DISCLAIMER: It has been so long since I have posted on here I had no idea how to even log on. I had many failed attempts with, what I later found out to be, the wrong username.
Sorry for our absence, apparently finding time to write a blog post is not actually that easy. Holly and I were talking earlier and both of us had an evening free! Our other halves happen to both support Tottenham, who are playing tonight (very important game F.Y.I) and we both planned to get some work done…
So here I am, avoiding said work and writing a blog post instead. This post is probably going to be split up into two different posts as the way we evidence learning across EYFS and KS1 is different. As always, we completely understand that each school is different and has different pressures from Senior Leadership Teams, Subject Co ordinators, LA advisors and as with everything in education there can never be a ‘one size fits all’ approach, but this is an insight into what we do.
Early Years
When parents attend our open mornings/ initial meetings we always explain that we use Tapestry alongside a paper learning journal. As Tapestry has become more well known, it has become common for a high percentage of the children attending our school to have had a Tapestry account at nursery. We provide parents with information about Tapestry and if they agree to use it we add them to our system in the Autumn Term.
Paper Learning Journals
Initially when we decided to use Tapestry we talked about beginning to phase out paper learning journals. The more we got used to using it though, we decided as a team that any ‘Independent Work’ that children are happy for us to keep, especially if it is evidence of their writing and also examples of guided activities such as a short writing activity about a school trip could be kept in a folder in class. We call these their ‘WOW’ folders and we feel that they serve a number of purposes.
- The children love looking at them – it inspires them to do more. They love to be able to look at where they were and how far they have come.
- They are a good tool for moderation, alongside photographed evidence it is always good to look at and compare physical evidence. When deciding where children sit on the assessment scale it is a great source of evidence to help dvelop conversations between practitioners.
- Parents enjoy seeing them!
- A good place to keep evidence for those children who are constantly providing you with self initiated writing at a similar level, giving you the opportunity to look back and reflect on their work and their next steps.
The work that goes into these folders is not marked, but a conversation is had during the moment with the child and it may be annotated to decode what has been written. Children have the opportunity to improve their independent work with an adult supporting them, e.g. ‘What could we use to help us find the missing sounds/ Do you know where the sound cards are/ How do we use this?’ etc
If a child really would like to take their work home, we would take a picture and then upload to Tapestry to keep in our records.
Tapestry in EYFS
How do we decide what goes onto Tapestry? What are the ‘WOW’ moments?
I think it is extremely easy to get bogged down with the idea that absolutely everything has to go onto Tapestry, but its very important to recognise that something that may be an achievement for one child may not be for another.
For example;
Child A has struggled with their buttons the whole year and constantly needs support from an adult or another child to do them. One day they do all of their buttons independently (maybe not the top one, those ones are only for super humans to do). This is a huge achievement for that child and something that should definitely be shared on Tapestry, it links to areas of learning and shows that they have developed their fine motor skills in order to be able to do this.
Child B came to school being able to dress independently and often helps others to do their buttons. The same observation for Child A would not be appropriate as no new skills has been applied. An observation may be appropriate with regards to working with others, being kind, offering help, depending on the child.
Another example;
Child A is working with 3 friends, they have decided to make up a dance to their favourite song. When an adult tries to develop their learning Child A chooses to write a set of instructions for how to do the dance. This would be an appropriate observation for Child A. The group may have a separate observation linked to different areas of learning if they had incorporated instruments, dance, worked together as a team etc, but only if this was something new that they had not done before/ it had been extended from previous learning.
With every observation we do we link it to the Characteristics of Effective Learning and the EYFS curriculum. We publish all of our observations for parents to see and we also welcome observations from parents, these are not automatically added to children journals but are often shared with the class, especially if its a moment that they are proud of and want to talk about with their peers. Occasionally, we set homework and we ask for the evidence to be uploaded to Tapestry. e.g. if you are on an Autumn Walk this week can you find two leaves and compare the sizes. Which is bigger? Which is smaller? etc.
Lastly, we use Tapestry for our mid term reviews, selecting each area of learning and reporting the current level that a child is working at. We also set targets for each child and then reference these at parents evening to ensure they have seen them and have an understanding of what everything means.
We find that this is what works best for us at the moment, children love sharing their ‘WOW’ folders and equally love knowing that their work is being sent home so that their parents can see it on Tapestry. It offers a wonderful insight into what is going on at school and what children have been getting up to rather than parents asking what their children have done at school that day and being met with the reply of ‘nothing’ or ‘I can’t remember.’
I hope this brief post gives some sort of insight and fingers crossed we can post a Year 1 and 2 edition soon!
Enjoy your half term!
Hayley xx
Hop and Skip Into Early Years 