Learning journals.

[HorridHenrietta23]

Hi! Just wondering:

1. Did you get to keep your learning journal when your dc left nursery?
2. How often did you see if whilst they were at nursery?
3. Is it something they have to do or optional?

My dsis child left nursery (school nursery) today. She has never seen his learning journal despite asking several times. Asked yesterday about it and understood that she'd be able to take it with her.
She was excited to see it but when she collected her dd today no mention was made. She went to find the teacher in charge and was met by a blank stare and "it's not here" as if she was being unreasonable.

So now we're scratching our heads, thought this was an expected thing that nurseries did but is it not?
Has she put her foot in it somehow?

Oh learning journey, not journal?? Shows how much I know 😂

We saw ours about twice a year at the parents consultation and it was presented to the children at a leavers event at the end.

Same for us.

i work with children and we do an online learning journey which parents can access whenever they like. But in the form of a paper copy then yes you should be given it and yes they should do one.

We saw ours 3 times a year and brought dd's home after graduation today.

Yes early years settings should create learning journeys, which should be available to you at any time and which you take away when your child leaves.

Ours were sent to school and we got them back at the end of reception.

But they should be available to you either in paper copy or online to see any time while at a nursery/preschool.

Yes it is an EYFS requirement to have a log of development. In most places this will be the Learning Journal/Journey.

Yes, we had an online one that we could access and all the observations were put on a disc at the end of term.
Your sister should have a strong word.

Oh right, so it's a "should have" rather than a "nice to do" sort of thing then? Will tell her to ask again. I know she hates to make a fuss and be that parent, she was disappointed though.

I'm guessing it's been sent to school. Was it a paper one or an electronic one ?

Oh that is a possibility, no idea whether it was paper or electronic, she has never laid eyes on it, they're not meant to be secret though are they? Will have to be patient and then ask the new school in September if we can have a look.

Personally I wouldn't assume it's been sent to school - definitely ask. Not everyone does them...

It's not actually a requirement to do them. Most places do, but the only thing you MUST do in EYFS is make judgements against the ELG at the end of reception.

Most places keep learning journeys (either online or on paper) which are given to parents at the end of the child's setting (preschool, reception etc) or passed to their next setting but there's nothing to say parents must receive a learning journey at the end of the EYFS or when leaving a setting.

Grumpypug is right, its not a requirement to do learning journeys
Some settings give them to school
Some settings give them to parents
Some settings have an online system
Some settings don't do them, as they take a lot of time and money to complie

It is not a requirement to do a learning journey in The EYFS, but the majority of nurseries do them.

When I taught Nursery I always did learning journeys for the children.

Parents were always welcome to view them at any time.

I also encouraged parents to contribute anything they felt was relevant to their child's development or something child did over weekend and put it in their LJ.

The children could also look at them at any time with an adult.

Parents were given a copy of the learning journal when their child left my class. I photo copied and gave the sections on development and progress to the child's next teacher in school or sent photocopies to their primary school if they were not continuing into YR with us.

I wish that were the case bugaboo. The sum total of his time in nursery (four terms) is 6 paintings and a photo taken on the first day for his peg. All parent's evenings have been cancelled except the last one to collect his report, but she said they just handed out the report and turned away.
Report was lovely and her ds has been very happy there so shouldn't moan but I think she just felt disappointed.
Oh well it's not the end of the world.... Probably means they spent more time with the kids 😊

That is utterly disgraceful from a nursery!

Paperwork does not have to be excessive, but Ofsted and The EYFS are both very clear that children must be observed and that their development and progress monitored and tracked in order to plan appropriate activities that stem from the child's individual interests, play should be purposeful and a mix of adult led and child led.

You cannot plan for individual children if you are not observing them frequently nor can you ascertain if they have made progress.

This is why the majority of settings will log progress via a learning journey.

What the hell was the key person doing? Why was the manager just letting the staff not carry out observations and monitoring what was happening? Those are the questions your sister should be asking. She should also ask to see written evidence of his progress.

Learning Journeys are time consuming to complete, but necessary to track development and plan.

I used to observe each child in my nursery class once per week, so four short observations a month. That way I could see indvidual progress being made and what I needed to cover with individual children.

That's the other thing bugaboo, I asked advice from and FS trained friend who asked about his key worker, my sister has no idea who his key worker was, how do you find this information out?
Honestly I can't work out if my dsis is being particularly dozy or if the nursery were really bad at communicating.
Dsis is intelligent but can be bad at standing up for herself.

Are you telling me that your nephew was at nursery for four terms and your sister did not know who his key person was? That again is disgraceful.

Your Nephew's Nursery are in breach of EYFS requirements if he does not have a named key person looking out for him.

Every child in a nursery or pre-school has to have a nominated named key person upon joining the setting. The key person takes a personal interest in that child's wellbeing and development. That is a mandatory requirement of EYFS too.

You ask the manager why the hell your sister was not informed of who her son's key person was/is when he joined the nursery.

A decent nursery should inform the child and the child's parents/ carers of who the key person is going to be during settling visits or as soon as possible afterwards. It is polite to do this verbally and in writing.

The key person is the main person responsible for a group of individual children through out the day. The key person should get to know the child and family and look out for their educational and care needs through out the day too, as far as possible ( nurseries being busy places with staff doing different shifts, holidays and sickness this is not always possible) and giving feedback at the end of a session and keeping the learning journey updated. As well as observing and planning individually for each key child that they have.

Most decent nurseries will have a second back up/buddy key person in place for the child for when the child's main key person is absent.

The majority of nurseries will have a minimum a key person list for parents, but most will have a photo of key person/ second key person with photos and names of their key children displayed for parents.

I am appalled and outraged - shitty practice like this just should not happen these days.

We do them online now. But previously we used to send them to the school the child was moving on to and they would be given to the child when they started school.