Plan the learning

The learner's own page

Give your child their own portal: their work, lessons, curriculum, timetable, schedule, classes, portfolio and progress — reached by a private link, or by their own sign-in if they're old enough to want one. Either way, they never see what anything costs.

What it does

Children don't have AltEd accounts. You hold the record, and you decide what they see.

The learner's own page is a private portal you share with your child. It has its own short navigation and a page for each part of their learning:

There are two ways in, and they show exactly the same ten pages:

• A private link (/my/…) — no sign-in, so a young child doesn't need a password. The link is the key: anyone holding it can open the portal. You can create a new link, or turn it off, at any time.
• Their own sign-in (/learn) — an account of their own, for a teenager who would rather not rely on a link you bookmarked. They sign in with a link sent to their email address, like every other AltEd account. You create the account and you can close it at any time.

You can use either, or both. Turning one off does not affect the other.

What your child can see

• Their own work, lessons, curriculum plans, timetable, schedule, classes, portfolio and resources
• The name of a tutor they have a session with, and of whoever runs a class they're in
• Marks and feedback on work that has been marked — only if you turn that on (see below)
• Reports their tutors have shared with you about their sessions — the newest ten, on Progress — only if you turn on Show reports from tutors. A report a tutor hasn't shared yet never shows

What your child cannot see

• Anything about money — no charges, no credits, no payments, no prices, no class fees
• Any other child in your family
• Your contact details, or your providers' contact details
• Notes, reports or connections — none of those screens exist in the portal
• Your own conversations with providers — only the conversations they're in themselves (with their own sign-in), which you're in too

What your child can do

• Mark a piece of work as started or finished
• Mark a curriculum topic in progress or completed, or back to pending (they're asked first when it was completed); each change goes in their log on Progress in their name
• Tick a task's steps off one by one, then Submit for a look — with a score, a message for whoever set it, and their work attached as a link or an uploaded photo or PDF — and take it back until you or a provider has reviewed it
• Log their own progress or a note in the tracker (never an incident), from Today or from Progress
• Print their timetable, or save it as a PDF
• With their own sign-in: message their tutors from Messages — only tutors you're connected to, and you're always in the conversation and read everything in it (see below)
• With their own sign-in: mention you or one of their tutors in a note, which shares it with that person to read, read notes shared with them, and suggest changes to a shared note when its owner asks them to — the owner decides whether to keep them

And nothing else. They can't change a due date, set themselves new work or targets, skip a curriculum topic, move a period on the timetable, or reopen a piece of work a tutor has already marked. Every submission is recorded against your child by name in the audit trail, so you can always see it was them — and on Progress (/dashboard/progress) anything they submitted waits under To review for you to Accept it or Send back with a reason. A submission counts for nothing until it is accepted; a sent-back one shows your reason on their card and can be submitted again. They see tracker entries marked for everyone or for the family, never guardian-only ones. See Progress — the tracker.

Where to find it

Navigation: Learning → Learners, then the ⋯ menu on your child's row → Their own page.

The portal lives at a private address in the form /my/…, which you'll see in full when you open the dialog. Every page sits under that same address — /my/…/work, /my/…/curriculum and so on — so one link opens the whole thing. A child with their own sign-in finds the same pages at /learn after signing in.

Step by step

Give your child their own sign-in

Best for older children and teenagers, who tend to want an account rather than a bookmark.

1. Go to Learners (/dashboard/learners).
2. Select the ⋯ menu on your child's row, then Their own page.
3. Under Their own sign-in, type an email address for them and select Give them a sign-in.
4. Tell them to go to AltEd and sign in with that address. They'll get a link by email — there is no password to set or remember.

Their portal is then at /learn, and it opens on their own name. The dialog shows when they last signed in.

What their account can and cannot do. It only ever opens their own ten pages. It cannot open the dashboard, see your other children, see anything about money, or change what kind of account it is. If they try any of those, AltEd simply refuses — there is nothing for them there.

Close their sign-in

1. Open Their own page.
2. Under Their own sign-in, select Close their sign-in, then confirm.

Their account is deleted and they're signed out everywhere straight away. Nothing else about them changes — their work, marks, portfolio and history all stay exactly as they are, because those belong to their record and not to their account. You can give them a new sign-in whenever you like.

Share the portal with your child

1. Go to Learners (/dashboard/learners).
2. Select the ⋯ menu on your child's row.
3. Choose Their own page.
4. If their page is off, select Turn their page on. The private link appears.
5. Select the copy button beside the link.
6. Put the link on the device they'll use — a bookmark or home-screen shortcut works better than sending it in a message.

When your child messages a tutor

With their own sign-in, your child has Messages in their portal. Message a tutor lists the tutors and providers you're connected to; choosing one opens a conversation with three people in it — the tutor, your child and you. A tutor can open one with your child too, from their own Messages › Message a learner. Either way:

• You're always in it. You can't be taken out of it, and you can't leave it while it's open. It's in your Messages as _Tutor_ and _your child_, and you're told about new messages as with any conversation.
• It's checked more closely. A tutor (or any adult other than you) asking your child for their social media or for pictures of themselves is held before your child sees it; asking for their own number, email or address goes to AltEd's moderators. Anything reported from it is decided by a person, never by AI.
• If your child shares a phone number or a messaging app, you're told in the bell.
• Ending your connection with the tutor closes it for all three of you. If you connect again, it opens again as it was.

