does anybody do eyfs stuff electronically, and would ofsted mind? fed up of ink costs!

[woahthere]

I've just been doing a load of printing and catching up basically, and my printer, even though its quite new, eats ink and if you don't buy it the proper stuff it makes everything liney and look crap. so then i'm looking at getting a laser printer and marvelling at the cost of toner....its all leading me to think that it is absolutely bloody ridiculous how much money i spend on ink doing learning journeys that ofsted look at every 3 years...and might never see.
So...I wondered whether to do a really basic learning journey with minimal photos in it, but keep all my obs and miscy photos in a file that is available for Ofsted to go through, and available for parents if they want to print it out. I mean, surely Ofsted want us to consider the environment....right?! I get so bogged down with this stuff sometimes, it really annoys me! (but i am a bit pmt 'ish i suppose!)

Anything I do on my computer, like newsletters, reports etc stays on my computer and the inspectors look at it on my screen. Parents are emailed everything, so I don't have to print it.

I do all mine electronically for the same reason: it was costing us a fortune in printing ink.
At my OFSTED inspection, I showed the inspector all the files on the PC and she said it was fine. I got an outstanding so it must have been

There's no requirement I can see for printed records. It's probably a good idea to get parents' permission.

if you do LJs on line, how do you give the parents a copy when the child leaves? Is it up to the parents to print it off?

If you have full, identifying information about children on your computer, you need to have absolutely state of the art security for it.

I'd suggest a new, separate laptop, and consider encryption.

Also bear in mind it seems to be much easier to send things to the wrong recipient when on line than it does on paper (OK, that might be just me), so you need a double or triple check policy if ever you are emailing out.

How familiar are you with the new EYFS Statutory Framework? This should mean you are printing a lot less.

In fact there never was a statutory requirement for photographic evidence of observations, and although it is considered best practice for some photographic or even video evidence to support key elements of a child's profile I don't think anyone at the Department for Education involved in drafting the previous Statutory Framework anticipated that childcarers would feel compelled to record observations with such evidence on a frequent basis.

If you do store photographs or other records on your computer then physical security is much more important than any electronic measures you can implement i.e. make sure it doesn't get stolen.

Thanks for all replies. I think i will switch all over to being on my laptop in a special file that has easy access to it.

I have been on EYFS briefing session, but not got to proper grips with it yet. Interestingly enough, I was without knowing it was going to have to happen, already doing the 2 year assessments. From what I can tell, it is all going to be easier though.

Im sure that when the child leaves you can give a copy to the parent and they can print it themselves.

The one thing this thread ha done has made me really think about the security...I mean i did before but maybe not so much. I am registered with ico like im supposed to be, but I do have things accessible on my laptop, but how do you guarantee it not get stolen? (aside from the obvious make sure my house is locked). I suppose that if my house got burgled and they took my laptop that if they managed to bypass the password (Im sure it is possible) then they could maybe figure out who is who, I do my invoices on there so then they could even get their addresses. So do I need to get it all encrypted? I will look into it (and may have a good excuse to buy a new laptop). But Im interested to know if everybody who is registered to cm is this cautious. I certainly dont think even our local preschool is.