School needs | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Register per session | Tutor's phone register |
| Attendance by pupil | Registers combined across sessions |
| Progress summary | Tutor notes, drafted and approved |
| Invoice | Sessions delivered against the purchase order |
End of term, afterwards
The school asks for attendance by pupil. The office exports it in the school's template in minutes. The half-term progress notes were drafted from tutors' session notes and approved by the tutors. Monthly invoices matched the sessions delivered and referenced the purchase order, so the school's finance team paid without queries.
When the contract comes up for renewal, you have a clear record of delivery to show.
Tutors notice the change first. A register on the phone at the start of the session and a line of notes at the end replaces the typed-up paperwork they used to do in the evening, and nobody at the office has to decipher handwriting.
Each school's template is set up once. When the same school renews the next year, or a new school asks for something similar, the reporting is ready to go. Over time the agency builds a small library of report formats, and taking on a new school contract stops meaning a new spreadsheet.
Is school work eating your margin?
- School registers are taken on paper and typed up.
- Each school's template is filled in by hand.
- Invoices are queried by school finance teams.
- Delivery against the contract is only checked at the end.
- Tutors spend time on paperwork after school sessions.