This is a very simple guide to getting up and running in your Specialist Setting.

Implementation is easy to dismiss but is critical to the success of Motional in your setting.

Implementation is essentially thinking about who does what and when.

We don’t mandate a particular approach – after all, you know your setting much better than we do. However, we have some learning that might help and can tell you how others have successfully got going.


You’re here so we’re going to assume you’ve logged in!

This is a very simple guide to getting up and running in your Specialist Setting, covering all the key things you need to do or consider. If you click on the links they take you to the relevant step-by-step guides.

  1. Add your staff ( How-to Guide Here )
    In Motional we call them Team Members, and they can be added at User or Team Admin level
  2. Add your young people ( How-to Guide Here )
    In Motional we call them Participants. We can import your Participants in bulk to save you time (and this includes bringing in your Groups and Participant Tags).
  3. Get your Motional Leads in place
    Who is going to lead Motional in your setting? Are you? Is your SENDCo / ALNCo, or perhaps a dedicated lead? Whoever this is we'd suggest they are a member of SLT and can influence change.
  4. Introduce Motional to the team
    Introduce Motional in a staff meeting and guide them to the Motional live training sessions on their Dashboard, or talk to us about some bespoke training. We’d recommend you support them to access the relevant Motional Video Guides in the Support Library, particularly 'Creating a Snapshot' (for Teachers and TAs) and 'Creating a Groupshot' (for Teachers) as a starting point.
  5. Consider how you will use Groupshots
    Many specialised settings use Comprehensive Groupshots and typically do this on three occasions, once per term or six, once per half term, to ensure consistent data collection points. In place of a regular staff meeting, staff members can use this dedicated time to complete their Groupshot. These dates should be added to the school calendar or diary, and a reminder about the 'Create a Groupshot ' video from the Support Library should be included in the calendar invite. We recommend scheduling these dedicated days two weeks before each half-term break.
  6. Review the data
    In the week prior to half-term, review your data to identify those with the greatest need and those with the greatest negative change, and consider next steps (e.g. Emotionally Available Adult, 1-2-1 support, small group, pastoral, Comprehensive Snapshots and Programs, etc.). At this point, those reviewing the data (SENDCo/ALNCo perhaps?) should consider viewing the 'Creating a Program for an Individual Participant' video and accessing the 'Interpreting Data and Reporting' live training session.

To implement Motional, or in fact any Whole School Approach it's really important to distribute responsibility away from single individuals.

There's a simple 'Who does what?' guide you can download in the section below that can help you to think about this.

Image of 'Who Does What?' Guide
Image of 'Who Does What?' Guide