West Lothian Council Education Services
Advice on Profiles Session 2011 2012
Created by: Sharon Platt and the West Lothian Reporting Group
Profiles and Profiling What is a profile? A profile is a positive snapshot of a child’s achievements at a given time. It is created by the child through discussion with their teacher. A profile’s main audience is the learner, it is also produced to inform parents and to strengthen transitions. It should be used to inform the next stage of learning. A profile recognises achievements across all areas of school and home life. A profile only details positive progress and achievements - it does not contain any next steps or negative comments. Ownership of a profile belongs to the child. It is their decision what is included or not included. All Primary 7 pupils should have a profile ready for transition to S1, August 2012. What is profiling? Profiling is the process of recognising achievements, setting personal targets and recording successes that give the children the language of reflection to enable them to write an informed, reflective, accurate profile. There are a number of ways of doing this, and this process will be undertaken in different ways in different schools dependent on what suits pupils. Profiling should be based on evidence gathered from AifL strategies. Profiling may include: -
Personal Learning Plans
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Portfolios/ e-portfolios
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E-profiling blogs
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Learning Logs
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Achievement Records
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Learners’ journeys
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Reflection diaries
How does a profile differ from a report? There may be elements of a child’s progress that will be included in both their profile and report, but these two documents serve very different purposes. Profile Written by the learner Main audience – learner Reflects on all curricular areas All positive comments Child decides what is included Includes achievements inside and outside of school Focussed on reflective voice
Report Written by the teacher Main audience – parents Reflects on all curricular areas Positive progress and next steps Teacher decides what is included Includes achievements in school or on school excursions only Focussed on quantitive statements
Completing a profile. A quality profile is determined by the quality of the comments that go into it. A structured approach to profiling which builds time into the week for discussing achievement and setting targets throughout the year is essential to equip learners to write their profile.
PROFILE TEMPLATE Photo or Clip art
My Learning Profile Child’s Name Me as a learner:
Personal Photo
Kinaesthetic, Auditory or Visual learner. Ideas, People, Process or Product person (Critical Skills) Prefer working on own or with a group. Personal qualities and character strengths.
Literacy and English Level Achievements in listening and talking, reading and writing. Using literacy skills across the curriculum.
Photo or Clip
Numeracy and Mathematics Level Achievements in: number, money, measure; shape, position and movement; and data handling. Using numeracy skills across the curriculum.
Photo or Clip art
art
Health and Wellbeing Level Achievements in PE, Forest Schools, Road Safety, Choices for Life, Risk Factory, Tobacco Outreach, Keeping Myself Safe, Transition Activities, relationships with others. Developing Health and Wellbeing Skills across the curriculum.
Other Curricular Areas Photo or Clip art
Achievements in Expressive Arts, Technologies, Social Studies, Religious and Moral Education, Science .
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Personal Achievements and Awards: Certificates, involvement in whole school projects (Rights Respecting Schools, Eco Flag, Pupil Council, Fair Trade Status, Performances, P7 Responsibilities). Out of school achievements. Developing personal qualities.
Photo or Clip art
The ‘Me as a Learner’ section of the profile looks at how well the children know their learning styles and learning preferences. Children should think about how they learn best and what strategies are effective for them. This is also a space for children to comment on their personal qualities that they feel are positive characteristics for a learner. Children should pick out what they are good at and how they know or examples of something they have achieved for the 4 curricular areas boxes. Numeracy, Literacy and Health and Wellbeing should contain the level the child is working at. ‘Other areas of the curriculum’ should have comments from all other curricular areas. Personal achievements and awards can be anything in or out of school. It can be activities the child received a certificate or medal for or it could be a target they have met, or a personal quality they have developed. All sections should be written in complete sentences, not bullet points. Children should include feelings, such as ‘I was proud when I...’, ‘I was excited when I won...’ etc. They should be encouraged to justify their achievements, such as ‘I know I am better at...because...’etc. Try to ensure the children have a balance between how they feel about their progress and using quantitative statements such as ‘I am great at...’ and ‘I can...’. After completing the text, children should be encouraged to change the clip-art to their own photos or own choice of pictures. Including the school badge demonstrates to parents/carers that the school sees this as an important document. To meet the criteria of ‘robust’, ‘valid’ and ‘reliable’ information, there needs to be a great deal of dialogue between the learner and the teacher. It is important that the achievements that the learner views as their best are recorded, but it is also important that a profile is a true reflection of the learner. Therefore, the details included by the learner have to be confirmed by the teacher’s evidence or assessments.
For further information: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/buildingyourcurriculum/policycontext/btc/btc5.asp - Building the Curriculum 5 – A Framework for Assessment http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/ - Follow links for Profiling
PROFILE EXAMPLE
Photo or Clip art
My Learning Profile! Child’s Name
Personal Photo
Me as a learner: I am a Kinaesthetic (Motoric) learner. I have a good memory for experiences and I remember things I have done. I am good at sports and other physical activities. I often work through problems or get ideas while walking or doing other physical activities. I am good at working in a group because I am not easily distracted. I am good at being a group leader because I can make sure everyone is doing their tasks.
Literacy Second Level I enjoy reading. It helps me improve my VCOP and Expression. I sometimes ask my mum to get new books at the shops or I ask if I can get books from the library. I always try my hardest to improve my skills. I am good at taking other people’s ideas and making them better. I used my literacy skills to research my Zen Garden. I am Photo or Clip art able to read for information and use the knowledge to create something new.
Numeracy Second Level I am better at finding decimals, Photo or Clip art fractions and percentages. I have also learned how to do long multiplication and long division. I am a lot better at drawing and finding the area of shapes. I think that Maths is my best subject because I’m really fast at all of my maths work. I think I get faster at my times tables by practising a lot. I also get my Dad to test me while I’m at my house. I have used my numeracy skills to tell the time and work out how long I have until I go out.
Health and Wellbeing Second Level
Other Curricular Areas
In P.E last term we were doing badminton and volleyball and this term we’re doing hockey and basketball. We watched something called Choices For Life where it shows you some children and teenagers lives and learn what has destroyed them. We did Forest Schools where we would go to Polkemmet Park, I got better at working with a group to complete our building challenges. I have achieved a Photo or Clip art lot of my targets because I try extremely hard to complete them.
This year I have improved on Photo or Clip all of my subjects a lot because art I listen and understand what they mean. My favourite topic was Japan. I enjoyed this topic because I always like learning about other countries. I like getting to choose what songs we learn in music. I made an excellent spoonerism in art. I was interested in learning how quickly the tsunamis flooded Japan in Science. I am good at learning prayers in RE.
Personal Achievements and Awards: This year I have had a certificate on a Friday for being hardworking at all times. I got a Bronze Medal for playing football last year and I got a medal for crosscountry running last year too. I have achieved a lot of my targets this year and completed other achievements too including my maths test time and my spelling tests in spelling set. My best time in my maths speed test was 3mins 3secs to answer 100 questions.
Photo or Clip art