How to prepare your Tapestry account for setting closure and remote learning: Staff

[EmilyTapestrySupport]

We’ve written this series of articles to help you prepare your Tapestry account for setting closure in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. We hope they will offer some help and guidance in this difficult time. 

If your setting has already closed, we recommend you still take a look as you may find the advice here is beneficial. 

In this particular article we’ll look at staff preparations. Linked below you will also find articles focusing on relatives and children. Please note these instructions are aimed at managers on Tapestry. 

How to prepare your Tapestry account for setting closure and remote learning: Relatives

How to prepare your Tapestry account for setting closure and remote learning: Children

 

Let’s get started!

I’ve broken your staff preparations down into 6 sections as follows:

1. Contact and setting details
2. Organising your invoices and where to renew your account 
3. Staff user types and how to change them
4. Staff user permissions
5. Updating your policies
6. Staff communication and wellbeing

 

1. Contact and setting details

The first thing we recommend you do on your account is check your setting and contact details to make sure they are up to date. We would use these to contact you should we need to. 

To do this, you just need to go to the Control Panel (1) - > Settings (2). 

We then suggest you check ‘Your Setting’ (3) and ‘Contact Details’ (4). The screenshot below shows the ‘Your Setting’ page. 

 

 

This is what the Contact Details page looks like:

 

 

2. Organising your invoices and where to renew your account 

You can find all your invoices from within your Tapestry account. In this section you will also be able to see, and make payment for, any pending invoices.

To find it you just need to go to your Control Panel (1) and stay on the Overview page. Here you will see when your subscription expiry date is (2) and a button that says ‘View and pay your invoices’,  you just need to click on that to access your invoices (3).  

 

 

This will bring up a list of your invoices (1) and if any are pending, to make payment you just need to click on the ‘Pay’ button for that invoice (2). This tutorial will talk you through the process in full.

 

 

3. Staff user types and how to change them

There are three different types of staff member on Tapestry, these are:

Manager: They can do everything on an account and have access to the Control Panel where you can add children, staff and relatives. This is also where you can adjust all the different settings on Tapestry. 

Staff full member: They are set up with an email address and password so can login to Tapestry wherever. What they can see and do on an account can be controlled by a manager.

Staff PIN-only: They are only set up with a 4-digit PIN so can only login to a device if a manager or full member of staff logins in first and then switches user. This staff type was designed for situations where managers don’t want their staff logging in to Tapestry from home. What they can see and do on an account can be controlled by a manager.

Some of you may have set your staff up as PIN-only so they can’t login from home but now need to adjust your policy due to setting closure. To do this you just need to go to the Manage Staff section of the Control Panel (1) and click on the ‘Edit’ button for the staff member you want to change the type for (2). 

 

 

Then from the ‘Type’ drop-down (1), you just need to select ‘Staff (full account) (2).

If you are changing the staff type from PIN-only to full staff member, you will also need to enter an email address and password for them. Remember to save the page when you’re done. See this tutorial for the full process. 

 

 

4. Staff User Permissions

Now is also a good time to check what your staff are set up to do and see on your account. You can do this within the Control Panel from the User Permissions section.

 

 

The permissions are grouped into sections and if you select one, you’ll then see the list of permissions appear (1). To change whether something is permitted or not, you just need to click on the ‘Edit’ button (2).

 

 

This tutorial will talk you through the steps in more depth.

 

5. Updating your policies

You may have updated your policies in response to the need to allow staff to work from home. If this is the case, you can add any new or updated policies to the Documents section in Tapestry. 

This can be done by selecting ‘Documents’ from the top of the page (1). If you haven’t already got a folder or folders for your policies, you can click on ‘Add folder’ (2) to organise that. 

You then just need to click on the ‘Add file’ button to upload documents (3).

 

 

Here you just need to select your file (1), give it a title (2) and a description too if you wish (3). Then choose a folder for it (4). Finally, you can choose whether you want relatives to be able to access and download the file (5). Please note this is a blanket setting, so it would mean all relatives on your account can download it. 

When you’re done, just click ‘Save’ (6).

 

 

6. Staff communication and wellbeing

As your staff move to remote teaching and learning they will no longer be together for all the catch-up chats and meetings in which you share ideas, discuss children’s experiences and support wellbeing. On Tapestry you can use our Reflections feature to keep these conversations and this support going remotely. 

This tutorial explains how you can enable Reflections on your account.

Once enabled, you can select ‘Reflections’ from the top of your page (1). To add a new reflection, you just need to click on the ‘Add Reflection’ button (2).

 

 

You will need to give a reflection a title in order to save it (1), then in the ‘Reflection’ box you can add any thoughts you want to share with other staff (2). You can also choose whether a reflection is for a specific child or children (3). 

You can set different visibility levels for a reflection (4) and you can also change its status (5). 

 

 

Reflections can be linked to observations and other reflections to show a timeline of events (1). You can also add media to them (2) and give them a ‘Flag’ (3). Flags on Tapestry are pre-set and are designed to quickly show you what that reflection is about. 

 

 

For more information about how to add reflections and how they can be used, please look at this tutorial.