Reflections guide for relatives

[EmilyTapestrySupport]

You can use the Reflections feature on Tapestry to connect with the thoughts of staff at your child's setting and to follow their journey with you and your child. 

Reflection ensures everyone is always learning - your child, their educators and yourselves as a relative. Staff can collect together their thoughts and observations about their teaching, the setting and the children, and broaden their understanding through research and educational theory. As parents and relatives you can take part in the reflection process, by reflecting on your child's learning journey, on your own journey as a parent and as part of a learning community with staff at your child's setting. In this way there is always growth and communication to ensure positive learning experiences for your child. 

Please note, to be able to use this feature, a manager at your child's setting needs to have enabled it for relatives. If they haven't, this is something you will need to discuss with them.

 

If you do have this feature enabled, then you can access the reflections section just by clicking where it says 'Reflections' at the top of the screen (1). 

The reflections you see here will depend on how the setting (school, nursery, childminder or other education provision) you are with have set up the permissions for the account, but you will always see any reflections you have added yourself (2). I'll come to the different options you might see here later in the tutorial. 

To add a new reflection, you just need to click on the '+ Add Reflection' button (3). 

 

 

Adding a reflection

I will now talk you through all the different options on the add reflection page:

1) You will need to give the reflection a title in order to be able to save it.

2) Here you can add your actual reflection .

3) Depending on whether you have permission to, you can change the status of the reflection from 'draft' to 'published' from the 'Status' drop-down. If you don't have permission you will only be able to save any reflections as drafts.

4) If you want to change the time/date of the reflection you can do this from the 'Created' box.

5) Another option that is dependent on the user permissions is whether you can choose to link any children you are associated with to the reflection or not. If you don't have permission then these two options won't show up here. Please note, if you do choose the option 'does not relate to any children', this means if this reflection becomes published, other relatives will be able to see it. Therefore, if you do select this, we would recommend ensuring you don't include any personal information you wouldn't want other relatives to see.

6) If you have chosen to include children, you just need to click on the 'Select Children' button to add them. You will only be able to see any children you are linked to here. 

7) If you've been given permission to, you can link your reflection to observations or to any other reflections you wish to. 

8) To add any supporting media (photos or videos), you just need to click on the 'Add Files' button. 

9) Once you're done, you can save reflection or save your reflection and add another one. 

 

 

Viewing Reflections

To view a whole reflection you just need to click on it from the reflections in the list. I'll go through everything you might be able to see when viewing one below.

1) At the top, underneath the title, you can see who authored the reflection and when it was added.

2) If the reflection includes any children you will see this at the top. You will only see the names of the children that you are linked with. 

3) Any media that you have been permitted to see will show above the actual reflection. You might not see media that has been included if it is a group observation and your child's setting have it set so relatives can't see media in group observations. If this is a case, instead of media, you will see a note informing you of this. 

4) If you have been given permission to, you can download any media included by clicking where it says 'download these photos and videos'. 

5) The actual reflection will show up in the yellow notes box.

6) If the reflection has been linked to any observations or other reflections and you have been allowed to see these you will see these show up under the notes, the eye icon will show you how many links there are.

7) You just need to click on the 'Show full list' button to see any linked reflections or observations. If the reflection is linked to other observations or reflections that you don't have access to, you won't see these show up here. 

8) If you have permission to, you can comment on the reflection. If the reflection is a group one, you will get a warning letting you know that other relatives that can see the reflection, will be able to see your comment.

9) Once you've written your comment, you just need to click on the 'Add Reply' button to send it. 

 

 

Reflections Options

Depending on the user permissions your child's setting have set up, there may be some different options available to you on the main reflections page. 

If you have a cog button at the end of the row of a reflection (1) this is where you can see the different options that are available to you for this reflection. The three you might see are:

Publish: This option will allow you to publish any draft reflections you have made (2). 

Reflect: This will allow you to create another reflection that would be linked to this reflection (3). 

Observe: This will allow you to create an observation that would be linked to this reflection (4). 

If you have been allowed to edit your own reflections, you will also see an 'Edit' button (5) for all reflections authored by you. 

 

 

So, that's how to add and use the reflections section on Tapestry. I hope you found this tutorial helpful!