Steve

Terribly sad to read this - Panders was a great friend to many on the forum for a good chunk of its existence. Although her current member profile shows her as joining in 2009, she was previously a member under a different name. Whenever I saw her icon pop up I knew I was likely to be reading something either witty, profound or supportive. We've been trying to find any personal details that would allow us to send some flowers from her friends here, but so far have been unable to do so. If anyone does have this information please do PM me. Alternatively if her son reads this (and I hope these messages from her community bring some comfort to you), please could you email me at steve@eyfs.info if you are prepared for us to send something.

Hi Early Bird - Thanks for your feedback, and welcome to the Forum, as I think this is your first post? Some of the areas you highlight have been requested and have been pencilled in as future refinements. Others are a little challenging when you start to think about them in technical detail. For example, the availability of the latest completed register available offline. This would obviously be great, avoiding the need to also remember to take a printout of the current register when all children have arrived. However, making this 100% reliable (as it would need to be in order to provide a completely up to date account of the children on the premises) is something we won't release unless we can convince ourselves it can be as reliable as a completely up to date register. We'd obviously value any suggestions from Tapestry users as to how this could best be achieved. In the meantime, the register is available on the browser version via a tablet or smartphone, and if you are able to replace a wifi signal with a mobile connection you should have access to the latest online version. Hope that helps. :) Steve

Hi Alison - I know what you mean! And while I posted my profile pic back then I wasn't expecting there to come a time when I could probably compete with it for grey hair and wrinkles! Great to see you still around having joined only two months after the FSF was launched in Feb 2003. 🙂

Welcome to the FSF Plin! :)

Dear FSF friends - As many of you will be aware, this year the amazing community at eyfs.info is celebrating the 20th anniversary of our launch. Since 2003 we have been a gathering point and support network for tens of thousands of early years educators, developing a safe community to share experiences through conversations and debate. Many of you have become close friends in that time, and many are still here from those early days. We introduced an individual annual subscription fee of £20 in 2004, in order to be able to provide the FSF with the means to ensure its maintenance and add resources in the form of articles and other helpful materials. In the twenty years since we have not raised that subscription fee, aware of the fact that the early years workforce is one of the most sparsely funded areas in the UK. So in this 20th anniversary year we thought we'd change this, and are very happy to let you know that we are removing the subscription completely and making the community free of charge for all. In these volatile days, with early years (along with all other forms of primary education) under pressure as never before, providing a platform for committed, professional educators to gather, and to seek and offer support, is, we believe, essential. We are able to do this due to the success of our Tapestry service, which will fund the costs of the FSF through the revenues it generates. As many of you will know, Tapestry emerged from the countless conversations between members here, many of whom were struggling with the time required to prepare traditional 'special books' and, as they became, learning journals. So it is fitting that Tapestry, which grew from the FSF and became, rather unexpectedly, a huge thing, is now able to repay the discussions and debate that led to its genesis. (On a practical note, could anyone who has paid their subscription over the last three months make contact with Sue who will be happy to re-imburse you.) Thanks for your company, wisdom and camaraderie over the years (decades!). I'm sorry that in recent times, for reasons that many of you will know, I have not contributed as regularly as I once did. But I have always kept a close eye on things here, and I commit to being more active in the coming months. We have other little improvements and developments planned - the front page will, for example, change soon to put the community front and centre. I hope you enjoy them, and I am sure (!) that you will let me know, as you always have, when you don't. Keep that feedback coming; it's what made the FSF the wonderful thing it is. Best wishes, Steve

Happy Birthday Cait!

Happy Birthday Cait! :)

Hi Kathryn - The app care diary feature is under development now, so hopefully it will be available within the next couple of months, but it's difficult to give a precise date.

