Steve

It's a long term ambition of mine to include this for Tapestry Mary. Unfortunately we've been so busy with other features for Tapestry that we haven't yet made a start on it. But hopefully over the next few months...

I'm not sure what you mean by "I just wish the parents had an option to link to eyfs" appletree? You know that you can make the EYFS assessments visible to parents do you?

Please find attached a press release calling on early years minister Sam Gyimah to rethink the current government plans for baseline assessment at the beginning of the reception year. Background documents are also attached.

TACTYC Baseline position paper.pdf

TACTYC Baseline summary.docx

Press release baseline 1.11.14.doc

Um - I wouldn't think so, sunnyday, unless your kindle has a browser. Sadly...

Hi all -

Belatedly got round to donating the proceeds of the bookshelf page to the NSPCC. For those of you who didn't know, if you buy from Amazon by clicking through from this page, a small percentage gets paid to the FSF, and we send it on to child based charities (incidentally, you don't have to buy those items - anything you buy from the Amazon site after being directed there from the FSF should qualify).

It should have had the FSF as the sender - don't know why my name replaced it, but here's the receipt, for 223.15 - mostly the result of sunnyday's spending sprees, I assume!

Further to this chaps, we've now removed Tapestry forum posts (as the default) from the front page (both new topics and last twenty posts, so they're now showing up a little more EYFS-centrically! We're almost ready to remove them from the 'View New Content' listings as well - should be gone tomorrow.

If Tapestry users would like to opt back in, they'll be able to do so on the View New Content page. You can also enable email notifications by using the 'Follow this Forum' and 'Follow this topic' functions.

Breathe the free air again, non-Tapestry users! :1b

Thanks catma - that's been on my list for a little while now. I'm aware that the Tapestry posts are in danger of drowning out our principle purpose at the FSF and I've been intending to reduce its visibility on the front page and elsewhere. Unfortunately I've been, well, drowning myself with Tapestry stuff, so haven't got round to it. Your post has made me more aware that it's a real thing and not just my own view, so I'll crack on with it!

It's a bit of a 'tiger by the tail' situation - I wasn't really expecting it to be the beast it's become!

Yup - just pop into the PRAMS part of the resource library and download it. :1b

Matt, Matt and Matt might benefit from the same treatment?? :rolleyes:

Yes - we could change them all to 'Dan'!

BTW an aside, but is it just me that's getting an impossibly miniscule Steve avatar at the moment?

Really mundia? Anyone else experiencing this unacceptable phenomenon?

Welcome Lauren, makes a fantastic change on Steve's part to choose someone not called Matt! Hope you enjoy working withe the team and getting to know all of us.

Actually we're going through the process of changing Lauren's name by deed poll. :1b

Not sure I should answer this one Nuby - it's probably up to people using it to give their views. There are lots of things you might need to consider, such as the fact that PRAMS is free to download, whereas Tapestry is a hosted service which we have to charge for. Here are a few things to think about:

• Do you want access to and contact with parents? PRAMS doesn't really do this - it's simply an internal progress tracking and monitoring program, whereas Tapestry emails parents with new observations, enables them to comment and submit their own photos and observations etc.
• Do you want a replacement for a physical learning journal or do you simply need a tracking program. PRAMS has the edge as a tracking program, although Tapestry is becoming increasingly good at analysis and tracking.
• Do you want to be responsible for your own data (security, backup etc)? Tapestry stores and looks after your data online, whereas PRAMS lives on your computer and stores your data there.

Hi all -

I'd like to introduce the newest member of the FSF, Lauren, who will be working alongside Sue, Louise, Matt, Matt, Matt, Chris and me from this week.

This is Lauren's first full-time job, having just graduated, and she'll be kept very busy working on front line support (largely for Tapestry, but she'll be looking at any general FSF queries and issues as well).

You'll no doubt be hearing a lot from her both on the Forum and behind the scenes, but now you'll know who she is. Please make her feel welcome! :1b

Edit: Oops. Someone called Helen claims to work here too....

Hi Amanda -

If you aren't being asked to use UPNs or LA/Establishment numbers you don't need them. They're optional and mainly for people who have to submit EY Profiles (ie reception children).

Glad you're enjoying your Tapestry experience! :1b

Congratulations Beth!

Conservative MP Sam Gyimah has confirmed he is the new Childcare and early years minister, replacing the role formally occupied by Elizabeth Truss.

Sorry chaps - and thanks to the many who have pointed out the typo in our newsletter today. The new secretary of state for education is, of course, Nicky Morgan, not Vicky Morgan.

Blame it on trying to get a newsletter finished and sent out last thing on Friday. Or my carelessness if you wish...

Hi JBEATTIE and welcome to the FSF! :1b

This is a perfectly good place to post if you're unable to get logged on. You should, within a couple of minutes, have received an email giving access instructions to Tapestry - have you not had yours? If not, try checking your junk/spam folders first of all, to see if it's been incorrectly identified. Let me know if you still can't find it and we'll try to help further.

I'd be interested to know if anyone uses Toddlenomics, which is an online solution that was pointed out to me recently. Anyone with experience?

If you don't need learning journal functionality, I'd say PRAMS will do just fine. Tapestry is a bit of overkill for just the tracking functionality it sounds like you need. :1b

It's an annual fee mouseketeer. It's not insurance, it's a legal requirement that when you keep certain kinds of personal information about people, you need to be registered. It's to do with privacy and data protection. But you should be wary of the scammers (I still think parasites is a better term) who make their living trying to bully and frighten you into paying them. If you need to notify with the ICO you should do it quite simply and cheaply (£35, no VAT) with them.

Hi Nuby -

It's been around for quite some time. Are you asking because you've been sent a rather intimidating letter from some organisation that sounds vaguely official suggesting that you are pretty much a criminal for not doing it? In this case you can throw the letter away or send it to your local trading standards people (here's one reference to the parasites that like to phone or write this sort of thing).

Notification is quite a simple thing and only costs around £35 - the people referred to above make their money by scaring small businesses into agreeing to use their service, and then charging £100 or more, when all they are doing is filling in the form for you.

They're actually quite nice in the Information Commissioner's Office, and if you're unsure whether your records/paperwork mean you need to notify (that's the term used for registering with the ICO) you can even give them a call and ask them. If you do need to, they'll be happy to send you the form. If you have received one of those unpleasant letters you might like to mention it to them. :1b

That makes a lot of sense thanks Catma. Even with the extra syllables!

Thanks both, that's fine. There are different uses for ELG plusses I guess, which confuses me a little. When you're making an individual observation and would like to have access to the statements describing the sorts of activities that could be classed as exceeding the ELGs, it's useful to be able to see those suggestions, and this is why (the immediate reason for thinking about this is Tapestry) people have asked us to list ELG plus as a separate judgement.

But if you're using refinements generally with your assessments, and want to assess someone as 'exceeding' in the ELGs, effectively you're suggesting they are ELG plus anyway aren't you?

I don't know how rigid or formally defined these things are, so it's entirely possible I'm missing the point. And Helen isn't around at the moment to explain it in words of one syllable. :1b

Ok, that's fine thanks chaps. Just slightly confused by the terminology as someone who doesn't have much to do with EYFSP submissions. We were recently asked to have ELG+ as an extra assessment criterion in Tapestry, but I didn't know how to map it onto the scores that get submitted as the EYFSP. I guess if someone assesses someone as ELG+, then that is effectively 'exceeding' and therefore scores as a 3 then.

Unless I'm still misunderstanding, which wouldn't be unheard of...