Tapestry users- thoughts?

[NorthernRunner]

Does anyone use tapestry at a setting or are you a parent whose childcare uses it?
I’m considering it and I just want to get some reviews before I fork out for it!
Thank you

I'm a parent user and I love it
It's really simple to use and creates a great record of their activities and development

My ds had it in reception too and was great way of sharing what he wa ms doing outside of school too

My son's nursery use it too. I really like it for notifications of observations while he's there. I like getting to see pictures of what he's doing. Useful to have an online record of his reports etc too.

Ahh ok 👍🏻 that’s really important thank you both x

Love it. Easy to use and encourages parent involvement in Nursery. I love seeing what my son gets to. He always says he does nothing!

Vanannabanana I hear my children say that to their parents all the time at pick up haha 🤣 I promise they do do somethings

I appreciate receiving the updates but the 3 main negatives for me are:

1. It feels like DD is only being observed because this obs has to be done

2. I know there is no point in my acknowledging or asking questions via the system as it’ll never, ever get read by the carers

3. I think it’s quite time-consuming for staff which takes them away from hand-on interactivity but in reality Ofsted makes sure this happens regardless because of the sheer amount of paperwork they demand

My sons nursery use it and I think it's great, love being able to see what he's been doing. All my other children had a diary which would come home in their book bag but prefer tapestry

iamonlyhumanme

Ahh that’s interesting thank you. Regardless of whether observations are done on paper of via tapestry they have to be done regularly. My main reason for looking into another way of recording information is because we find paperwork exceptionally time consuming and we end up doing it on the floor with children around us. However tapestry doesn’t seem much different to this...ultimately I do think Ofsted require far too much but that’s another thread all together!

I currently use daily diaries but we have had a patch of them getting lost, or are just not filled out so I wanted to find a better way of recording communication.

My daughters school used it in early years- absolutely loved getting the updates and printing off her file at the end of reception. She is however at a very small school so imagine it might be incredibly time consuming for teachers with a normal-sized class

I'm a parent user
It's very simple and easy to access
The phone app is good

I think it must save the nursery time vs written observations and ticking the EYFS boxes

I work in Pre School, 2 & 3 yr olds mainly.
We use iconnect which I believe is very similar.

I have at the moment, 8 key children.

I seem to be on the tablet most of the day
Paper work, we used to have a half hour a week to update trackers etc

Very rarely have time to sit with the children and play/make a valid observation.

Have you looked at the seasaw app? Our y1 teacher has just started using it and I believe that it’s free.
It might not be suitable for eyfs though. I’m not sure.

Love Tapestry. I use the photos taken at Nursery to talk about things at home and visa versa which I think is a really lovely link between home and Nursery.

I have had a two week trial of tapestry and I’ve been impressed by it, but my childminding mentor has advised me that I should still have a paper copy of observations anyway, so I may just stick to the old fashioned way!

Love it - our school uses it in reception too. Big plus is that other family members can also log in and as we both work full time and rarely do pick up/drop off it's also a good way to communicate. Our school is v good about reading and responding to comments and home posts. By the end of reception DS1 could create a post entirely himself!

As a childminder . I have just stopped using it .
I use my own documents to look for next steps and writing reviews. I also use a different method for what has been done during the day.

I'm a teacher who used to work in nursery we used Seesaw which is free (or very cheap depending on the version) it was great but I have a feeling that there are some issues with it for GDPR... Might be worth looking in to.

I’m a parent user. I love it!!

Ignore the mentor. Do one or the other; if you choose tapestry (which does save some time) don't waste even more time with paper aswell!

Hi,

We're new to the system as my lo only started nursery a few weeks ago.
As a parent the interface is easy to use but I do think it's only as good as the person using and filling it out. We've only had a few observations on it and it feels a little bit like boxing ticking for Ofsted. To me as a parent there is very little value in seeing if he's emerging or developing in certain areas as I have different opinion the the staff and the description of activities is purely that. It does not (yet) communicate my child's next steps to the learning and development.
Personally I would prefer an informal chat at the end of each session about what my child has been doing and how they're getting on.
I can see how it would be useful for a nursery for record keeping though.
In addition I think the childcare setting need to make really clear about whether there is an expectation or need for parents to also include observations.
Ps. I'm a teacher.

I love it

My dd2’s nursery use tapestry, and my dd1 went there when they didn’t use it but had a paper ‘learning journal’. It is used as both an online learning journal and to communicate with parents - previously we only saw the learning journal at the end of term and only communicated at drop off / pick up or over the phone. So in comparison it’s lovely to see pictures and comments on progress regularly and also add my own comments. From the content so far (she’s only been attending for 3 weeks) it is pretty much the same as previously, photos and comments on perhaps one activity per session (2.5 hours), and often a group activity so photographing multiple children at once - so would expect same time commitment but without the faff of printing and sticking the pictures into a book!

Each nursery/ school uses it slightly differently. As a parent I think it's fab, as a nursery manager I think it's fab-less time consuming, you absolutely do not need paper obs. All you need to do is print out regular stats to show children's progression in case of technology letting you down-you have some evidence ( speaking from an outstanding setting - you don't need paper, just happy, confident, independent, inquisitive children and inspiational staff ) Tapestry is great for keeping on top of progression as well as keeping on top of staff input into obs. it took us about a year find a great way of using it to our advantage. Defo worth it.