Friday 27 February 2015

How to build a portfolio for schools

If you are moving into the UK, and looking for a school for your child, it is helpful to have a portfolio to illustrate your child’s strengths and areas that need work.

Schools receive a lot of enquiries on a day-to-day basis and the aim of the portfolio is to lift your child out of the pack and develop the relationship with the school before the admissions process.

Some items that can be helpful:

  • Copies of school reports, most importantly the most recent end-of-year report.
  • Evidence of any standard testing that they have undertaken and scores achieved.
  • A recommendation from the child’s current school.
  • Examples of work – for younger children this can be written work in English and Maths and names of books that they have been reading with confidence.  For older children, it might include work in foreign languages and sciences.
  • For older children, it is also good to get an idea of the curriculum that the child has been following in individual subjects, so that this can be set alongside the curriculum being taught in the prospective school.