Learning Plans - Making basic template changes

The built-in Learning Plan template has been designed to meet the majority of needs. But you may have specific requirements in your school that you'd like to reflect in your headings and layout.

This guide details how an Admin user can make changes to the table columns and some basic layout and content tweaks.

Making changes to a Learning Plan template will also apply those changes to any existing pupil Learning Plans, including any archived ones. It is worth double-checking that any destructive changes, such as removing comment boxes, are acceptable. If not, it may be better to create a new template.

Insight supports using a Word template for learning plans, in which you have complete control over the content and appearance. If you think you may require this level of customisation, see our additional advanced guides, beginning with editing a Word template.

School and Trust Learning Plan Templates

To begin, view the learning plan templates via Admin > Learning plan templates

Templates can be created at school or Trust level. Trust templates are accessible to use with pupils, where appropriate, by all schools in the Trust.

View the templates via Admin > Learning plan templates

Adding or amending templates at Trust level works in the same way as at school level. Just access Learning plan templates via the Trust admin page rather than the school admin page.

The following describes usage at school level.

Any learning plans you have created and uploaded will appear in the list. By default, there will be just one.

Making basic changes

Click the Learning Plan name link to access to the edit area. This has some buttons at the top and a lower section, split into four tabs.

Renaming, archiving or deleting the template

If you think you might require additional templates, perhaps for specific foci, it is worth naming this template according to its intended usage. Use the Rename button to achieve this. Renaming a template will not affect any Learning Plans that are using it.

You can also Archive the template. Archived templates are not available for any new learning plans, but any active plans will remain. This may be useful if you create several templates and want to tidy up, to make sure other staff use the intended template going forward.

If a template is no longer in use, and there are no historical learning plans using it that you want to keep, the Delete option is available. This is also useful if you have created a template to experiment and just want to remove it.

When you click the Delete button a confirmation warning will be displayed. If your template has current or archived plans using it the number will be shown, and you will be required to type the name of the template to confirm the deletion.

If there are no learning plans using the template, you will not be required to type the name, as there are much reduced implications for the deletion.

Deleting a Learning Plan template is final and there is no way to restore it, once deleted.

Restoring an archived template

Occasionally, you may decide that an archived template is required after all. Or perhaps it was archived in error.

To restore the template click its name in the Learning Plan template list.

You then have a button to un-archive the template.

Doing so will make the template available for other to use when creating new Learning Plans once again.

Previewing the template

The first tab, Preview, enables you to see what the template looks like.

It displays Placeholders, rather than actual pupil data, but should enable you to visualise the final plans.

Editing the Comment boxes

The second tab, Comment Boxes, controls the comments that appear in your plan. They display as individual boxes, either above or below the targets table (if there is one).

Simply click within any existing name to make changes.

Click in the lower box, and type, to add a new comment.

You can drag the text boxes, using the arrow icons, to change their order in the table (the top one appearing on the left where comment boxes are arranged horizontally and so on).

Use the trash icon to delete a comment box. Then click Save Changes when complete.

Editing the Target Table Columns

The third tab, Target Columns, controls any target table columns that you want in your template.

The Insight standard learning plan template appears as below, for example.

Simply click within any existing name to make changes.

Click in the lower box, and type, to add a new comment.

Use the tools to rename, add or remove as required. Like comment boxes, you can drag and drop the text boxes, using the arrow icons, to change their order in the table (the top one appearing on the left and so on).

The Extra Columns are where the interactive table cells can be toggled on or off.

If you are making use of the Provision Mapping feature in your school, the Provisions column gives you an interactive cell in which staff can indicate if a particular Provision is part of achieving a target in a learning plan. If you are not making use of this feature, simply untick the box.

The Review column also gives an interactive cell in which staff can enter an effectiveness measure. Again, untick this if it's not something you need.

Click Save Changes when complete.

Viewing the changes

Either use the Preview tab to review your changes, or click Pupils in the menu bar and select a pupil with a learning plan based on the template you just edited. You will now see the comment boxes and target columns with the newly defined headings.

Using a Custom Word Template

The fourth tab, custom Word template, is an advanced option and requires you to download, and edit, a template in Word. It is useful if you require greater control over the visuals in your template.

This is covered in our specific guide.