Boxall Profile: A teacher's guide

What is the Boxall Profile?

The Boxall Profile, named after the psychologist Marjorie Boxall, is a pivotal instrument for evaluating the social, emotional, and behavioral development of children and adolescents. It serves as a comprehensive online checklist that offers educators — particularly Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENDCos) — a detailed overview of a student's emotional and behavioral strengths, as well as challenges that might impede their educational journey.

Crafted with precision, the Boxall Profile is administered by staff members who have the closest understanding of the children and young people in question. Its two-part checklist is not only swift to complete but crucially sheds light on the specific skills necessary for students to engage effectively with their learning environments.

In many educational settings, students grapple with self-doubt and struggle to articulate their emotions, leading to withdrawal, underperformance, and difficulties in forming healthy relationships. Alternatively, some students may manifest their frustration and sense of failure through behaviors that disrupt not only their own progress but also that of their peers.

The Boxall Profile stands as a vital tool to decipher these behaviors and to navigate the complex web of social and emotional factors that influence a child's ability to participate actively in their education. By identifying these intricate aspects of a child’s development, educators can tailor support to foster both personal growth and academic success.

‍

‍

How does the Boxall Profile help teachers?

The Boxall Profile serves as an invaluable resource for educators, offering a multifaceted approach to support the development of children and young people. Here's how it aids teachers and the broader educational community:

For Teachers and Supervisors

• Early Identification and Assessment: The Boxall Profile equips teachers and supervisors with enhanced observational skills, facilitating early recognition of children’s and young people’s challenges.
• Target Setting and Intervention: It enables the setting of personalized, achievable goals that focus on reinforcing desired behaviors and skills.
• Tracking Progress: The tool assists in monitoring the targeted behaviors and progress of students, ensuring that interventions are on the right track.
• Practical Strategies and Techniques: Educators receive guidance on the specific supports a student requires, aiding in the planning of effective strategies and interventions.
• Understanding Student Needs: The profile helps in developing a comprehensive support plan by identifying the unique needs of each student.
• Developing Targeted Strategies: By offering a clear picture of a student’s strengths and challenges, it allows for the formulation of more effective teaching strategies.

Main Beneficiaries

• Children and Young People: The profile acts as a voice for behaviors that might otherwise be misunderstood, supporting early intervention, goal setting, behavior enhancement, and tracking personal development.
• Practitioners and Teaching Staff: It fosters a deeper understanding of student behaviors, aids in personalized service delivery, facilitates strategic planning, measures intervention impacts, and boosts confidence among practitioners as they address and overcome student challenges.
• Schools and Educational Settings: The Boxall Profile provides a structured framework for assessing individual pupils or classes, raises awareness of students' social well-being, aids in resource allocation, supports the development of evidence-based strategies, and promotes mental health and well-being within the school environment.

By integrating the Boxall Profile into their practice, educators can more effectively meet the complex needs of their students, promoting a more inclusive and supportive learning environment for all.

‍

‍

‍

What age does Boxall's profile cover?

Boxall profile is a unique tool that works online. Here are some points that describe how it works online and teachers can use it for the assessment of their students.

There are two Boxall Profile Tests -

• one for children (kindergarten/elementary students)
• and one for young students (high school students).

which Boxall Online Profile automatically sets based on an employee-entered date of birth. Finally, each child's score was compared with the literary-emotional benchmark scores of "competent" children of the same age group. Using this, goals for the child's social and emotional skills are assessed and re-evaluated.

‍

‍

‍

‍

Sections of Boxall Profile

It consists of these two sections:

Section I: Developmental Components

• This section measures progress on different aspects of a child's development during the first years - the initial evaluation assesses how the child's learning experience is organized and juvenile.
• Measuring different aspects of children's cognitive, social and emotional development.
• And how It affects emotional development.

Section II: Diagnostic Profile

• This section describes behaviours that inhibit or interfere with a child's satisfactory participation in school, self-limiting features, undeveloped behaviours, and underdevelopment.
• They are a direct or indirect result of poor learning in the early years. The earlier these children are identified, the more hope there is that their social and emotional development isn't delayed.
• And behavioural difficulties can be addressed and remedied by providing patient upbringing and support.

‍

‍

How a teacher can use Boxall Profile for the assessment of children

• Individual student profiles are created from the teacher's evaluation.
• Once the profile is created, both the sections (Development and diagnostics) must be considered together.
• By observing both the section a teacher can identify areas of strength as well as areas where the student appear to be having difficulty
• These strengths and areas of difficulty can be identified on close examination of the strand or histogram that are made in each section - developmental and
  diagnosis.

Boxall Profile Online

• The Boxall Profile has been used by education professionals since the 1970s in paper samples.
• The release of Boxall Profile Online has revolutionized the usage assessment tools and facilitated and speed up evaluations.
• In a day more than 160,000 reviews are completed online.

By completing Boxall Profiles online, teachers and professionals can:

• Identify and evaluate social and emotional aspects and behavioural needs
• Boxall's Profile is a way to understand what's hidden behind Challenging student behaviour And what is possible in their true social and emotional needs.
• Set goals and strategies
• To support develop missing skills and gaps in early development.
• Browse resources
• That may be helpful according to the stated goals.
• TrackProcess
• Keep track of student's progress and help  in solving problems on
  time and identify the most effective strategies.
• Create a group preview
• To mark common difficulties and needs of the group.
• Better targeted exploration and planning approach
• To solve emotional difficulties and happiness individually and at the group level.
• Measuring the impact of mental health
• Support students with special difficulties across the UK or in a particular area.
• Raising awareness around mental health
• For the well-being of students in school and to support them

‍

Features of Boxall Profile

The Boxall Profile stands as a versatile and accessible tool designed to support educators and Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENDCos) in addressing the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of students. Here are some of its standout features:

• Ease of Access: With its user-friendly interface, the Boxall Profile can be conveniently accessed on mobile and tablet devices. New users are welcomed with step-by-step guidelines to streamline their experience.
• Personal Study Plan: Educators can set personalized goals based on the insights gained from the Boxall profile assessments. The platform offers a rich repository of techniques and resources aimed at enhancing specific social and emotional skills.
• Collaborative Review and Reassessment: The tool allows for the periodic review and reassessment of goals, encouraging collaborative input from various staff members. This fosters a unified school-wide approach to learning plans.

