A Year in the Life of a Student Support & Guidance Tutor Melanie Gill – School of Education Introduction This has been my fifth year as the Student Support & Guidance Tutor for the School of Education and this role comprises 0.5 of my Principal Lecturer post, with the other 0.5 encompassing my wider Student Engagement Coordinator role as well as my teaching role. Key points of contact My SSGT role is split between offering individual one-to-one support and guidance, and facilitating voluntarily attended, cohort specific, group assignment support sessions. I have had contact with 229 individual students this year which is 18 less than last year but of those individual students, 37(16%) were seen more than once, which is over double the number of repeat contacts compared to last year’s 19(7%) resulting in 266 contacts overall. Of the whole School population I have had contact with 10% of our students overall (229/2269.) In previous years, most students have made contact with me in their first year of study, but this year numbers across year groups have evened out somewhat. Issues and Action Most students’ issues are focused on stress and mental health, or learning support/dyslexia in line with last year. More students this year had multiple and/or more serious issues and needed repeat appointments/contact. Numbers thinking about leaving or intermitting have increased by a quarter on last year. In many cases I have been able to offer support and guidance myself, but for others I have found it necessary to suggest referrals to Student Services or other staff. It is worth noting that the numbers of students referred on to PAT/support tutors has doubled, and may reflect the new support tutoring structure in place this year on some of our courses. At least 7 students this year have commented in feedback that they had considered leaving their courses, but that the support from the SSGT had enabled them to make the decision to continue. Referral. This year has seen an increase in referrals to me from others, suggesting that as more staff know about my role, they are more likely to suggest that students make contact with me for support. Ways forward I plan to further develop Facebook and Twitter as a means of contact with students, as since starting a Facebook page in June 2014 I have already seen very promising results. I would also like to make more contact through course reps and possibly have a student forum /steering group to really embrace the notion of student engagement. I will be continuing with the development of PASS for student mentoring and hope that the expanded support tutor roles across the School will continue to prove helpful to students. Having new lead roles for student experience across all courses should also result in improved support and I would like to have a role in coordinating and supporting these roles. s “I have decided to continue with my 4th year and am now back in Brighton ready to hear about our placements. Thank you so much for all the information you gave me, as it allowed me to make an informed decision, especially once you had referred me to my course leader.” Please like my Facebook page to keep up to date with student support issues. Follow me on Twitter at “Thank you very much for your speedy responses last term and the team you referred me to were also very helpful. I have been booked in for a dyslexia screening and I will let you know how I get on from there. Also thank you for your follow up ; it's nice to know you are not simply forgotten about once you have been passed to another team.”