tapestry questions

[mumofone]

For those of you who use tapestry can you tell me why we have to give the observation a title and what you put for this. The observations speak for themselves, a title seems completely unnecessary?
Also, when we link an observation to the EYFS it appears we can only link it to an age range and not a statement which i tend to prefer...

[moggy]

Obs title- I just use a word or two, like 'In the woods', 'Wellies on!', 'Washing hands' etc. Makes it easier to find again when you glance down the list and just makes it nicer for parents, makes it into a little story for them.

You link first to an Area by clicking on PD, PSED etc, then the Aspect by selecting the age band, then you tick the box by the relevant statement- BUT you do not have to tick a statement if no particular statement matches the obs, you can just leave it as an Aspect/age-band assessment.
And you can assess against as many Areas/Aspects as you want for any obs.

[mama2three]

Im just doing the trial too after the whole orbit debacle , must say i like it so far. The support seems very quick too. I quite like the ob titles. I haven't worked out where or how to incorporate my own next steps yet though.

[moggy]

Im just doing the trial too after the whole orbit debacle , must say i like it so far. The support seems very quick too. I quite like the ob titles. I haven't worked out where or how to incorporate my own next steps yet though.

Most people just type their own next steps as part of the obs, ie: 'Johnny was doing xxx today and for the first time he xxxx by himself. Next steps: Try to xxxxx and xxxx'. That way they are there with the obs they relate to, parents see them and you know they have seen them.

The whole next steps system on Tapestry is not perfect. You can set them in a Report, if you do a termly or biannual report, but for short term mini-next steps I like to do the above.

[mumofone]

If OFSTED want to see how well the children have progressed since their starting points since starting with me is there any way to do this in Tapestry or is it a case of simply producing the online learning journey? What I mean is there any fancy graph capability or something?!

[moggy]

If OFSTED want to see how well the children have progressed since their starting points since starting with me is there any way to do this in Tapestry or is it a case of simply producing the online learning journey? What I mean is there any fancy graph capability or something?!

You can use Snapshots, you can lock the baseline and use that as the starting point.
But it is a weakness of Tapestry at the moment that there is no easy at-a-glance progress tracker per child, they are working on that.
But progress can be seen by looking back over obs (ie:look at obs for a particular Area 6mths ago or 1 yr ago and then for now- progress is shown, nothing more is needed). Ofsted do not need or expect to see graphs at all.

[mumofone]

Obs title- I just use a word or two, like 'In the woods', 'Wellies on!', 'Washing hands' etc. Makes it easier to find again when you glance down the list and just makes it nicer for parents, makes it into a little story for them.

You link first to an Area by clicking on PD, PSED etc, then the Aspect by selecting the age band, then you tick the box by the relevant statement- BUT you do not have to tick a statement if no particular statement matches the obs, you can just leave it as an Aspect/age-band assessment.
And you can assess against as many Areas/Aspects as you want for any obs.

Dont you need a copy of EYO open when you link to an age band - I dont get how we know off by heart which age band our observation statement matches without an age and statement there for us to choose......does that make sense?!

[mumofone]

Dont you need a copy of EYO open when you link to an age band - I dont get how we know off by heart which age band our observation statement matches without an age and statement there for us to choose......does that make sense?!

ARGH please ignore this comment!!!!!!!!! Worked it out - DOH!

[mumofone]

At an inspection, will inspectors want to view all the children's learning journeys and if so would you print these off Tapestry beforehand or do you show them on the computer?

[hectors house]

At an inspection, will inspectors want to view all the children's learning journeys and if so would you print these off Tapestry beforehand or do you show them on the computer?

I downloaded mine onto a USB stick just in case my internet was playing up but on the day it was fine, so I logged into my computer, my inspector sat beside me and I showed her how to navigate round it, I also showed her a half done observation from the day before and showed her how I would then add the appropriate EYFS statements and I talked through why I chose those statements and the age bands. She had a quick look through on her own for 5 mins then continued observing me with the children.

[mumofone]

is it possible to just post a picture of a child to tapestry (an album type function?) without doing an observation does anyone know?

[moggy]

is it possible to just post a picture of a child to tapestry (an album type function?) without doing an observation does anyone know?

Post as an obs, but don't put any text or assessments. There is no other album function.
You can post a pic of the child as the child's account picture, and change that as often as you want: Control Panels- Manage Children- Edit child- photo- so if you just have a nice photo of a child you can use it there.

[poppy321]

I've been using tapestry for about 4 months now. My parents really like it and seem to log on very soon after I've done any observations.They also leave some really nice comments so feed back is definitely better than my old journal system.
I got a bit obsessive at first and was spending too much time trying to make sure I had covered every area over a period of time so that this was reflected in the analysis and tracking. I'm much more relaxed now though and don't take it all so literally. I.e if there isn't an observation in literacy and the tracker might say the child is therefore trailing in that area, I don't worry about it as I know I do plenty of literacy, I just haven't recorded an observation for it using tapestry yet. The system can obviously only work with the info. You put on if,so it might not give a totally accurate picture of a child's progress!
I've also found its much quicker to use post its and take a photo during the day that I can use to jog my memory when I do perhaps 3 or 4 on a per child at the end of week.I write them up using my laptop but then find uploading a pic or video is so much quicker using my phone. Anyone else got helpful hints they have discovered after using tapestry for a few months?

[mumofone]

I've been using tapestry for about 4 months now. My parents really like it and seem to log on very soon after I've done any observations.They also leave some really nice comments so feed back is definitely better than my old journal system.
I got a bit obsessive at first and was spending too much time trying to make sure I had covered every area over a period of time so that this was reflected in the analysis and tracking. I'm much more relaxed now though and don't take it all so literally. I.e if there isn't an observation in literacy and the tracker might say the child is therefore trailing in that area, I don't worry about it as I know I do plenty of literacy, I just haven't recorded an observation for it using tapestry yet. The system can obviously only work with the info. You put on if,so it might not give a totally accurate picture of a child's progress!
I've also found its much quicker to use post its and take a photo during the day that I can use to jog my memory when I do perhaps 3 or 4 on a per child at the end of week.I write them up using my laptop but then find uploading a pic or video is so much quicker using my phone. Anyone else got helpful hints they have discovered after using tapestry for a few months?

thanks for sharing poppy, good to know others experiences.

[BallyH]

My inspector 'flicked' through mine. I had my printed off in each child's learning journal. I was always worried my wifi would let me down on my inspection day and therefore I wouldn't be able to access all that work I'd done. I still print them off.

[Lal]

I printed a selection of observations, comments from parents and up to date summaries for each child. This way if there was a problem with the internet or computer she could still see what I had been doing. I don't think she wanted to see anything on-line but she did look at the summaries in detail.

[poppy321]

Also meant to say that if you can't find a statement that really fits your observation, then just tick what area of learning u would say it demonstrates and move on to pick out more statements from the characters of effective learning.

[mumofone]

Do parents get alerted each time I make an observation and send to their journal?
Also, how do you download a copy of their journal or see all their observations in one go, it all looks a bit bitty on mine at the moment!

[moggy]

Do parents get alerted each time I make an observation and send to their journal?
...

Control Panel - Settings:

Relatives Settings-
Permissions-
Allow notifications to be sent to relatives.

[mumofone]

Control Panel - Settings:

Relatives Settings-
Permissions-
Allow notifications to be sent to relatives.

will they be alerted for previously entered obs once i change this or just any new ones dyou know?