The Boxall Profile encourages a deeper understanding of students' needs, facilitating the development of tailored interventions and support strategies. Its implementation can significantly contribute to mental health and behavioral interventions in schools, aligning with findings from a 2018 Department for Education report that highlights its efficacy as a common tool for identifying specific mental health needs among children and young people.The profile's initial role in evaluating the needs of young individuals in nurturing groups has evolved into a comprehensive assessment of the entire educational setting.

When applied across a school, it can uncover mild Social, Emotional, and Mental Health (SEMH) needs that might otherwise remain unnoticed. Research demonstrates that the use of Boxall Profile Online can reveal SEMH requirements in a significant portion of the student population, with subsequent support efforts showing marked improvement in student engagement. Beyond its diagnostic capabilities, the Boxall Profile is esteemed for its ability to foster a deeper understanding of students, aiding educators in crafting supportive and responsive learning environments.

It empowers the creation of unique lesson plans tailored to enhance the well-being of students, ensuring that each child's individual challenges are effectively addressed.With its comprehensive approach to assessing and supporting students' social, emotional, and behavioral development, the Boxall Profile Online emerges as a critical resource in promoting positive mental health and well-being within educational settings.

‍

‍

Getting started with the profile

Embarking on the journey with the Boxall Profile begins at new.boxallprofile.org, where registration unlocks access to a complimentary evaluation. While the platform is intuitive, maximizing its benefits for your school involves training at least one staff member. This ensures a comprehensive understanding of the tool, with training available for both beginners and advanced users.

Newly Updated Features of the Boxall Profile

The enhanced Boxall Profile® Online platform revolutionizes user experience with added features, improved security, and increased flexibility. Highlights include:

• Smooth Migration: An effortless process for users of the previous version, ensuring seamless data transfer and immediate use of the new platform.
• Expanded Organization Types: Schools, Multi-Academy Trusts, external professionals, among others, can now enjoy unlimited user access with a single subscription.
• Customizable Access Rights: Tailored access rights within an organization, complemented by diverse menu options, ensure users have appropriate levels of access.
• Enhanced Focus on Teens: The platform now allows for the addition of unique references and details to teen profiles, enriching the assessment process.

‍

‍

‍

Feedback from Educators

A primary school principal noted the Boxall Profile's utility in providing insights into students' development, sparking deeper inquiries into the origins of certain behaviors. A primary teacher highlighted its effectiveness in revealing underlying stress in seemingly calm students, uncovering deep-seated issues through whole-school evaluations.

For Parents and Guardians

When a child is assessed using the Boxall Profile, it signifies a comprehensive approach to understanding and supporting their social, emotional, and mental health needs. This assessment can identify areas where a child may require additional support, enabling schools to tailor interventions and foster a more inclusive learning environment. The Boxall Profile not only aids in detecting individual student needs but also enhances whole-class strategies for social and emotional skill development.

The Boxall Profile and the Graduated Approach to Nurture

The Boxall Profile is integral to a tiered educational strategy, determining the level and type of support a student might need, from targeted interventions like nurture groups to more casual nurturing activities. It underpins the recommendation for schools to screen students' social, emotional, and mental health needs using the Boxall Profile, ensuring comprehensive support and early intervention across the educational spectrum.

This structured approach enables educators to create an environment where every student's SEMH needs are acknowledged and addressed, paving the way for a supportive and inclusive educational journey.

‍

Research and Insights on the Boxall Profile

Here are five key studies on the efficacy and implications of the Boxall Profile:

1. British norms and psychometric properties of the Boxall Profile for primary school-aged children (Ruby, 2020): This study updated norms for the Boxall Profile for children aged 4 to 11 and explored its psychometric properties, providing substantial evidence for the reliability and validity of the tool since its publication.
2. Utilising the Boxall Profile within the Scallywags service for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties (Broadhead, Chilton, & Stephens, 2011): This article provides an in-depth analysis of the Scallywags intervention, aimed at children with emotional and behavioural difficulties, and how the Boxall Profile can inform practice for learners with such challenges.
3. Assessing effectiveness of nurture groups in Northern Scotland (Shaver & McClatchey, 2013): This small-scale study assessed the effectiveness of nurture groups in Northern Scotland and found significant gains in developmental strands of the Boxall Profile for children who attended these groups.
4. Identifying preschool children’s social emotional and mental health difficulties: validation of the Early Years Boxall Profile (EYBP) (Ruby, 2021): This study aimed to develop and validate the Early Years Boxall Profile (EYBP), finding that the tool showed limited accuracy in screening children with SEMH difficulties but had good internal consistency and excellent convergent and concurrent validity.
5. Investigating the fidelity and effectiveness of Nurture Groups in the secondary school context (Grantham & Primrose, 2017): This study explored the application of Nurture Groups in secondary schools and their impact on vulnerable youth, finding significant improvements in developmental strands of the Boxall Profile and overall effectiveness in supporting social, emotional, and behavioural development.

These studies provide insights into the use, validity, and effectiveness of the Boxall Profile and its adaptations in assessing and supporting the social, emotional, and mental health needs of children across different educational settings.

‍