Parent Engagement & Empowerment- Frequently asked questions
***PLEASE NOTE THAT THE EfL FAMILY APP IS NOW AVAILABLE***
The Parent Portal is the old way that schools would share Evidence with parents / carers. If you are just starting the process of wanting to share Evidence with parents / carers then we would strongly recommend that you set up and start to use the new EfL Family App.
- Schools that have already set up the Parent Portal can move across to use the EfL Family App when they are ready to do so.
- The EfL Family App has a number off additional features and schools that are already using it have received some fantastic feedback from parents and carers.
For further information and walkthrough videos to help you set up and use the EfL Family App, please click on this link - https://resources.evidenceforlearning.net/category/407-efl-family-app
The information below if to help schools who have been using the Parent Portal for sometime and have not yet moved across to the new EfL Family App
Is evidence or PDFs shared automatically with parents?
No, nothing is shared automatically. It has been designed so that you and your colleagues have control and choose which pieces of evidence and which PDFs that you want to share with parents. You can turn off and hide any piece of evidence. Sharing evidence and PDFs is a very quick and easy progress.
Is there a Family App?
Yes the EfL Family App is now live and it available for you to set it up and to start using it with the parents, carers and families of your Learners. Here is a link for further information on setting up and using the EfL Family App - https://resources.evidenceforlearning.net/category/407-efl-family-app
Is the Parent Portal GDPR Compliant?
Yes. You'll find important information regarding GDPR and a link to key our data protection, security and privacy policies and notices: http://www.
We, (theTeacherCloud Ltd) and the apps (Evidence for Learning, Insights for Learning and associated tools) fully comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act (DPA) and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that came into effect on 25th May 2018, and we are registered with the UK Information Commissioners Office (see details in the below link and attachments). Under the terms of the GDPR, as you would expect, the school using the Evidence for Learning software is the Data Controller and we (theTeacherCloud Ltd) is the Data Processor.
Post Brexit: We are monitoring developments very closely and will be adapting in accordance with any emerging legislation and guidance between now and 31 December 2020. In the meantime, during the Brexit transition period we will continue to comply with GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Here’s a link to the ICO quick guidance on GDPR post-Brexit and during the transition period:
What will parents be sent so that they can access the Parent Account?
Once you have added parent/carers email addresses, enabled parent services and activated parent accounts you then send them two emails through EfL, one containing their unique login link and another containing their password.
How can I find out how the Parent Engagement & Empowerment Tools work from a parent/carers perspective?
Try and see it for yourself. You can set up yourself as the parent/carer of a test learner. Gather some evidence, share it and then login as the parent/carer so you can experience the various Parent Engagement and Empowerment Tools from a parents/carers perspective
Where can I get information about other schools' experiences using Parent Engagement?
We have a number of short video case studies that look at how different schools have worked with parents and carers using EfL. You can find and watch these here: https://www.
Are there any best practice resources or sample letters to parents that other schools have produced?
The following Google folder contains resources/letters templates to parents that schools have created and have shared with us. The folder also contains a document that we (EfL) have produced which contains suggested wording for inclusion in your Privacy Policy that you can use, if you are not already using. Please feel free to adapt this to incorporate into your school's privacy policy:
https://drive.google.com/open?
If you create some resources that you are willing to share, let us know and we can add it to the shared folder.
Can I have a webinar to help set up the Parent Engagement & Empowerment Tools?
Yes, we are here to help. If you need any help with the Parent Engagement & Empowerment tools or any other features in EfL or Insights, we can arrange webinars with you. During the webinar we can login to your systems and help you to setup and get started. If you would like to arrange a webinar please either email contact form on our website (https://www.
We can do webinars with you while you at school and at home. Don't worry we won't see each other, but they do allow us to log in to your EfL and share our screens with you as we explore the App and its features together. They are also an opportunity for us to answer any questions that you may have.
Do parents/carers need to access the original email they were sent to login to their parent account?
Parents/carers can simply click on the login link in the original email they were sent and once on the login page, they just bookmark it. They bookmark the page before entering their password and accessing their parent/carer account. In the future, they can then just simply click on the bookmark and they will be taken straight to their parent account login page.
How do my I/colleagues see feedback, comments that parents/carers have made on school produced evidence and evidence that parents/carers have uploaded from home?
Feedback and evidence uploaded from parents/carers will be displayed in the Parent Engagement & Empowerment area of the App. You can access this from the home screen of the App (with the animated stars), by Tapping on the Parent Engagement Icon (bottom left, it looks like a parent and child with their hands in the air). Feedback and evidence form parents will be displayed within the Parent Engagement of the App for all the Learners on that device. The evidence will also go into the Cloud for the Learner and will be clearly marked "From Parent". You can choose to include parents/carers feedback and evidence in Learner's PDFs (e.g Learner Journeys).
Are parents/carers password secure?
Yes, they are encrypted and they cannot be looked up by EfL or schools. Therefore, parents/carers can use passwords they use else where if they want to.
If a parent/carer forgets their password what should they do?
From their login page they can click on "Forgotten Password?".
See below...
They will then be asked to submit their email address. As long as they use the same email address that is associated within your EfL records, they will be sent a link to change their password. For security, the link they are sent will only be active for one hour. If they don't click on the link within the hour, they can request a further email by repeating the process. If they do contact you due to forgetting their password, you can either direct them as above or you can send them a randomly generated password.
I have some parents/carers with two children at the school, how will this work?
If a parent/carer has two children at your school then they will have one parent account for each child. They can make the password the same for both accounts but they do work completely interdependently from one and other. They will have a separate log in link for each child.
I have a parent who can login but they can't see any evidence or PDFs
By default evidence and PDFs are not shared with parents/carers. Go to the Learner's Profile and check to see if evidence and PDFs have been shared. You can see see how to share evidence with parents/carers within the guide - Share a piece of evidence with parents. Once, you have selected to share a piece of evidence or a PDF with a parent/carer it will be available for them to see within their parent account.