Guide to implementing the Boxall Profile® Online in secondary schools
Guide to implementing the Boxall Profile® Online in secondary schools
At Nurtureuk, we understand that creating a nurturing environment is key to helping every student thrive. Embracing new approaches, like the impactful Boxall Profile® Online, requires careful thought and brings significant opportunities to nurture your whole school community. This guide explores how secondary schools can leverage the Boxall Profile® Online to effectively understand and support their students, especially during crucial transitions and throughout their secondary education.
Understanding the Boxall Profile® Online
The Boxall Profile® Online is a comprehensive, evidence-based assessment tool that empowers you to understand the social, emotional, and developmental needs of your pupils. It provides invaluable insights into each pupil’s strengths and areas for growth, making it particularly beneficial for:
- Supporting Year 7 transitions and helping students settle into secondary school life.
- Facilitating smooth mid-year transfers and ensuring continuity of care.
- Supporting the ongoing development of all secondary students as they navigate adolescence.
Best practices for implementation
To help you successfully implement the Boxall Profile® Online and maximise its positive impact, we’ve identified some key considerations. We’re here to guide you through each step, ensuring a smooth and effective implementation:
- Staff training: Equipping your staff with the knowledge and skills to use the tool effectively is essential. We offer comprehensive training resources to support your team.
- Data privacy: We understand the sensitive nature of student information. Robust data security is paramount. You can explore our comprehensive measures and GDPR compliance details here.
- System integration: The Boxall Profile® Online is designed to work with your existing school systems, minimising disruption and maximising efficiency.
- Ongoing support: We provide ongoing support to ensure you can confidently and effectively use the Boxall Profile® Online to support your students.
Assessment timing and collaboration
To ensure you gain the most accurate and valuable insights from the Boxall Profile® Online, consider the following:
- Year 7: For the most reliable insights, conduct assessments after the initial settling-in period (typically a few weeks into the autumn term) when typical behaviours are more evident. This allows students time to adjust to their new environment.
- Transfer pupils: When assessing students who join the school in other year groups, prioritize building rapport and observing their typical behaviour over a settling period before administering the profile. This leads to a more accurate understanding of their needs.
- Targeted initial assessment: It may be helpful to focus initially upon an identified cohort, before assessing pupils more widely across the school. This allows you to focus your initial efforts and resources effectively. Consider starting with students with:
- Socialisation concerns
- Disengagement
- Attendance concerns
- Suspension concerns
- Who are Looked After Children
Working with existing systems
The Boxall Profile® Online is designed to work with your existing school systems, not to add to your workload. Our easy-to-use import function ensures efficient data transfer, minimising administrative time and promoting a smooth transition. To help you develop a truly holistic understanding of each student and provide targeted support, the platform also allows you to integrate numeracy and literacy goals directly into individual learning plans.
Supporting transitions
We recognise that transitions can be a particularly vulnerable time for students. The Boxall Profile® Online can play a key role in ensuring these transitions are as smooth and supportive as possible.
- Primary to secondary collaboration: During the transition from primary to secondary school, collaboration between feeder primary school staff and secondary school staff is crucial. Creating Boxall Profiles® together can ensure a smooth handover of pupil information and needs.
- The Transition Passport: The Boxall Profile® Online Transition Passport feature streamlines this process by enabling primary schools to create detailed transition documents that capture both assessment data and personalised observations. This valuable insight helps secondary school staff understand and respond to each child’s needs from day one, ensuring continuity of support throughout the transition period.
- Involving multiple staff: When new pupils are settled, involve multiple staff members who interact regularly with the pupil to gather a well-rounded view of their needs. This collaborative approach provides a more comprehensive understanding.
Benefits of the Boxall Profile® Online for Secondary Schools
The Boxall Profile® Online empowers you to create a nurturing and supportive learning environment for all your students. Here’s how:
- Targeted support, transformative impact: The Boxall Profile® Online provides detailed insights into the unique social, emotional, and developmental needs of each secondary student. This empowers you to move beyond general approaches and implement highly targeted support strategies. By pinpointing specific areas for growth, you can strategically allocate resources – staff time, funding, and specialist support – to maximise impact on individual student progress and well-being, ultimately fostering stronger academic outcomes.
