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What does a “personalised education” look like for Online Harrovians?

Gillian Hughes

One of the biggest benefits to online schooling is the ability to tailor each students’ learning to their particular needs. In this article we explore what that careful process of personalisation involves for Harrow School Online.

To personalise is to design or produce something to meet an individual's specific requirements. Our school’s personalised performance learning approach has been refined to give every pupil an optimal chance to flourish, and begins from the point at which they are enrolled. 

When each student joins the school body, they are invited to examine their strengths, skills, and previous school performance within a supportive context, involving teachers, Success Coaches, and their parents or guardians. Combined with initial assessments and other key data, these conversations can be used to pinpoint a student’s distinctive talents and areas for focus. The result is a selection of the most appropriate course journey, and a targeted learning approach based wholly around the individual.

At Harrow School Online we are always looking for ways to enhance our students’ learning potential, and re-evaluations continue throughout the year. We find subject testing to be particularly effective in measuring progress and establishing the most up-to-date learning goals. 

Personalising a student’s learning should never be a one-time process. Students, Success Coaches, parents, and teachers will routinely work together to set, review and adjust ongoing aims. Integral to this is the establishment of a timeline for set accomplishments. Through regular communication schedules, and precise adjustments to learning plans, our support staff collectively ensure that every Online Harrovian feels at the centre – and the forefront – of their development.

In the process of bringing the Harrow experience online, we have rigorously adapted our educational programmes, ensuring all students remain fully engaged, and that staff remain equipped to bring out the best in them. Within the structure of the school programme, students use an academic global platform to study from home, joining ‘LiveLesson’ sessions to broaden their knowledge with expert teachers and students across the world. High quality, interactive, self-study materials can be completed at a pace that suits the student, with teachers using live sessions, office hours, and other contact time to stretch them wherever possible. 

This ‘flipped classroom’ approach has been proven to both increase student engagement and encourage strong faculties of critical thinking. Meanwhile, working alongside diligent peers in countries around the world helps online Harrovians not only further their understanding of diverse cultures, but create lasting, international networks of friends.

The flexibility of the learning style, partnered with the opportunities that extracurricular activities and Success Coaches bring, keep pupils on track to meet their targets and thrive in education. By building and managing their own schedules, students receive a personalised experience that offers control over learning, jointly fostering independence and self-discipline.

Ultimately, it’s an approach that fully sets Harrow School Online apart, giving each and every one of our pupils the keys to unlock their potential to the full.