Communicating student data with colleagues

Information sharing has been an area in our school which we are continuing to evolve in ways that will benefit the students. It is essential as a SENCO to provide up to date information to teachers.

The details shared need to be given in a digestible format so that staff can retain the key points needed. I rarely forward on the professional reports of a student unless a teacher specifically requests this, the reports are often very long and contain information which is not necessary to share.

As an alternative, I’ll forward one-page profiles of the students who have SEND with details of their difficulties and strategies which will support them. This is not revolutionary, most SENCOs approach sharing information in this way, however what is missing is staff interacting with the information being shared.

The expectations for teachers has been to read, and comment on the one-page profiles given. Teachers have been asked to add details which may be missing and share the strategies they use and the targets they have set for them.

“Most students will recognise the effort that has gone into this process and develop a clear understanding of what areas they need to improve in.”

30 students in year 11 have a one-page profile and almost all their teachers have provided feedback on a simple table and have sent it back to me. I have collated all the feedback onto one document. Teachers will now read the new and improved one page profiles which detail the strategies their colleagues have shared.

I estimate that this whole process took between 5-10 minutes for every teacher, yet the potential for impact is huge!

In addition, each student in year 11 has a mentor who is going to share the information provided by teachers. 

In going through this, I have learned 3 things:

1. Every student in school has at least one teacher that knows how to get the best out of them.
2. 95% of strategies to support students with SEND are Quality First Teaching (QFT), and most of these require very little in terms of additional planning.
3. Teachers and Teaching Assistants know best because they see the student in class the most. They can draw upon their knowledge and then share it in a far more relevant and powerful way than simply using the information given in EP reports etc.

Information sharing will only impact on student progress when it is sent in a digestible format so that staff can deliver on their expectation to provide feedback.