Getting Acquainted with Targets - A Reference Guide
When creating the content for a target, the most important areas are the Title, Description, Strategy, Success Criteria, and Actions.
Although it's up to you how you interpret these headings, here are some generic explanations of what generally goes in each section:
- Title: the title needs to clearly identify the target (try to avoid titles such as "Target 1"), and it also can't be too long. It is quite common to use abbreviations, such as... QofE - Curriculum Design.
- Description: this is the What box, where you would answer questions such as "What is it you're trying to achieve?". It is also where you would add any context required to explain this target, and any other miscellaneous detail.
- Strategy: the 'How' box. It is up to you how you structure this section, but fundamentally you're answering the question, "How are you going to achieve this?".
- Success criteria: these are the things you're looking to see in order to know this target is complete. If this target went really well, what would that look like? What would the outcomes be?
- Actions: actions are individual steps or to-dos that help you achieve a target. Each Action has its own deadline and an individual set as responsible for it, so they can be useful as milestones and for delegating tasks (When using TILDA, suggested actions can be generated for you, but they can still be edited, removed or added to before the target is saved).
- Monitoring/Evaluation: you won't see this when adding a target for the first time as it only appears once a target has been created. It is for any commentary or notes on the progress being made towards the target throughout the year.
These headings make up the majority of the content within a target, so they are the main sections you'll pay attention to when you're drafting your plan for the first time.
For more information on how TILDA can assist you with target setting, click here to see this guide.
Although they don't include content, these settings are also useful to understand:
- Team: Anyone in the selected team will have access to the target so that they can contribute. When getting started, it's a good idea to match the team with the plan you're working on - e.g. all targets on the School Plan are for SLT, and all targets on the English Plan are for the English team. However, as you get used to Perspective there's no reason you can't have a plan that contains targets for multiple teams.
- Responsible: Although every target will have a team (and everyone in that team will have access to the target), every target must have an individual set as Responsible. This will be whoever is leading on the target. If no one in particular is leading on the target, it is usually set to the team leader of the relevant team.
- Monitor: This is the individual who will be monitoring the progress of the target throughout the year. For SLT targets in the School Development Plan, it is usually the headteacher.
- Status: this is the overall state of a target, and you'll probably set it to In Progress to begin with. Hopefully, you'll later update this to Complete!
Adding Targets to the School Development Plan
From the Planning dashboard, under School Development Plan, click Edit, or, if the plan doesn't exist yet, click Create.
Use the Add Targets button on the left to either create a new target or link an existing target to your plan.
Targets added to the plan will be listed on this page, and you can edit them directly from here throughout the year.
When adding a target to a Development Plan, you can use our built-in AI helper, TILDA. TILDA's suggestions should always be reviewed before the target is added to your plan. You can amend the generated title, description, strategy, success criteria and actions before saving. Click here for more information on that.
Configuring your Development Plan Report
The layout and other settings for your report can be configured by clicking on the Options button from the Development Plan page.
Within plan options, you'll find three main formats to choose from:
- 7 Columns: this is the most traditional layout and has all headings going across the top of a landscape document. It works best for a plan containing a large number of shorter targets.
- 3 Columns: this is the newest layout and strikes a balance between the other two formats. It is still a landscape report but has larger columns to allow more space for the Description/Strategy of a target.
- Custom: a portrait layout that allows almost complete control over what's included in the report. In addition to the flexibility, the layout of the report lends itself to longer targets containing more text.
Under the Target Options heading, you'll find additional settings for customising the report, such as whether to include Actions. If you've chosen the Custom layout, you'll find many more settings are shown here.
Scrolling down, you'll also find you can add Introduction and Conclusion pages if you like. Simply tick the Include in plan option and write out your introduction/conclusion in the respective text box.
Publishing your Plan
At any time, each plan will have a last updated and published version.
You can publish a plan using the green Publish button on the main Development Plan page (the one containing the list of targets currently linked to your plan).
Plans can only be published by the team leader of the team whose plan it is. For the School Development Plan, this is the headteacher.
When a plan is published, it saves a snapshot of the plan report in its current state and adds this to the history. This history can be accessed from the main Planning dashboard, so at any time you can view previous versions of the document.
