ATL Skills and Learner Profile Report Comments, Ages 11-16

In Middle Years Programme (MYP) schools and other international schools, subject teachers and homeroom or advisory teachers write short comments on students' approaches to learning (ATL) skills and learner profile attributes. Depending on the school, these sit in their own section beside subject results or inside a general comment, and any length limit is set by the school or its reporting platform. ATL skills are usually not graded; many schools report a stage of Novice, Learner, Practitioner or Expert.

Each page below covers one skill for one grade band, with sample strengths and next steps at every level and tips for writing your own. These comments are written for the approaches to learning (ATL) and learner profile comments on reports for students aged 11-16 in schools that use ATL skill clusters.

Comments by skill and grade band

Also: opening and closing sentences for each report period.

For the same report: Subject Report Comments for Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary, Stages 1-9.

The 4 comment levels

Show the stage through what the student does rather than writing the stage name. Expert language is independent, flexible and used in unfamiliar tasks, often modelled for others; Practitioner fits usually and with few reminders in familiar work; Learner fits with guidance, a model or a checklist; Novice describes what is emerging with close support, which is normal for many students new to secondary school.

Tips for ATL skills comments

• Write for families who may read English as an additional language: one observable behaviour per sentence, everyday words, and terms such as process journal or task guidance made clear by the rest of the sentence. Students read these comments too, so keep the tone respectful.
• Keep ATL comments separate from achievement in the subject. Leave out criterion levels, grades and marks, which usually appear elsewhere on the report, and describe how the student learns: planning, discussing, checking sources, reflecting.
• Make the next goal small enough to try within a term and name the strategy, such as a weekly planner check or a source-evaluation checklist. Where it helps, add one free home idea that families can use in their home language.

This site shows 170 of the 1,234 sentences in the pack. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Baccalaureate Organization. International Baccalaureate, Baccalauréat International, Bachillerato Internacional and IB are registered trademarks owned by the International Baccalaureate Organization. Approaches to learning, learner profile and MYP are referred to only to describe who the resource is for.

How these sentences were made, and what has been checked: About these comments.