where and when do you complete learning journals

[Guest]

we recebtly had a welfare audit and i was told that with regards to child protection that we should not remove our learning journals from the setting.

at present it takes myself a whold saturday to complete learning jounals for 11 children, how and i going to manage this during my working day?

look forward to hearing what other settings do

[Cait]

Hi Tomy12. I think you will find that many of us take files home, or do Tapestry at home in our own time. Have you risk assessed the taking home of journals, and any potential problems with safeguarding?

[blondie]

some of us take learning journeys home - we have been advised by our development worker that we shouldn't be doing this but we are unable to get them completed in book time allocated.

the only thing that we do is take the front cover off the book that holds the details of the child - name dob etc., - this is replaced once the book is returned.

[louby loo]

I'm pretty hot on staff not taking LJ books home, mainly because we are a privately owned setting- and the owner needs to understand the true cost, rather than profit from staffs goodwill. You really shouldn't be spending one day of the weekend working free- it's not fair on you and/or your family :-( ... (unless you are paid?)

 

Maybe as a team you could rethink what goes into your LJs to make them more manageable?

 

We run over ratio so all staff have time out to do book work during sessions.

 

That said staff still do bits at home :-) , but they never take the actuall LJs home

[korkycat]

We take ours home - parents sign to agree to this. Staff are paid 2 hours a term per child to do this while we can afford it. I've emailed Ofsted regarding this got a reply that they would be passing it on to the standards team and have head nothing since ! Kept emails on file! We are a very small setting -max 18 children per session and have no time or space to do this in session and no access out of hours. We have up to 50 children on roll and staff members average 7 children in their key group.( Some of us have more++)

korkycat

[thumperrabbit]

We are the same as Korkycat

Staff are paid 1 hour a week to do folders at home - at the start of September when numbers are low time can sometimes be given during the session but this is usually the time of new children who need support settling so it doesn't always happen.

We have no office or separate area to complete them

We also get parents to sign to give permission, did have one parent once refuse permission and to be honest it was a nightmare for the key worker to do that particular folder.

[finleysmaid]

i never really understand this point of view....teachers take childrens work home all the time...so why can't we? as long as you are not taking personal data ( we only take learning stories not registration documents etc) personally tomy i would question where this info comes from...in which document does it say this?? get them to prove their information ...far too many advisors making up info from very thin evidence IMO!

[zigzag]

I have recently had a welfare visit and this was spoken about. Our journeys are taken home and returned the next day, they are always in the setting when we are open. It was suggested that we have a policy about what would happen if the staff member could not make it in the next day and about how they are stored securely and confidentially. She also suggested not taking the whole journey and just completing the few pages at home that need doing. I will be writing a policy for this as it seems to be something that is being checked by Ofsted.

[woodlands1997]

Our learning journeys only have their name and no personal info, if it had all their info I think it would be different x

[Fredbear]

Oh Finleysmaid you read my mind.

My teacher friends and family take marking and journals home all the time.

Does seem one of those ( let's get in the real world scenarios).

Of course anything of a confidential nature should not be in them anyway, well that's my humble opinion.

[tish501]

My staff were given 2/3 hours each a week,on a timetable system ,in setting, to do their learning journies..looked wonderful on paper,but in reality,when full,it does not work out,with wee 'accidents,nappy changes etc you know what I mean,the system does not work.My staff are happier taking them home as no disturbances there....their choice....I would pay them for this time,but how would you know the work was being pdone? apart from checking all their L/Js. ?? Its a problem...

[blondie]

we were told by our development worker that ljs shouldnt be taken home but to be honest staff do usually end up taking them home as end of term nears.

we do ensure however that the front cover is removed before the ljs go as these have name and dob on them. x

[MegaMum]

I think the LJ's are the Bain of our lives. Since County no longer do quality reviews and LJ's are a County thing, we have scaled back enormously as they are so time consuming and no one gets paid to do them. As long as you can show progress to Ofsted, this is what they want to see and in fact in our last inspection, the inspector picked on one practitioner's LJ (English wasn't her strongest point, but her care of the children was fab) and this resulted in her feeling so bad she resigned. I was so ticked off!!!

Only larger day nurseries with lots of staff can allow staff to complete them at work, for those of us in smaller sessional settings, there is no option other than to complete them at home - for free. What mugs are we? I have never been asked by an Ofsted inspector where/when/how they are completed, has anyone else? I suggest to my staff that they have a file with sub dividers in with each of their key worker children and add observations, comments etc to a sheet of paper and when it is full, then put that in their folder, so the whole file isn't going home.

[Melba]

How could I stop staff using Tapestry at home? The very point of it is to be available and parents have already agreed to that.

[Guest]

our parents take our LJ's home (the photo scrapbook side, not the assessments/personal data) so I wouldn't see a difference from a security point of view

I don't allow staff to take them though as I feel they should be able to switch off when they leave nursery

 

We have mixed feelings about LJ's in general - wonderful when you see the end result - a nightmare in getting there!

