Education chiefs have given a firm assurance that pupil progress in Angus is being closely monitored despite teachers’ resistance to an award-winning online tracking tool.
The web-based On Track With Learning programme was a collaborative development between experts in Angus and North Lanarkshire aimed at enabling staff to plan, track and profile individual pupil learning and achievement within the new Curriculum for Excellence (CfE).
It was recognised at a Cosla awards ceremony last year, but some Angus teachers have complained about it being too time consuming and a mid-term performance report to the area’s children and learning committee revealed some have already dumped it.
The report said a “refresh in approaches to planning learning has resulted in a reduction of the number of schools using On Track With Learning”.
“For those schools which have invested time and effort with their staff and have decided to continue to use OTWL, support has been provided in a variety of ways.”
Montrose councillor David May said: “I’m disappointed to read this because as far as I am concerned this is the best way for youngsters and staff to keep on track with progress.
“This is done on an individual basis and it’s quite critical that happens, rather than on a whole-school basis in terms of tracking and attainment.”
Councillor Jim Houston said: “I’m concerned, given the amount of time and effort put into this, to discover that there has been some sort of retreat from it.
“It’s disappointing that this once vaunted electronic tool has perhaps not fallen by the wayside, but has retreated to some degree.”
Mr Houston said he was reassured, however, by the clear message from leading official Margo Williamson that robust monitoring measures remain in place in every Angus school.
The strategic director (people) confirmed to councillors that the ambition remains to have all Angus schools involved in OTWL, but participation is not mandatory.
“On Track With Learning is a very good tool and a lot of our schools are using it,” said the director.
“Our intention remains that it will be introduced in every school over the course of time, so although we are still tracking learning in different ways the OTWL tool is not compulsory.
“It has not gone, we are still tracking learning in different ways but we have to be conscious of teacher workload and the feedback that is coming back to us.
“We have standardised assessments in place and those assessments rate where the children are, but what is more important, and what we’re developing, are teachers’ judgments on CfE.
“We have to trust their judgments because they are professionals and we share good practice across schools.”
Committee convener Councillor Sheena Welsh said: “Maybe some schools got a bit bogged down in the use of this tool rather than the purpose of it.
“The important thing is that we are tracking and monitoring the progress of our pupils, although OTWL seems to have worked better in some schools than in others.
“It has not been thrown out and there may be some schools not using it at the moment that will come on board, and we will make sure that the clusters are working on the transfer of information,” added Mrs Welsh.