Grrrrr!
February 20th, 2006Some of you wll know that I Supervise students on a degree course, part of the course requirements is that they attend 12 sessions of Supervision a year. That’s not a huge number, is it? Assuming allocations of Supervisors happens sometime in October, if sessions happen every 2 weeks, 12 fit nicely every fortnight, giving some room for illness, holidays, unexpected cancellations, etc.
My 1st year student this year didn’t even contact me until mid January (!!) and that was after several concerned ‘phone calls to the college and after they had written to her 3 times. When I first spoke to her on the telephone she apologised for contacting me so late, and that a family friend had died the previous week. Begs the question, “What about the 3 months before that??”, doesn’t it? Anyway, we booked Supervision for about ten days later, only to have it cancelled, with a less than 3 hours notice, with the student telling me she had ‘double-booked’.
We booked a second session for two weeks later, but for this one, she just didn’t show up! Five days after the missed session I got a telephone call apologising and telling me that she’d had the ‘flu and was only just getting over the chest infection. In my mind I’m thinking “a ‘phone call only takes a minute, ‘flu or no ‘flu. Are you telling me you haven’t used the ‘phone for the last five days??” and all sorts of other things I’d rather not put in writing IYKWIM? 
On both occasions, when she has missed Supervision, I’ve advised her that I will need to count the missed sessions as part of the twelve contracted sessions, she’s been fine, even jolly about it.
So, anyway, we we have booked another Supervision session for next week……
What worries me is that because I haven’t even met her yet, I have been unable to write my Interim assessment of her learning this year. This is usually quite an important assessment, and the only other student I have Supervised, that I have been unable to write an Interim assessment for, has failed the course. I get the feeling the student has no idea of the importance the college places on Supervision. Can you imagine her face when she hears that she has failed the course because of my Interim Assessment (or lack, thereof) and because she hasn’t completed her twelve Supervision sessions?
