But you say it yourself: it is not a requirement. The only required documents are the Two Year Progress Check and the EYFS Profile at the end of reception year.And, with all due respect, just because you’ve done things one particular way at another setting, doesn’t mean she or any other childcare provider has to do it that way.
I’ve had the Babysdays sales pitch on several occasions, and they’re always at some pains to stress it’s not exclusively an observations software application: it’s a whole childcare management package. The observations tools are just one of about a hundred features, and every single feature, including the observations, is intended to be optional. It’s entirely up to your childminder if she uses it for observations, attendance records, policies, paperwork, risk assessments or anything else.
A lot of the criticism of these software systems is that their very accessibility has led to situations in which the tail wags the dog: office-bound nursery staff spending whole afternoons frantically tapping away at laptops merely to fill near-insatiable parental hunger for apparent 'achievements' and 'milestones'.
None of this is to say you’re being particularly precious. Different parents have different levels of interest/concern in their children's development and what they do in childcare. It’s not for me to judge where any mum sits on a scale between 'precious' and 'neglectful'.
I get the feeling you and your childminder have rather different expectations on this subject. What did you agree between you before starting what was going to be done in the way of learning records?