Tapestry how did you do it?

[Amina_Hussain]

Dear everyone or anyone.

I'm looking to introduce tapestry in my preschool setting and wanted some advice. We are a small setting and I have a team of 8 staff including myself as a key person. As we are a committee run preschool I want to put a proposal together so I can move forward with my ideas.

 

But of course I'm one to plan and over analyse all outcome scenarios!!

 

Can you recommend the tablet devices you purchased. We can't afford Ipads as the last manager left me with a deficit on budget expenses so I'm going to request some funds from our reserve pot.

How many did you initially purchase I'm thinking maybe 3 as at present we actually only have 1 camera between us all.

Is it more cost effective than printing photos and buying scrap books?

 

How many children did you trial it on to gain feedback from parents. It will be myself and deputy to trial but with children who aren't moving to school this year.

Is there anything else I need to worry about?

At present staff take paper journals home to complete but I want to introduce office time each week to complete the electronic journals.

Does it take less time to moderate the online journals verses paper ones?

Any more thoughts please let me know.

Many thanks

[Guest]

This is the position we are also in at the moment and will be interested to hear what everyone says.

A query I also have is are you able to add children throughout the year and how does that work with paying for children at various start times through the year .

[thumperrabbit]

I'm a committee run small setting 24 ch per day with 3 key workers but 5 staff altogether (we all take photos)

We have 2 Galaxy Tab 3's and cost £99 each from PC World - we would like another 1 to be honest but 2 is ok.

I introduced it by each key worker using 1 child to begin with (preferably a child who attends every day) after 1 week of them working with that child I then introduced it to those parents too - for me it also helped that the children I chose were those of committee parents should we have done something wrong!

I then introduced a child a week per key worker until they were all on.

Now I just add a child as and when they start - I never get to my 40 children but you can increase your Tapestry subscription at anytime if you need to.

Hope that's helps!

[diesel10]

We have 4 staff working at each session and gave 4 iPads. We are not all using them at the same time but they do need charging. Your staff really don't need 'office' time complete journals. They need do complete them as they are working. It really doesn't take long. I then I take one of the iPads home and read them all and post. This really doesnt t take long.

 

Parents want to see what their child has been doing daily not once a week. Also you need to use the full system to change the date as I don't think you can do it on th app.

 

Introducing with one child each is a good idea. You will soon be up to full speed.

[Amina_Hussain]

We have 4 staff working at each session and gave 4 iPads. We are not all using them at the same time but they do need charging. Your staff really don't need 'office' time complete journals. They need do complete them as they are working. It really doesn't take long. I then I take one of the iPads home and read them all and post. This really doesnt t take long.

 

Parents want to see what their child has been doing daily not once a week. Also you need to use the full system to change the date as I don't think you can do it on th app.

 

Introducing with one child each is a good idea. You will soon be up to full speed.

​

 

Dear Diesel10, as your staff do not really have any office time, does that mean all updates (posts, photos, observations, next steps etc) do not need a laptop and is there enough time in session for staff to tap their notes in. Also I am not sure what change the date refers to? I am thinking that myself and deputy will have the full access so we can validate/publish the observations etc.

 

I am really quite excited and am hoping my staff will feed off my enthusiasm .

 

Thank you

PS To be honest I really have had a horrible week and just want to be positive about something, so even by checking through the forum on a weekend and reading people's posts and news has helped me think things will be ok. Everyone has their own challenges to face.

Anyway enjoy your weekends all :1b

[Mouseketeer]

Diesel10 could you come and tell my staff that, they still moan that the 2hrs a week they get isn't long enough, I keep telling them not to do so many, they've gotten into the habit of just taking photos then they need adding gggrrrr

[Cait]

You can always just log into the child's journal, take the picture and upload it to the journal and add the obs etc later. The parent is really interested in seeing the picture. You need to give it a title of course, that you could always edit later. You could put something like 'great fun in the sand tray' and take the picture. It's immediate and parent sees the fun straight away.