The published version of the plan will be accessible to all Perspective users via the Planning Dashboard. However, only SLT or the relevant team members will have access to the last updated (unpublished) plan.
We generally recommend you publish a plan when key milestones are met, or after significant updates have occurred. There's no standard frequency with which to publish, but publishing approximately 2-3 times a year is common.
Updating your Plan
Throughout the year, updates are generally made to the targets themselves, which in turn appear on the last updated plan report the next time this is downloaded.
For example, success criteria and actions can be completed, and monitoring can be added as progress is made. All of these changes will be visible in the plan report, which is updated automatically.
The RAG rating of targets is a useful way of very quickly and clearly showing how a target is going.
Setting up Team Plans
In addition to the School Development Plan, Perspective can cater for team plans. Normally this comes in the form of Subject Action Plans, so that will be the example used here.
To set up a Subject Action Plan, you would first need to create the team - go to Settings (cog) > Manage Teams > Create New Team.
Next, add users to this team and set someone as the team leader. If multiple users need team leader access, set one of them as the Team Leader and make the others Deputy Team Leaders.
Make sure that the Team has to complete a Plan option is ticked.
The team leaders now complete their subject plan in exactly the same fashion as SLT complete the School Development Plan!
Top tips and FAQs
1. I added a target from the Planning Dashboard or from my own personal Dashboard, but it's not on my plan. Where is it?
In Perspective, it is possible for a target to exist and be assigned to a team without necessarily being on that team's Plan. Linking a target to a plan is kind of like putting a "spotlight" on it and making it centre-stage. However, a team may also have lower-level targets or actions that don't need to be on their plan.
If you create a team target in Perspective and set it to the "English" team, you will find it in the Planning dashboard if you filter to "English" under the All Targets heading. However, it won't be linked to the English plan automatically.
If you click on the full view of the target, you'll be able to add it to plans from here. Or alternatively, go to the edit page for the plan and when you click the Add Targets button, select Add an existing target.
When creating a target specifically for a plan, it's best to Create a new target directly from that plan's page as this way the target is created and linked at the same time.
2. What are the numbers against each target and how do I use them?
Each target in Perspective is given a unique reference number, and they can be useful to help identify an individual target in an account.
However, these should generally only be used when contacting our support team. Although they can be helpful to start with, you will find the numbers get hard to keep track of over time.
The best way to organise and identify your targets is by the combination of the Title, and the Team the target is for (normally shown as the team code, ENG for English for example).
It is likely that at some point you will have multiple targets with the same title - for example, each subject team may have its own subject-specific version of a School target, which is why getting into the habit of using the Team column heading in addition to the Title is so useful.
3. When I go into my Planning Dashboard, there are loads of Targets and it's scary.
If you have a high degree of access (often this affects the headteacher the most) then the number of Targets you can view via Planning can be very high.
Don't worry though - this is normal!
The reason you'll see a large number of targets under All Targets is that there won't be a filter selected when you first go to this page.
In the dropdown list under All Targets you can select a filter in order to view a specific list of targets, making this much more manageable. By default, you can filter by team, but you can also create your own customised filters.
4. Where can I access previously published versions of plans?
From your home page, go to Planning > click on the View All Plans button in the bottom right, under the Development Plans heading > click the View History button on the right, next to the plan you want to see.
In the history, you'll see a list of all previous versions of the selected plan.
5. I've come across a Cascade button, and I'm not sure what it does.
Cascading allows you to create multiple copies of a target for different teams in School.
For example, if you have a SLT target on your School Development Plan, you could set every subject team their own version of this target.
Cascading can be a powerful tool, but we would recommend having a training session with your dedicated account manager to make sure you fully understand the process before using it.
6. Can TILDA help me create targets for my plan?
Yes. When creating a new target from within a Development Plan, you can use TILDA to generate a draft target from a prompt.
TILDA can suggest a title, description, strategy, success criteria and actions. You can review and edit all generated content before adding the target to your plan.
For best results, include as much useful detail as possible in your prompt. For example, include the area you want to improve, who the target is for, the intended outcome and any key actions or success measures you already have in mind.
For more information, click here to see our dedicated help guide.