VLEs in a Pupil Referral Unit

In many ways a VLE or E-Portfolio could have been designed with the needs of a PRU and its students in mind. These Pupils often have attendance issues, can move from school to school and are often educated in a variety of locations within a week. They can quite easily get lost in the system, have their achievements unrecognised or known about, or not built upon as effectively as possible.

E-Learning can help to solve these problems. Here’s a quick run through of how: A pupil in School A is at risk of being excluded. The Behaviour Support Manager goes through the usual procedures and, if the risk is perceived to be a real one, could add the pupil to the PRU’s online facility. This would immediately ensure that if a pupil was to be placed in the PRU that their e-portfolio was available to teachers in the PRU: helping transition.

The pupil then gets a part time timetable in the PRU, with additional sessions organised through local organisations. Again a VLE or E-Portfolio can allow these educators to record and share the pupils achivements and to see how well they’ve done in their sessions at the PRU.

As time in the PRU goes on it’s decided that the pupil is ready to return to mainstream schooling but that a fresh start is probably the best route for this individual pupil. The new school can immediately access the pupils work record through the e-Portfolio that the PRU have maintained, saving weeks, if not longer, of waiting for work and records to be sent from the original school (who might not have seen or taught the pupil for months!)

We’ve seen several pupils in our local area benefitting greatly from such a system. Where in the past they may have been catered for based on a bit of educated guesswork whilst paperwork was passed around, they were dealt with more efficiently and benefitted from knowing that their own needs were being identified and taken into account by teachers.

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e-Portfolios

VLE