A provider can also add your child to a group, if they have their own sign-in — you're always added with them, and if you leave the group (or are removed), your child leaves too.

There's no messaging behind the shared link: anyone with the link could otherwise write as your child.

Show marks and feedback

By default the portal shows no marks: a mark reaches your child through you first. To change that:

1. Open Their own page.
2. Turn on Show marks and feedback. It saves straight away.

From then on, marked work on My work shows the score and any comment, their tracker shows the scores you and their tutors record and your words back when you accept something, and Progress gains a Marks section with the recent marks and an average across everything marked out of a total. Turn the switch off to hide them again — nothing else about the portal changes, and the link stays the same.

Two things show whichever way the switch is set: a score your child gives themselves when they submit something (it's theirs), and the reason you give when you send something back (it's what they need to do it again).

Only the child's guardian (or an administrator) can change this. A provider can mark work, but cannot decide whether the child sees the mark.

When your child logs their work

Log something is on Today as well as on Progress, so the moment something is finished is the moment it can be written down. It takes a few words about what they did, Add a photo of your work (choose one, drag it onto the box, or paste a photo or screenshot with Ctrl+V or ⌘V; up to six), or both — they don't need to give it a name.

Subject is a dropdown of the subjects your family already uses, gathered from their timetables, the tasks set for them, their log, their portfolio and their curriculum plans — only the ones they can already see, so a subject on your private tasks or notes, or from a tutor you've disconnected, never appears — with each one listed once however it has been spelled. Other… lets them type a subject that isn't there yet. That keeps "maths", "Maths" and "Math" from becoming three subjects in their record.

If you've turned on AI drafting, AI reads it for you and it waits in your Progress log for you to accept, with the wording and the curriculum topics it seems to cover ready to apply; your child is told it's waiting for a grown-up to look at. With AI drafting off it's simply logged. See Progress — the tracker.

Show reports from tutors

Reports tutors share about sessions are written for you, so by default they don't appear on your child's page. To show them:

1. Open Their own page.
2. Turn on Show reports from tutors. It saves straight away.

From then on Progress gains Reports from your tutors with the newest ten shared reports. Turn it off to hide them again. You always see reports yourself in Sessions and in the education record on Reports, whichever way the switch is set. Only the child's guardian (or an administrator) can change it — a tutor can't turn it on.

Create a new link

If the link has gone somewhere you didn't intend — a shared family chat, an old device you've passed on — replace it:

1. Open Their own page again.
2. Select Create a new link, then confirm.

The old link stops working immediately, on every page of the portal, so give your child the new one.

Turn the portal off

1. Open Their own page.
2. Select Turn the page off, then confirm.

Their portal stops opening straight away. Nothing is lost — turn it back on whenever you like and they'll get a fresh link. Your Show marks and feedback and Show reports from tutors choices are remembered.

What each screen shows

The dialog (your side) shows the private link with a copy button, a plain-English summary of what your child can and can't see, the Show marks and feedback and Show reports from tutors switches, the Their own sign-in section (an email box, or their address and when they last used it), and the controls for replacing or switching off the link.

The portal (their side) has a header with your child's first name, a light/dark toggle — and, with their own sign-in, a bell that tells them when a task they submitted is accepted or sent back, with your reason, and when something new is set for them — and a short navigation — a row of pills on a phone, a sidebar on a larger screen. The four pages a day needs come first — Today, My work, Progress, Timetable — and the rest sit below a divider.

