The academic tutorial is a learning conversation. In essence, it is a meeting between the tutor, the tutee and the tutee’s parent(s) / guardian(s) to look at assessment and behaviour data with a view to empowering the student to take responsibility for their own learning and the next steps required for making progress. At its most basic, the conversations that take place should revolve around:

• The target levels that a tutee has been set in their subjects.
• The progress that is being made towards reaching that target.
• The setting of three individual targets / goals to help the subject targets to be at least met, but preferably exceeded.

Ideally, the meeting should take around 20 minutes and is usually arranged at a mutually convenient time within a set week. All parties bring information to the table. The role of the tutor is critical to the success of this meeting. It is to enable tutees to take full control of their own learning.

 Some of the key components are:
- Tutors should never go into a meeting of this kind without some preparation.
- The meeting should be data driven using school reports and other forms of academic information to assess current working levels and to set the next steps in the learning for the tutee.
- The idea is to achieve shared ownership of learning so that all parties can play a part. Everyone has knowledge and can contribute.
- Three agreed targets will be set and recorded following discussions in the meeting. One target should always focus upon making progress in English or Maths, another target should be subject specific but could also focus on English, Maths or another optional subject. The last target could be more generalized and be linked into any generic concerns / issues.  
- Monitoring of these targets are best done informally but regularly with the tutee, perhaps keeping them behind briefly after registration or speaking to them at break or lunch.