[diesel10]

I'd love to come and talk to your staff Mouseketeer. What are they doing in the 2 hours???? The observations will have a date on them, so if you don't do them that day, you will need to change the date. You know what parents are like, 'oh but Jonny wasn't in Tuesday'. Seriously, I can't see the point of holding them until later, just get them done and uploaded. You think you will remember but you won't. You don't need a laptop for most of it, I think you need to set up new children on a laptop.

 

It is the best thing we have ever done. No printing, sticking, journals that no one looks at. I have a clear overview of all the children now which was impossible with journals and it's so much more interactive with the parents.

[hopeytg]

We have used Tapestry for 18 months now and love it. I bought 4 Archos tablets at £100 each but anything similar is fine, we don't use the tablets to take photos - (if you have a laptop at work the staff could use that and save the cost of purchasing tablets) we have two cameras in the setting, during the afternoon session, all photos are uploaded to dropbox which staff can access at home. I pay them all 30 mins a week for observations - they can chose to stay in the setting or like me some prefer to add their obs at home. All submissions have to be authorised by me or my deputy before parents can view them.

We have tried a couple of ways of completing obs but have reverted back to post it notes that the all staff complete for any child which are then added to tapestry by the keyperson - we find this means the keyperson can keep a better track of their own child's obs.

Some may argue this is duplicating work but it works for us - it really is a case of finding what works for you.

100% of our parents love it and Ofsted liked the analysis facilities for monitoring 'groups'.

[Cait]

You don't have to have a laptop for a Tapestry. You can log into the web version like any other web page, rather than using the app.

[thumperrabbit]

My staff take the photos on the tablet either directly onto Tapestry if it's logged on or on the tablets camera and I upload them all later assigning them to the correct keyworker - I don't check my staffs posts but then they are all mature and good spellers (most of the time!)

Tapestry does 'time out' so we find that by the time you've logged on half the time the little munchkins have moved away so therefore too late for photo, that's why we use the camera on the tablet.

If our setting was purely older 3/4yr olds I think most of our writing up and posting would be done 'in the moment' but it rarely happens as we have majority 2yr olds and find that writing up in the moment takes too long for their needs.

My staff also have 2 hours a week at home to complete, to be honest this came from when we did paper journals and as it's in their contract it would mean a contract change, but seeing as we never get away at the time we are paid until (packaway setting) I wouldn't take it off them.

[BroadOaks]

I can't recommend Tapestry enough!! It makes OAP and Supervisions so much easier! need i say more?

 

Well i will say a little more that i don't think was mentioned. This is also great for Parents, Carers to get involved and also to allow them access to their child's journal at any time they wish. They love that.. and many parents, carers will contribute, and this really helps.

 

It also makes moderation a LOT easier.. and you can leave comments if required, ie staff need to input more info, or check assessments bla bla bla...

 

it saves on printing pictures, and on purchasing books to use as journals, but if you really use this Tapestry well.. you will be printing diagnostic information out to use in supervisions, unless you can show this data on a laptop, and save even more paper.

 

So yes.. GET THIS!!!

[Amina_Hussain]

Many thanks all. Really looking forward to getting started.

[MarshaD]

Hi

 

I use Tapestry. We started with it when we opened so built up gradually as our numbers grew. Need to go up now as have 42 on roll. We have one iPad but don't have wifi so upload at home. Staff get paid an hour a week for this. Literacy levels aren't great so I do find reading and editing quite time consuming, it is important to keep on top of them as they soon stack up. I haven't quite for a handle on all the analysis tools. If the children progress at age related levels it looks as if they've made no progress which takes some explaining. You can adjust the settings but as I say I haven't quite got my head round it all. As has been said data much easier to manage and interrogate than with paper journals and journals definitely easier to keep up to date. One downside that has been raised by LEA adviser that children can't look through their journals in the same way. Inmo though definitely way forward.

[Cait]

They can still look at them though, with you beside them in the same way, you even get the opportunity to record their comments on each observation