Every day, both the boarders and day‐pupils of the collèges d’humanités spent twice or three times as much time in breaks, study periods and meals as in class. However, although these hours occupied a major place in the lives of these adolescents, they have been much less studied than the teaching dispensed by the teacher, which is considered to be the core of the pedagogic activity. This article therefore endeavours to analyse the way in which pupils were supervised and to determine their out‐of‐class activities. In the most ancient forms of the collège d’humanités, the supervision of pupils outside class corresponded neither to specific personnel nor to specific places. In the early sixteenth century, this work was often undertaken by the régents d’humanités (teachers) themselves, by other pupils (in an activity resembling a form of tutoring), or by a preceptor or tutor. The Jesuits seem to have been the inventors of a new actor in the world of education, the dormitory master or préfet de chambre (praefectus cubiculi), who accompanied the pupils throughout the day and ensured that they worked during the study periods. As early as 1565, in the Parisian Clermont college, the boarders were thus organised into groups of 15 or 20 per dormitory under the authority of a Jesuit. The recourse to these masters spread not only among the Jesuits but also to the Oratorians; to the former medieval colleges which were vigorous enough to modernise; or to the newly founded colleges (as the Mazarin college which opened in Paris in 1688). The pupils who did not live in the colleges (the majority) enrolled in the private boarding establishments near the colleges. These boarding establishments did not merely accommodate the boarders but also catered for genuine non‐residents, who lived with their families and had recourse to them solely for the services of lesson repetition. These masters were in every case defined by their double role of permanent overseers of the boarders and pedagogues in charge of the study periods. They most closely shared the lives of the pupils. They therefore represented a key figure in the years of learning of these young people. This omnipresence covered a double necessity: the educational care of the children, assuming the role of a parental substitute, and the continuous supervision of a community of male adolescents aged from 10 to 20. The fear of misbehaviour, disorder and fighting as well as the attention paid to clothing or appearance appeared constantly in the instructions given to the supervising tutors. Above all, their pedagogic role consisted in ensuring that the personal work given by the teacher was actually done by the pupils. However, they were sometimes entrusted with certain aspects of learning, such as the preparation of text commentaries or the teaching of subjects which were not dealt with in class (history, geography or heraldry). In their organisation, the study periods resembled what happened in class more and more. This article therefore highlights the systematic presence of a means of supervising college pupils outside class and the role played by the supervising tutors in the education of these young people. It also demonstrates the central nature of this supervision in classical education. Contrary to the adult viewpoint (expressed by historians or contemporary witnesses), which is more preoccupied with educational theories than practical implementation, this importance is widely recognised in the memoirs which give the pupil’s point of view and invite us to turn our entire attention to this aspect of the lives of the college pupils.