I shared a form with another teacher this past year. Officially they belonged to her but I mucked in on plenty of occasions. Whenever they did something good I referred to them as ‘our’ form, as in: ‘our form are really’ or ‘Terry and Jim from our form are really clever’. Whenever they did anything bad I distanced myself form them as much as possible: ‘Sue’s form are being really noisy’ or ‘that Sid from Sue’s form is a right pain-in-the-neck’. It worked well.

The highlight was a day called ‘the sweet factory’ where the pupils had to work in groups to invent and market a new sweet, the best from each form going through to the final presentation in an assembly at the end of the day. OUR form won, which was absolutely magic seeing as it was the other tutor’s day off meaning the success was a direct consequence of me being brilliant. Though I suppose the kids themselves might have had something to do with it.