Observation and Assessment – Learning Journeys

We observe the children during play in order to make judgments about their abilities and continuous development against the curriculum. We make observations of different children on a daily. These are in the form of short notes about things that we notice the children doing in their play of significance to their achievement of curriculum statements. We also take photos of evidence of the children displaying skills and achievements.

Our assessment of the children is recorded within an online learning journey called Tapestry. The Learning journey is a story of your child’s time at Pre-School, and is made up of photographs, video, and observations made by staff during Pre-School sessions. It is a fully interactive and secure system.

By logging on with a secure username and password, you will be able to view all of your children’s observations, photographs and even video from their time at Pre-School. You will even receive an email telling you when a new observation or piece of work is available for you to view. This will enable you to follow your child’s individual progress closely and you can reflect upon their achievements with your child. You can add comments so that we as a staff find out about which activities your child really enjoyed and the learning they get up to at home. Staff will reference your child’s learning to the EYFS profile so you will know which area of learning your child is achieving in and the age-band they were working in for that activity. All of this information is stored on a highly secure server, which is monitored closely.

At the end of their time here at Whitchurch Pre-School, your child’s learning journey will be download and issued to you to keep.  We know how much you like to see your child coming home from Pre-School proudly clutching their most recent piece of work. Therefore we will photograph the pieces of work we need to keep as evidence and then it will come home with your child.

This method of recording a child’s development allows staff to ensure their development continues within recommended parameters, and also highlights areas where additional support may be needed. We have found it enables parents to be fully up to date far more than our previously used paper records.

Training can also be provided for parents struggling to use the system, or if you haven’t IT at home, we have a tablet in preschool you can use to view your child’s account.