Click to enlargeTap to enlarge

• Today opens with a greeting and how many things still need them — tasks sent back, overdue or due today, plus unfinished work — then Your tasks: a card per task, grouped in the order that matters — Sent back — try again (with your reason on the card), Waiting for a look, Overdue, Due today, Any time, Done today. A card shows the task's kind, when it's due, who set it, its details and links, its Steps as tick boxes (tap the step's name or its box — each is a full-width row, big enough for small fingers), and one button: Submit for a look (greyed until every step is ticked). Then What came back — what you said about what they submitted over the past week, headed the way you'd say it (Yesterday's verdicts, Today's and yesterday's verdicts, Verdicts since Thursday), each line saying when (Accepted by … yesterday) and, when it was for an earlier day, which day (for Mon 12 Oct) — Your targets, My work (a card per piece of work with its title, any instructions, when it's due, and a Done button — work past its due date says so in amber rather than red; it's a nudge, not a telling-off), Today's timetable if they have one, What's coming up, and Finished.
• My work has four tabs. A card in To do has Start and Done; a card in Started has Done; Finished and Marked are read-only. A card links to its lesson where there is one. Finished and Marked go back as far as the family's plan shows (a year on Free, all of it on Family and Provider), with a line at the foot saying so when it stops; anything still to do is always listed, however old. Their Portfolio and the Marks on Progress follow the same window. Nothing is deleted, and the printable education record still includes everything.
• Lessons lists each lesson with its subject, curriculum and length, and how many pieces of work on it are still open. A lesson page shows the lesson content, What it covers — the specification units the lesson teaches, when its course follows a specification from the catalogue — and their work on it in the same four tabs.
• Curriculum lists each plan with its level, subject and exam board, the week they're in, and a progress bar. A plan page groups topics by week, opens the current week, and gives every topic a status circle — select it to mark the topic started, then completed; hover over it for the days — the topic's place in the specification, a time estimate, and any attached resources such as Oak National Academy units. To find one topic in a long plan, type part of it into Find a topic — a word from its name ("orbits"), its reference ("3.2") or the heading it sits under; every word typed has to match, in any order. The weeks give way to the matching topics, each under its week and still with its circle to tick, and a line underneath says how many matched. Escape or the × puts the weeks back.
• Schedule groups the next fortnight by day. A session from a class they have a place in carries the class's name. A cancelled session is struck through rather than removed.
• Timetable draws each timetable built for them as a grid, with a key of subjects beneath, and a Print or save as PDF button — the same one you have on the builder. Each period shows its caption under its name. When you've set the timetable's year up (Family and Provider plans), a row of weeks sits above the grid, opening on this week (Now): they can step back and forward with the arrows, or come back with This week, and each period shows what it's for that week — your caption for the week, else the curriculum plan's topic, else the usual one. A week off is shaded — Half term — no study this week. On Today, each of today's periods shows today's topic, and a week off says so instead. On paper it prints their name, each timetable's name, the week commencing and the grid, without the navigation or the button. Opened from their private link, the page's address in the paper's margin reads as AltEd's sign-in page for learners, not the link — so a timetable on the wall doesn't give the link away.
• Classes, Portfolio and Resources are lists; each card carries the details described in the table above. A 1-to-1 class shows the learner's own weekly time once it's agreed.
• Notes (own sign-in only) is the same notebook screen as yours, with @ reaching only the learner's own notes.
• Progress has three tiles (hours this week, hours in the last 30 days with the number of days, work finished), This week's tasks as a grid (green done, blue hourglass waiting, amber sent back), Targets with a bar each, Log something, Your log, curriculum coverage per plan, Reports from your tutors (the newest ten reports tutors have shared with you, each with the session's date, name and tutor, and the lesson where one was recorded; as far back as your plan shows), and — only when you've turned marks on — the Marks section.

Opening a lesson or a plan from another page leaves a trail — pills down the left on a larger screen, a bar with Back across the top on a phone — so the way back is where they came from: My work › Fractions, Progress › Maths plan, Lessons › Fractions, Curriculum › Maths plan. Opened any other way (a bookmark, say), a lesson page offers All lessons and a plan page All plans instead. Tasks and targets open in place on their page, so they need no trail. On the shared link the trail is held only while the page is open: refresh or reopen the link and it starts again from wherever you are. That is deliberate — the shared link is its own key, and it isn't left behind in the browser's storage. Behind your child's own sign-in it lasts until the tab is closed, as before.

Every page works on a phone, and follows light or dark mode like the rest of AltEd.

Tips and good to know

• The portal is a genuine working space for the child, not a report on them. That's why marks are off unless you choose otherwise, and why there are no percentages anywhere else.
• Ticking work off is the child's own signal. A tutor still marks the work separately, and that mark goes to you — and to your child, if you've turned marks on.
• A curriculum topic your child ticks off counts towards the plan's progress on your own Curriculum builder screen too. It's the same tick.
• When they write the message with a submission, or fill in Log something, ⌘ Enter (Ctrl Enter on Windows) sends it without reaching for the button.
• Search engines are told not to index the portal, but treat the link like a password anyway.
• If several children share a device, give each their own link and bookmark them separately — one link only ever shows one child.
• Older teenagers often use the portal on their own; younger children usually need you to open it with them.
• Messages are only there with their own sign-in — never on the shared link.
• The bell is only there with their own sign-in. On a shared link your child sees what came back on the task card and under What came back instead. With their own sign-in, Notification settings at the foot of the bell lets them choose what rings it and what's emailed to them.
• Your day. Each morning at about 7, your child gets one email with their day: tasks sent back, overdue, due today or for any time; work to hand in this week; this week's topics on their plans; and their targets so far — only what their own page shows, and nothing on a morning with nothing to do. They can switch it off under Notification settings.
• New work for you. With their own sign-in and a confirmed email address, your child is told when you or a tutor sets them a task they can see, an assignment, or a plan — the bell at once, and one email once you've stopped setting things for ten minutes, listing everything with when it's due. Setting ten revision tasks from a plan is one email. A task you keep to Guardians only is never mentioned.

Troubleshooting

Related guides

• Learners
• Assignments
• Curriculum builder
• Timetables
• Calendar
• Classes
• Portfolio
• Progress & attendance