6/1/2011

Ref: 101118PPOR

Helping schools deliver interactive content to engage parents in their child’s learning online, Classroom Monitor (www.classroommonitor.co.uk) is launching its new Parental Access Portal at BETT 2011. Linked to its award-winning interactive markbook, already used by over 1500 UK schools, the portal provides schools with a manageable, cost-effective way to report to parents.

For the first time, primary and secondary school teachers can share every element of a child’s ongoing assessment with parents online. Already being used by seven primary schools across the country, the portal enables teachers to upload additional resources to support a pupil’s assessment, such as photos, sound clips or videos showing parents exactly how their child is learning.

Guidance from Ofsted states that outstanding schools should provide tailored guidance and information about precise ways parents and carers can support their children’s learning. One approach to this lies in the work that primary and secondary schools are already doing to deliver the Assessing Pupil Progress (APP) initiative, whereby greater focus is put upon ongoing classroom assessment. Every day, teachers are gathering examples of their students’ work and mapping it to specific learning objectives, which, in turn, can be reported to parents. Classroom Monitor brings these two processes together, providing an easy way for schools to deliver this information to parents online.

Classroom Monitor believes that in order to engage parents, it is important to look at more interactive ways of presenting information to them. For example, in music, teachers could record sound clips of students’ compositions and post them to the portal for parents to download. For younger primary school pupils, teachers could scan their creative writing and upload this to show parents how their child’s handwriting and spelling is improving. These examples will already be linked to APP targets in Classroom Monitor, so teachers simply need to logon and send this information to parents.

Graham Horton, Headteacher at Cirencester Primary School, comments: “For parents to truly engage and support their child’s learning, it is vital that they are updated regularly on their progress and how they can help them improve. This simply cannot be achieved through one end of term report – parents need ongoing assessment information at their fingertips just as teachers do. From January, Classroom Monitor’s Parental Access Portal will enable staff to provide parents with this information in a timely manner, without adding further to teacher workload. Accessible anywhere with an internet connection, parents can log-on any time they choose. To make this even easier, we have set up a number of computers in the reception area so parents can access this fantastic resource at any point during the school day.”

One of the most important factors for ensuring effective online reporting is relevance. If parents are overloaded with information from schools that is not pertinent or practical they are less likely to become more engaged in their child’s learning than they are already. Using Classroom Monitor’s Parental Access Portal, schools can ensure that parents have sight of specific targets and ongoing information as to how their child is developing, so they can comprehend their progress and provide further support at home.

Compatible with any Management Information System (MIS), parent information can be directly imported into Classroom Monitor, ensuring consistency across both systems. Following this ‘workflow’ of recording and storing work to support APP alongside MIS data, Classroom Monitor’s Parental Acces Portal helps schools reduce the time spent reporting to parents, whilst providing them with useful information they can use to help their child.

Teachers have complete control over what information is reported to parents and have the option to edit what is included for each pupil. For example, selecting the attainment area for a pupil will allow the teacher to choose which subjects to include and over which time period. The teacher can then choose whether to display this information to the parent as a table or graph. Once the information for each pupil has been set, teachers can preview how this will appear when a parents logs in. Parents then simply log-on to the portal using their individual secure login ID and password to access the information about their child.

Chris Scarth, Commercial Director at Classroom Monitor, comments: “For real-time reporting to be cost-effective and easy to maintain, it is essential for schools to look for a web-based application that is compatible and complements other existing systems in place, including that of an MIS. The application should look to do more than simply act as a ‘traditional’ reporting system and, if used correctly, it should reduce teacher workload. Classroom Monitor Parental Access Portal is an integrated and innovative system, which brings reporting and assessment into one ongoing process.”

For further information about Classroom Monitor’s Parental Access Portal, please contact Chris Scarth, Commercial Director at Classroom Monitor, on T: + 44 (0) 844 5555 211 or visit the web site at www.classroommonitor.co.uk.

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