How often should observations take place?

[ChocOrange1]

My daughter attends a setting for 12 hours a week, she is 4 years old.
The setting use tapestry and usually update about once a month with an observation tracking against the EYFS. This didn't seen very frequent to me for observations, but as she is older I was OK with it.
However, we have not had any individual observations on Tapestry since December. The managers says this is because they're short staffed due to covid, but surely doing observations to track progress is a really important part of childcare? How frequently do other children have observations and has this been affected by the pandemic?
She also changed days at the beginning of January (at their request) and I haven't been informed of who her key person is. It feels like she has been forgotten about.

My 3 year old attends 3 days a week and we get a weekly update on Tapestry. There have been weeks during the pandemic where it was missed due to staffing issues but those were the exception. We can also book a (now virtual) meeting with her key person on request and do this every 4-6 months. I wouldn’t be happy with the level of communication you describe.

To be fair observations require a lot of work and if staff numbers are down it will be impossible to observe a particular child whilst maintaining ratios. Try giving them a bit of breathing space.

My 15 month old attends 3days a week and we get one a week.

I judged our nursery on how happy our kids were there and their bond with the staff. Anything else was a bonus! Early years should be about play and building social relationships in my opinion and if a nursery is obsessed with paperwork and targets, they may not be fulfilling those things. I took my DD out of a nursery where on the surface things looked very up to scratch, but in reality staff spent tons of time doing paperwork and were too busy and stressed to engage with the children. Just my experience though.

I work in a nursery and did 6 obs on one child yesterday.... we try to do at least 2/3 a day depending on how many children we have, activites planned, levels of grumpiness. I'd definitely question management about it.

I get that observations are important but they aren't actually a legal requirement. The only legal requirements are 2 year checks and actually knowing where children are developmentally. Obviously with observations the latter is much easier

Observations are often part of the ‘paperwork’ issue that distinguishes between good and outstanding nurseries - particulary for preschoolers. So if they aren’t doing it at all it would be a red flag to me.

@WooYa

I work in a nursery and did 6 obs on one child yesterday.... we try to do at least 2/3 a day depending on how many children we have, activites planned, levels of grumpiness. I'd definitely question management about it.

6 a day? Unless you were weeks behind thats far too much on paperwork.

OP, I'd speak to management, nothing from December is unacceptable and you really should know who her key person is.

Romeocorner We are a very child-led, curiosity-based nursery. My own child has at least 4 a day in preschool. Our parents love the fact that they can see everything their child gets up each day. In my last place children got 1 a week and our parents complained.

Observations are actually being looked at being reduced from an Ofsted point of view. Practitioners will need to demonstrate how well they know the children and intend to progress them but that doesn’t have to be through recording observations or using trackers.

I think currently they are useful in keeping parents up to date with what is going on in nursery, especially with younger children who might not be able to tell parents but they do take time away from actually working with and developing the children and for nurseries that might be working on ratio finding time can be difficult.

We do one observation per half term that is linked to the EYFS
We do send home a photo each day but it’s not linked to the EYFS
The most important thing is that the staff are spending time with the children, not away from them doing observations

My DS is 14 months and in nursery 4 days a week we generally get about 5 to 10 a week. I would be concerned about not knowing who is key worker is.

Actually under the new eyfs you are not required to do observations. It isn't about paperwork, it is about knowing the child and knowing their next steps.
What the focus needs to be on.

Ofsted are not interested in observations either.

6 obs a day? 4 obs a day? What do they involve?

@Starlightstarbright1

Actually under the new eyfs you are not required to do observations. It isn't about paperwork, it is about knowing the child and knowing their next steps. What the focus needs to be on.

Ofsted are not interested in observations either.

This and tbh if they’re running the nursery on the bare bones of ratio I’d rather they kept my child and other children safe rather than faffing with iPads!

Why would her key person be different?
If they haven’t told you that she has a new one then assume it is the same as before

They will be making observations, but not necessarily posting them to Tapestry. We might get one every week or two. But there are definitely times when there is nothing for 4-6 weeks and then several will come through. They're rightly busy actually caring for the children, and I'm glad they aren't spending that time with their face in a device instead of interacting with them.

How are they short staffed? They will have to be in ratio, and therefore will have the staff to do the observations. The only excuse would be if staff weren't familiar with EYFS and struggled to notice anything which should be noted/ticked off.

I would ask the nursery if this is the case. I have worked with professionals who are just crap at releasing observations to parents.

It could be that they need to be double checked because one of the nursery workers has a poor grasp of grammar? That is the only excuse I can think of. It's good practice to share with parents, so Ofsted visits or not they need to up their game.

One observation a day isn't excessive, an is what I would expect.

Ours don't use tapestry or anything similar and I like it that way. The staff know DC, are doing observations each day and talk to each parent at pick up. Beyond that staff keep whatever records they need. From speaking to friends, I would say the practitioners at our nursery know DC much more as a person than some others who seek to have high staff turnover, and I'd much rather their key workers were doing meaningful stuff with DC than sitting on an iPad updating an app.

I have friends in EYFS who are forever sharing that the paperwork, Tapestry and that side of the job is hugely more time consuming than doing the observations.

Current thinking in eyfs is to reduce observations and spend more time actually interacting with the children, enhancing their learning and really getting to know them, thier development and needs.

But parents like photos, so most places do snapshots throughout the week, to keep you involved with what their child is doing.

I wouldn't be concerned with lack of written observations, but lack of photos would be a shame.

Hmm @ChocOrange1 observations aren't just to give parents nice photos, they're to evidence the stage of development the child . If you want some nice photos of your child you can ask the nursery for that. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. But if you want a robust over view of your child's development, then written observations should be sufficient. When using an app it's usual to include a photo, but it's not necessary. For example if it's quoting speech for language and communication. However, a photo of the child in context provides a more quality observation.

@mummywithhermini

To be fair observations require a lot of work and if staff numbers are down it will be impossible to observe a particular child whilst maintaining ratios. Try giving them a bit of breathing space.

OK, it has been 3 months though so I have given them quite a lot of time.

@insancerre

Why would her key person be different? If they haven’t told you that she has a new one then assume it is the same as before

She has changed days, her key person doesn't attend on the day she is now in.

@ChocolateFace

Hmm *@ChocOrange1* observations aren't just to give parents nice photos, they're to evidence the stage of development the child . If you want some nice photos of your child you can ask the nursery for that. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. But if you want a robust over view of your child's development, then written observations should be sufficient. When using an app it's usual to include a photo, but it's not necessary. For example if it's quoting speech for language and communication. However, a photo of the child in context provides a more quality observation.

Assume this was not aimed at me as I didn't say anything about photos. I said that observations are important to track progress. We have had photos (group shots) but no written observations. I would prefer the latter.

@ChocolateFace

How are they short staffed? They will have to be in ratio, and therefore will have the staff to do the observations. The only excuse would be if staff weren't familiar with EYFS and struggled to notice anything which should be noted/ticked off.

I would ask the nursery if this is the case. I have worked with professionals who are just crap at releasing observations to parents.

It could be that they need to be double checked because one of the nursery workers has a poor grasp of grammar? That is the only excuse I can think of. It's good practice to share with parents, so Ofsted visits or not they need to up their game.

One observation a day isn't excessive, an is what I would expect.

This is what they told me, they haven't done it because they're short staffed. They had 2 members of staff and 8 children during lockdown. Now that schools are back, I believe they're back up to normal ratios. Even if they need to be double checked for spelling and grammar, that shouldn't take 4 months.