This is Spotlight's guide to the discussion element of the process. With ways to get the very most from your chat with our experts.
The Agenda is Yours.
There is only one overarching aim for the post-assessment feedback session – that you, as parents or guardians, will come away from the thirty-minute session feeling that your child, and his or her learning profile, has been the focus.
Our feedback sessions are designed so that the consultant will ASSESS, DISCUSS and ADVISE.
When you register your child for Spotlight, you will be offered the opportunity to give the main
reason(s) for putting your child through the assessment – it could be that you are looking to move
school, perhaps to a more academically selective environment, or you are trying to pinpoint which
aspects of your child’s learner profile might best benefit from some targeted tutor support, or it could be that you wish to have real objective data at your fingertips when chatting to your child’s teacher at school.
When you meet your consultant online, having already received your child’s Spotlight Report and a brief biography about them, you can be certain that they are completely on your side, wanting you to end the session feeling positive and confident and knowing which steps to take next.
Our consultants have been carefully selected. They are well-known education experts and have all
worked in senior leadership positions in schools in recent years. They have been selected because they are passionate, flexible and they want to help – they will be kind, purposeful and professional. They have been trained how to use and interpret the data and, having been leaders in schools, they have the right balance of pastoral and academic understanding; they know how to speak to parents and to put the child at the heart of every conversation. Their recommendations and advice will be honest and meaningful and will be delivered through the online session. That will be repeated in written form on a Next Steps document which will reach you soon after the session.
How should you approach the feedback session?
The consultant will talk you through your child’s data and will make summary observations before diving into specific details. It is really important that you share the context of your child – their current progress, recent successes, areas of relative weakness – as the consultant will need to know as much as possible if she or she is to offer personalised support and advice. Don’t come away from the feedback saying, “I wish I’d said….”. If it is on your mind, share it. Your consultant is a professional and will deal appropriately with whatever comes their way.
Don’t be cautious. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because you are speaking to someone who used to be ‘terribly important’ in a school, you have to listen as if you are still a pupil in Year 6 … get on the front foot, get involved and make the most of the thirty-minutes.
Our feedback sessions are designed so that the consultant will ASSESS, DISCUSS and ADVISE. Allow that to happen and you will be rewarded with high-quality support and guidance – our consultants look forward to meeting you!
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