[Mouseketeer]

Melba - I don't think they can log in at home on own devices unless you've given them the actual user name & password...or maybe that's not what you meant

[Melba]

But they can log in to the app, that is pretty easy and I think I have to trust my staff that they would be doing that respectably and only because of the lack of time at work, as everyone else says.

[MarshaD]

How much time do Tapestry or other electronic LJ users find they need to keep up to date?

[Guest youngrisers]

we love our learning journeys and can work on them either in the setting or at home as we have permission to do so from the parents. Our staff all get an hour a week to transfer, type up/write up observations and print photographs of children involved in activities which we then supply the information to the parents who in turn supply us with information. It's a two way street for knowledge, We also complete our tracker which is printed by myself and another assistant manager which is also included so parents can see progression. I Love reading the comments from both staff and parents....

makes for some interesting reading.....

Are you committee run or privately owned ? and what would your parents like you to do?

[finleysmaid]

we love our learning journeys and can work on them either in the setting or at home as we have permission to do so from the parents. Our staff all get an hour a week to transfer, type up/write up observations and print photographs of children involved in activities which we then supply the information to the parents who in turn supply us with information. It's a two way street for knowledge, We also complete our tracker which is printed by myself and another assistant manager which is also included so parents can see progression. I Love reading the comments from both staff and parents....

makes for some interesting reading.....

Are you committee run or privately owned ? and what would your parents like you to do?

I;m always so impressed with this level of involvement from parents...mine don't want to get involved (and lots of them are teachers!!)

[woodlands1997]

Mine don't either finleysmaid, well that's not strictly true, a couple do but on the whole they don't x

[catma]

I;m always so impressed with this level of involvement from parents...mine don't want to get involved (and lots of them are teachers!!)

That's because they're too busy writing up 30 (reception) and upwards of 52 (nursery) learning journeys each!!! Not forgetting the same number of reports!!!

I had to take mine home because otherwise I would have had to live at the school. I suppose that's what the non teaching weeks (sometimes called "the holidays") are for.

Cx

[Guest Nuby]

...we have scaled our paperwork down a lot and as long as we are showing the impact of our 'teaching' and that progress is being made that's all that goes in....nothing more.

[Guest]

We complete maybe one snapshot obs per child per week, some key persons do have 11 or more key children but we write up the snaphots during activities and then "post" them into the key workers pouch, once we put children to sleep for instance we always have some time to stick them on a piece of paper and link and plan. We had our inspection not long ago and were told that it is not really acceptable for the teachers to take them home.

[finleysmaid]

im not sure you should be sticking the children on a piece of paper

[RaceFace03]

Hi All,

 

I rota the staff each week as there are points in the session where we are over ratio. This is used for staff to do into an empty room without children present to complete the profiles.

 

We are very lucky to have three level 6 staff, as the ratio is 1:13 this allows us to do so.

 

I don't feel that staff should be taking the profiles home, as the weekends are your time not work time! That's what I think anyway!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sunnyday]

I suggest to my staff that they have a file with sub dividers in with each of their key worker children and add observations, comments etc to a sheet of paper and when it is full, then put that in their folder, so the whole file isn't going home.

I am going to adopt this idea - so thanks for that MegaMum! :1b

Off to add 'make up suitable folders for staff' to the dreaded to do list!

[SueJ]

We do the file thing that MegaMum has suggested - I also find it useful to give each keyperson a list of all the children that attend the setting and their keyperson as we all do obs on each other's children so it just makes it easier to have the list. The list also has the days that the children attend so if anyone is trying to do a "specific" ob for any reason they can quickly see what days a particular child is in - this list also helps staff that don't work every session and when they cover for others during absences.

[Bliss]

I am relieved to read so many settings have to ask their staff to do work "in their own time" but concerned after reading an article in Nursery World this week regarding minimum wage. It seems that by doing work at home (in own time) we are breaching Working Time Directive, as the hours worked mean we are lowering the minimum wage actually paid. (It is explained in full in the article!)

 

Not only that, but HMRC are cracking down on this, and businesses could be fined up to £20,000 per staff member?????

 

Have I understood this correctly, and if so, what are we to do? Like many other settings, we can only afford the minimum staffing ratios, plus a spare to cover breaks and parent meetings. There is no time for "non contact" as we need everyone with the children. Doing LJ's with the children would be ideal, but with younger children having toilet accidents, needing support elsewhere this just never happens.

I am manager/owner, and have worked every day of the holidays - I wouldn't get through the amount of preparation required to be ready to return. Is that OK because I "want" to work in my own time?

Any thoughts really appreciated.

Enjoy the rest of the holidays!!!!!

[skippy]

Our staff get paid to take their LJ's home to update. I have always been concerned with them leaving the setting but staff are made aware of their responsibility. Teachers take work home with them to complete. We plan this into our budget as we feel that it is important that LJ reflect children's development and their time with us. They are update each half term. There is no time in the day for staff to have time to do them.

If I am honest data protection has always concerned me as I am still not clear what are responsibility is in terms of what we can do. Do you all have laptops or memory sticks with data/info on? Does anyone have any guidance that is not to lengthy?

 

Thanks Skippy