As a new academic year begins, we know many of you are setting up, planning ahead, and focusing on how best to support your learners’ individual needs.
With that in mind we’re excited to share some of the latest developments on our Evidence for Learning (EfL) platform and family of apps
… all designed to help you develop a richer and clearer picture of each learner and how they engage in learning and make progress over time
… at the same time helping you use that information more efficiently and effectively among the whole team of stakeholders helping to inform and shape planning and practice, as well as showcase and celebrate the learner’s journey and impact of your work.
As always we’re looking to reduce workload and save time whilst enhancing and increasing impact.
Here’s what’s available or coming soon…
1. EfL Forms – Developing conversations about learning (Co-production)
This new feature makes it easy to create online forms and workspaces where important and valuable information about your learners, and how they engage, can be recorded and developed over time by a range of staff stakeholders.
Our schools are already using it to create learner profiles, for example, communication and sensory profiles, annual review checklists, transition passports, learner case studies, and end-of-term reflections and reports.
The forms are designed to support rich conversations about learning, and provide the opportunity for genuine co-production by allowing multiple stakeholders to access and contribute to each form. You can also link in photos, videos, and other tagged evidence to bring each form to life.
What makes it really unique and powerful?
You can compare different versions over time, giving you a clear, meaningful picture of how a learner is growing and developing, helping you spot any new support needs and opportunities to adapt and/or refine practice along the way.
“Being able to link (for example) a learner’s sensory profile to classroom evidence and being able to involve the whole team around a learner helps us truly understand what’s changing, what’s working, and how best we can adapt to meet the learner’s needs.”
– Emma Ross, Vale of Evesham School
EfL Forms is available now as an optional add on for your school subscription (£235 ex VAT per year) – get in contact for more info or to get it added to your existing EfL subscription.
2. EfL QuestionBoard – A new workspace to support reflective practice
We’re excited to share the first step in the next major phase of development in EfL. It introduces a new, more visual way to review, explore and reflect on learner journeys.
The new interactive EfL QuestionBoard makes it easy to set up inquiry questions that guide you to review your evidence, reflect on practice, and spark important conversations.
It also offers new insightful ways of presenting your evidence, observations and notes through the use of new timelines and “swim lanes” where you can unpack evidence into particular topics of interest and inquiry.
Here is an example showing the timeline / “swim lane” feature unpacking evidence and observations into separate timelines for each domain in the Code of Practice / EHCP:
Here’s how the EfL QuestionBoard looks:
3. Automatic translation & My Preferred Language for the EfL Family app
The EfL Family App will shortly make it easier to connect with families where English isn’t their first language.
Families can choose their preferred language in the app and following this, any evidence the school shares is then automatically translated for them into their chosen language.
When families comment or add in their own evidence, they can write in their chosen language, and it will be translated back into English for the school.
4. New and improved Insights for Learning
We’ve been working with schools across the country to streamline and enhance the Insights for Learning toolkit, which helps to you manage, explore, present and share the assessment data with EfL.
We’ve been making it easier, faster and more efficient to use, with automated workflows and new tools for setting up insights, creating widgets, and building dashboards to share and work with assessment data.
5. EfL Package & Transfer tool – Dynamic, evidence-rich transfers
One of the commonly-cited benefits of EfL is the various ways it can support and enhance transition. When a learner moves to a new classroom, it brings forward rich information that the new teacher and team can use straight away – helping provide continuity and stability for the learner.
But when a learner moves to another school or college, too often that rich, dynamic detail is lost – or reduced to albeit still helpful PDF documents. Our long-term aim has always been to strive to make sure that the benefits to learners and families are as long term and close to lifelong as possible.
The new EfL Package & Transfer tool is another step in that direction and will enable schools to create a secure “data package” for a learner that is about to transfer away. This includes completed EfL Forms (e.g. completed learner profiles and/or transition/transfer passport) and any linked and associated evidence for that learner (including photos and videos).
The package can be shared securely with another school or college that uses EfL, giving them a richer, deeper and visual understanding of the learner from day one. The evidence and data can also be used as baseline evidence and observations to mark the start of the learner’s journey at the new setting.
Imagine a new school being able to step into a deep understanding of a newly-arrived learner from day one — not just a summary report, but a dynamic, reflective package.
We’re excited to start piloting this with selected schools and Multi-Academy Trusts this academic year, please get in contact to be part of the beta testing and piloting programme.
6. Single sign-on (SSO)
We’re excited to announce a new feature that makes logging into the EfL platform much simpler and more secure! With Single Sign-On (SSO), you can now access our system using the same username and password you already use for other school applications—no need to remember yet another login/password. This means less time stumbling with forgotten passwords and more time focusing on what matters: your Learners.
For your setting’s or MAT’s IT team, SSO provides stronger security by keeping all logins centralised and controlled by your organisation’s systems. You’ll experience faster access to our tools, fewer interruptions from login issues, and one less password to keep track of.
It’s designed to work seamlessly with the systems your school already uses, making your digital workflow smoother than ever.
7. New tools & a Dashboard for Multi-Academy Trusts (EfL Enterprise)
EfL is used across dozens of Multi-Academy Trusts across the country, where each school within the Trust is using EfL individually. We’ve been working with a number of these trusts to develop tools that make it easier to support all their schools, reduce admin, and bring everything into one place.
These include innovative and powerful ways support for SEND reviews, moderation, CPD, and dashboards to review evidence, learner case studies and other types of assessment data across the trust.
We’re starting to pilot these tools this year with selected Multi-Academy Trusts. Please get in touch if you’d like to be part of the beta testing programme.
EfL continues to be shaped by and for the community of schools who use it.
Full details of the models (including pricing) will be released shortly. If you’re already part of the EfL LearningShared community, thank you. If not, there’s never been a better time to join.
Let us know how you’re using these new features, and we’ll spotlight your work in a future blog or newsletter. Simply click the button below to get in touch.