Hi Charlotte - Yes we do have plans, and have begun work on admin/management functionaliy. However, software development of this sort is quite unpredictable, so we're unable to give you any timescales for its implementation - sorry about that! :)

Hi all - Sorry for the belated reply. I managed to miss Cait's new topic and then obviously missed all the notifications after that! Thanks very much for the birthday wishes. I've had so many birthdays now I tend to forget myself when they turn up again, but it's much appreciated! And cookie dude - I quite like that as an alternative title... I'll try to be more observant the next time. Lots of love - Steve

Re Helen's suggestion of writing to your MPs, I think it's worth a try. Apparently they are getting an increasing number of queries/complaints, and it's rising up the political agenda.

This does seem inexplicable doesn't it? If they are serious about a strict lockdown I don't see how they can make pre-school/nursery/childminders an exception. Obviously, as in March/April, they would need to keep schools and nurseries open for children of keyworkers and vulnerable children, but...

Hi Jigsawpreschool, The observation is available immediately you upload it (assuming you didn't upload it as a draft). I think you mean the parents aren't getting an email notification of the observation until later? That will be because you (as a manager of the Tapestry account) or they (with their individual preferences) have set their notification preferences to only receive one email per day, with all observations included. The options are as below: You can change preferences by following this tutorial.

Haha - Might be worth posting a photo of the problem area?

Hi Amy - We do have it on our to-do list to add it to the apps, but it's not under development yet, so sadly I can't give you any estimate of when it will be available. It's a real shame that your tablets' browsers are restricted, as we did work hard to make sure it was as useable as possible on a small screen browser. Do you have a close enough working relationship with your IT providers that they could permit a web browser to have access to specified URLs?

Lovely conversation starter enuffsenuf! I'm going to stop immediately as I'm not on the front line (thank goodness, for the children's sake) but I look forward to seeing what other people's experiences have been! 😀

I imagine this would be a strong incentive for him to get loving care in hospital (not that the NHS require an incentive to care):

Hi Louby lou, sunnyday and Panders - Great that you've posted this Lou, and thanks for responding P & S. I think maybe everyone is feeling a bit vulnerable and yet worried about how to project that into these social spaces, which can in some situations be very unforgiving. I hope you'll feel comfortable with continuing to express the emotions and feelings that everyone must be encountering in this unprecedented situation. Whether you do so here or via the real time one to one interactions of phone/skype/zoom etc is entirely up to you, but I know we'll make sure that the FSF community is cared for, and moderated, and loved.. Let's all look out for each other while this madness sees itself through.

Hi Susan - Great to hear from you - it's definitely been a while! Glad to hear you've been busy with your nephew. Yes, wobbly times for all I guess. But heartening that in many cases it's bringing people together, and forcing a re-think on what's important in life. Shame it had to be under these dire circumstances! Pop in more often! xx

Hi Maria - You can buy equipment to hold fire doors open, that are designed to close on the sound of a fire alarm. We have some in our building, and the building control inspection approved them. Would this work for you? You could then have them open for your free flow, but (assuming you have an audible fire alarm) you should be ok with your fire risk assessment. Perhaps ask the people who did your fire risk assessment whether they would be happy with this solution?

Me neither - how could I have missed that!

You're certainly one of the old timers Mundia, if you don't mind me putting it that way! Along with me of course. It's just struck me that many of you are saying Happy Birthday to 'you'. As if it was the people working here who were celebrating the birthday. When I said Happy Birthday to 'all of us' I of course meant you the membership!

Hi all - The FSF is 17 years old tomorrow. As member number 1 I would like to say thanks for the company and community since Valentine's day 2003. Have a look at the front page and our resident artist Kat's lovely birthday cake. Everyone should take a slice - if you're vegan it's probably vegan... Steve

Sorry to hear that Marsha, and thanks for the heads up! Unfortunately there are quite a few scams like these, many targeted directly at small businesses where they know people don't have the resources to push back. If they put as much time into honest work as they do into trying to extract money dishonestly, they'd probably be able to earn a good living without hurting others. Hope it doesn't spoil your day completely!

Which is why it is still high on our to-do list. However, with seven full time software developers we still struggle to implement all the features many weavers ask for, so we have regular prioritisation meetings to work out the most important things to approach first. We will be turning our attention to it soon - If it's any consolation the devs are manacled to their desks and only let out one day a year each!