- A whole-school culture of nurture: The impact of the Boxall Profile® Online extends beyond individual students. Consistent use across your secondary school provides a rich data landscape, revealing broader trends and informing whole-school development. This evidence base supports the evolution of school-wide policies and practices, embedding a truly nurturing and trauma-informed approach throughout your school. This holistic approach cultivates a more positive and supportive learning environment, strengthens peer relationships, and proactively enhances the overall well-being and resilience of your student body.
- Designed for ease, focused on students: We understand that time is precious. While any new system requires some initial familiarisation, the Boxall Profile® Online is designed with user-friendliness at its core. Its intuitive interface and powerful analytical features streamline the process of identifying, understanding, and addressing complex student needs. This efficiency allows your staff to dedicate more time to what matters most: direct student support. By providing a clear and consistent framework for assessment and intervention, the Boxall Profile® Online becomes an invaluable tool for effectively supporting adolescent development and well-being in a busy secondary setting.
Frequently Asked Questions
We’ve compiled several frequently asked questions to help you understand how the Boxall Profile® Online can support your secondary school.
How can the Boxall Profile® Online help us identify and support the diverse social, emotional, and development needs of our secondary students, especially those with complex profiles or who are transitioning from primary school?
The Boxall Profile® Online provides a detailed assessment of individual students’ social, emotional, and developmental needs across key areas like self-regulation, relationships, self-esteem, and managing feelings. The platform allows for the creation of individual profiles, enabling you to identify specific strengths and areas for development. This is particularly valuable for understanding the varying needs within a secondary cohort and for creating effective transition plans from primary, as you can build upon existing knowledge and quickly identify students who may require additional support as they navigate the complexities of secondary school life. Tools like the Transition Passport ensure continuity of care by capturing key information and strategies as students move between settings.
Our secondary school has a large number of students and limited staff time. How user-friendly is the Boxall Profile® Online, and how can it integrate efficiently into our existing pastoral and support systems?
The Boxall Profile® Online is designed with efficiency in mind. The online platform offers an intuitive interface for data input, and it streamlines the process of generating insightful individual and group reports. These reports can be easily shared (securely) with relevant staff members, facilitating quicker identification of needs and the development of targeted interventions. While initial training is recommended (resources are available here), the long-term efficiency gains in assessment, planning, and progress monitoring can significantly reduce administrative burden on pastoral teams, freeing up valuable time for direct student support.
How does the Boxall Profile® Online support our secondary school in demonstrating the impact of our wellbeing and pastoral interventions to stakeholders, including Ofsted?
The platform allows for the easy tracking of student progress over time through the use of follow-up profiles. This feature provides clear, measurable data on the impact of implemented interventions on students’ development. These progress reports serve as valuable evidence for demonstrating the effectiveness of your school’s wellbeing strategies and pastoral support to senior leadership, governors, parents, and during Ofsted inspections. The data directly aligns with the “Personal Development” and “Behaviour and Attitudes” aspects of the framework, showcasing a data-informed approach to supporting the holistic development of your students.
What training and support resources are available for our secondary school staff to effectively implement and utilise the Boxall Profile® Online across different departments and roles?
Subscribing to the Boxall Profile® Online includes access to our dedicated online course, empowering your team to confidently utilise the platform. To further support school-wide implementation and deepen understanding, we also offer the comprehensive Theory and Practice of the Boxall Profile®. Beyond these learning opportunities, our Boxall Profile® Online Help Centre is a rich source of resources for all staff. We encourage you to begin with the Getting Started guide and ensure key personnel explore these valuable resources for seamless and impactful integration across your school.
Experience the benefits for yourself: Start your free trial
Integrating the Boxall Profile® Online into your school’s assessment routine can transform how you support pupil development at a crucial stage in their educational journey. By adopting this tool, UK secondary schools can ensure they are well-equipped to meet the challenges of supporting all pupils effectively, especially those transitioning into new educational environments.
Join thousands of professionals who are making a tangible difference in the lives of children, supporting the social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH) of all children and young people, to positively impact their learning, behaviour, attendance, and wellbeing.
Start your free trial now and unlock the potential in every child with the Boxall Profile® Online.