Xeno (providing on-line learning and support for young people and those caring for them)

Xeno is a co-operative venture for members of SEGfL and Uniservity. We are building a ‘virtual learning community’ of professionals and young people that enables resources to be jointly developed and encourages co-operative learning.

‘Personalised learning’ will put the learner at the centre of provision and give every child access to online tools. Xeno is an online environment that will act as a virtual school for children who are disconnected from normal schooling. Schools and local authorities generally struggle to maintain levels of achievement with these groups and research recommends catch-up support and independent/individual learning opportunities out of school. SEGfL proposes to facilitate the combination of local authority efforts so that resources can be jointly developed or procured, good practice can be shared and children can store and retrieve their work and learning records

Xeno will become a focal point of opportunity for pupils going in and out of mainstream education and an opportunity for local authorities to support their own pupils but also to contribute towards the whole in terms of content, materials and staffing. It will be of particular interest to staff and children in pupil referral units, hospital and home tuition services, young offenders’ institutions, teenage parents’ units, young carers’ organisations, home education organisations and looked after children’s services as it will create a virtual community for these, often isolated, professionals. It could also be used by schools to support pupils that are temporarily excluded.

Through its partnership with Uniservity and using the cLc, Xeno will work closely with the relevant professionals to provide:

• Learning Platform functionality with secure, remote access and online storage.
• Links to a wide range of resources to provide curriculum materials, including the internet.
• Links to schemes of work that can guide students through a variety of curriculum objectives.
• Provision of an e-Portfolio that can be stored, updated and retrieved.
• Personal space for students to store and retrieve their work.
• Interaction with tutors (issue tasks, hand-in work, feedback grades and comments).
• Dialogue with tutors (leave questions and get answers).
• Dialogue with other students (a virtual school community).
• All in a safe, secure, on-line environment.