Individual Learning Plans: Losing track of the individuals?

Online, December 16, 2009 (Newswire.com) - London - 16 December 2009, John d'Abbro, OBE and Strategic Head of New Rush Hall Group Redbridge and Caroline Eynon, Deputy Head Teacher of Queens Park Community School, met at the Pearson Education offices in London today to discuss how individual learning plans will be implemented and what necessary infrastructure is needed to make this happen. Although individual learning plans could be of great benefit, students will have a much better chance of making good progress if teachers are able to accurately map the provision being made for them.

Recent UK education legislation is calling for individual learning plans for students to help nurture talent and meet the specific needs of pupils. The government is looking for plans to be rolled out at schools nationwide, despite a lack of necessary infrastructure in place to make this happen. Certain plans and technologies will be critical to the effective execution of individual learning plans including provisioning.

John d'Abbro who contributed to the recent outstanding Ofsted inspection in one of the PRUs within The New Rush Hall Group is the Head of the Pan London 'Back on Track' Project for transforming alternative provision into an integrated part of the education system for PRUs and short stay schools. He says, "Individual learning plans have the potential to dramatically improve a child's education, however, organisation and provisioning are critical components in this process. Without these, learning can be disrupted and students caught in the middle of bureaucratic confusion. With PRUs and Short Stay Schools due to submit census returns this January, a provisioning solution is now more critical than ever before to coordinate and monitor students' plans and offer teachers help with reporting. '

Provisioning is the process of allocating and tracking individual learning sessions that form a student's individual learning plan. A practical tool for provisioning is essential to the delivery of one-to-one education and child-specific activities.

At Queens Park Community School in London, provisioning is seen as a tool that can be of great benefit to students and help implement one-to-one learning. "Technology is the key to helping teachers implement individual learning plans. We have been using excel spreadsheets to assist us in managing the delivery of personalised learning but they are inefficient. We are keen to provide additional learning opportunities and interventions which focus on individual needs, but need a means to monitor our provision in a way that is easily accessible and accurate," explains Caroline Eynon. "Having the ability to monitor and record lessons or events that take place outside of the standard school timetable, for individual students, is critical to ensuring the effectiveness of our provision."

Roger Plant, education systems director at Pearson Phoenix, notes the need for an online tool that can help deliver individual learning plans is clear. He explains, "Provisioning tools as part of a school's MIS system can certainly help schools deliver individual learning plans. It is important to listen to the needs of the individuals having to deliver the education and structure when planning one-to-one learning."

About Pearson Phoenix

Founded in 1990, Pearson Phoenix, formerly known as Phoenix First Limited, is a specialist supplier of Management Information Systems (MIS) to schools and local education authorities throughout the UK. Its software is used to manage the administration of learning at almost 3,500 schools across a number of Education Authorities. In September 2001, Phoenix was acquired by the international media company Pearson Plc to strengthen its education portfolio in the UK and now operates as part of Pearson Education.

For more information please visit www.pearsonphoenix.com.

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