One-page profiles and the return to home learning
11/1/2021
As school closures, home learning and virtual classrooms make an abrupt comeback the school-home relationship has never been more important. For learners who struggle with virtual lessons and independent learning, one-page profiles could help to assess their needs and progress.
Following the government’s sudden U-turn on school closures last week, parents are once again taking on more responsibility for their child’s learning, and teachers are having to find a way to deliver lessons both virtually and in-person at incredibly short notice. Many learners who cannot be taught in school will struggle to engage with home learning. To ensure that they are not left behind, parents and teachers will need to collaborate.
Enter the one-page profile – an extremely effective yet easy-to-use tool to bridge the gap between school and home. A brief but detailed overview of an individual learner, it gives you a clearer understanding of how the child learns best, what their interests, hobbies and skills are, and how you can better engage them. It can also give parents and carers a chance to feedback on the child’s behaviour and wellbeing at home. This gives you a particularly useful insight of their home learning experience.
It can also be used for recording key quantitative data and progress over time in key subjects. This enriches both the teacher and parents’ understanding of the child as a learner, clearly outlines their strengths, weaknesses and achievements, and fosters a more comprehensive and personalised approach to support.
Giving parents a voice
A one-page profile gives parents the opportunity to contribute their invaluable insight and knowledge of the child. What do they feel is important for their child, and what’s working for them in terms of supporting learning at home? Gathering and frequently reviewing this input will give help you track the learner’s progress. This can also help develop consistency between home and school with adults adopting complementary approaches to the learner’s school routine.
Literacy difficulties, SEND and independence
The relationship between home and school is even more crucial when supporting learners with additional needs. The one-page profile is a great mechanism for not only amplifying the voice of the learner and their parents, but also in capturing the specific needs of that individual learner. It’s a great tool for bringing this information together to create an overview of a child’s support needs.
If you can get your approach to one-page profiles right, you won’t be guessing the gaps so much.
We have an opportunity to better understand how to support each learner through a period of transition and uncertainty. Try using our new one-page profile guidance resource to better support your learners this term – let us know how you get on!
Join our webinar
Our ‘Know the child, don’t guess the gaps’ webinar further explores how to put together and effectively use one-page profiles. Join us on 19th January at 4pm.