Lauren

March 20, 2020

Memos is a new way to post on Tapestry. Much like a bulletin board you can use it to share news, updates, and reminders with relatives. Just attach the children whose parents you’d like to send the information to and publish your post for them to see it.

Within these posts you will be able to include notes, clickable links to other webpages, media, and documents. They will also have a comments section for parents if you’d like to have that enabled.

Unfortunately, this isn’t quite ready on the apps yet, but it is on the to do list! We'll update this page when it becomes available.

March 20, 2020

You can now upload documents as well as videos and pictures to observations, memos, and reflections. This includes Word documents, Powerpoints, PDFs, and Excel sheets.

As well as being able to view them on the browser, you can now see these attached documents on the latest live version of the iOS app and the ‘beta’ Android app. To access the Android beta just click here when on the device you want to use Tapestry with. For most of you this beta version should be significantly better than the current live version but if you have any problems, then you can delete it and re-download the existing live version without any data loss. If you do experience any issues with it, let us know (by emailing customer.service@eyfs.info) so we can fix them before it becomes the live version 😊.

If you are using the Fire app or the Android beta isn’t working for you, then currently you won’t be able to see attached documents. Instead will display a message on observations which have documents attached to them telling viewers to go to the browser version of Tapestry to see the documents.

March 20, 2020

In response to the coronavirus pandemic and the self isolation and setting closure that has come with that, we have temporarily increased the limit on single media uploads to Tapestry. Until recently that has been 100MB (works out as about a minute worth of video), but as of now you can upload videos that last up to 10 minutes or are as big as 5GB. This will be available until further notice.

The idea is that you and the families of the children in your care will be able to upload longer videos of activities and ideas for remote learning – for example, you might want to upload a video of you reading a story, or of setting a task, and ask parents to send one back of their child carrying it out.

This is available on the browser and the latest live iOS app. To access it for Android you need to download the ‘beta’ version of the app, which is quick, easy, and free to do. Just click here when on the device you want to use Tapestry with. For most of you this beta version should be significantly better than the current live version but if you have any problems, then you can delete it and re-download the existing live version without any data loss. If you do experience any issues with it, let us know (by emailing customer.service@eyfs.info) so we can fix them before it becomes the live version.

If you are using the Fire app or the Android Beta isn’t working for you, then you will be able to view longer videos, but not upload them.

March 20, 2020

If you include a web address in the notes, additional info, or comment fields of observations, memos, or reflections it will now automatically become a clickable link. This means if you want to direct a parent or colleague to a particular online resource, they’ll now be able to go straight there, rather than having to copy and paste the link into a browser.

This is available on the browser and the latest live iOS app. To access it for Android you need to download the ‘beta’ version of the app, which is quick, easy, and free to do. Just click here when on the device you want to use Tapestry with. For most of you this beta version should be significantly better than the current live version but if you have any problems, then you can delete it and re-download the existing live version without any data loss. If you do experience any issues with it, let us know (by emailing customer.service@eyfs.info) so we can fix them before it becomes the live version 😊.

March 13, 2020

Every user now has the option to completely disable any of the notifications they receive from Tapestry. We still highly recommend that at least one manager per setting is notified of what happens on your account though!

If you would like to disable some or all your notifications you can do so by logging into the browser version of Tapestry, clicking on your name and going to ‘edit preferences’. From there you’ll see a button to change your notification preferences.

Alternatively you can change them from within your app by logging in, clicking on 'You' in the top left hand corner, then clicking on 'What we notify you about'. Just remember to save any changes you make!

March 2, 2020

We have updated the Reports system on Tapestry to provide a range of templates, include additional features, and generally make it more flexible.

We’ve also moved it to make it easier for staff and relatives to find. You’ll now be able to see it in the navigation bar at the top of your page when you are on the browser version.

Those of you who have been using Tapestry to make reports up to now will be able to see that all of the ones you’ve already made have been moved into the new system.

You can read more about the Reports system here:
https://tapestry.info/features/reports.html

You can find the first of our tutorials about it here.

February 6, 2020

If you're a full staff member or manager on Tapestry you can now access the Foundation Stage Forum with your Tapestry login details.

The FSF is a gathering place for educators. You can go there to find articles, downloadable resources, and podcast links. You'll also be able to start and/or take part in discussions about teaching and learning.

Check out the About Us page to find out a bit about the story behind the FSF and to read the guidelines we have for the forum.

You can find the tutorial for how to login here.

February 4, 2020

Thanks for agreeing to be part of this beta! I've put together some instructions for what I'd like you to do and how to navigate around/use this new reports system. If you find any part of reports particularly tricky to understand though, please can you make a note of it? We want it to be as intuitive as possible!

If you've come across this tutorial and aren't a beta for the new reports system but would like to be - get in touch. Just email customer.service@eyfs.info and put 'FAO Lauren' in your subject line.

Turning Reports Off and On Again

By default the new reports system will be turned off, but you can turn it on easily when you're ready. To do that, you need to go to the control panel (1). From there go to 'Features' (2) and scroll down until you see 'Reports'.

When you find that, you'll be able to see a button that says 'Enable'. Click on that to turn on the feature and 'Disable' to turn it off again.

Once that's done, you'll see it appear in the blue bar at the top of your page:

Please note that for the purposes of this beta only staff will be able to see it, but when it goes live, relatives will be able to see that section too.

If you want to disable this feature at any point please feel free - it will just hide the reports in there, nothing will be deleted.

Navigating Reports

Once you've gone into the new reports system. You'll be taken to a page where you can see the most recently made reports (1) and any unsaved reports (which are reports you've started but then left without saving) (2). You'll also have the option to create a new report using one of your active templates (3). I'll come back to how to activate and use templates later in this post. Finally, there is a tab to go to a 'list' view (4); that's where you'll be able to find all of your reports. Can you click on that please?

That'll take you to a longer list of reports (if you have already made some). You'll be able to add a new report form here too by clicking on the + Report button.

You can also use the 'Filter and Sort Reports' bar to filter down the reports you see in this list.

And you can use the cog next to each report to carry out a number of options. What those options are will depend on the status of the report, and whether it includes any documents or media.

Checking the copied over reports

This is the bit I really want you to look at.

When you go into this new reports system, you should be able to see copies of all your old reports.

These really are just copies, so if you go to where you would have found them before you'll still see them there too.

Could you pick a handful and compare how they are on the old system and the new system? The easiest way to do this is to have the same report in the old system open at the same time on a split screen so you can directly compare.

Key things to look for:

- Are all the dates the same?

- Are the assessment scores the same?

- Does everything you wrote appear?

- Is anything missing?

- Does anything look wrong/jarring to you?

Once you've checked that for a few reports, please could you get back to me to say how it went and any other feedback you have?

Other Templates and Making New Reports

If you don't have any old reports, or if you'd like to do this as well, please have a play with the new reports and let me know what you think.

You can see the templates you have turned on from the overview page:

Or by adding a report from the list view and choosing the template from the first drop down list:

The templates visible to you are based on the frameworks you have enabled. If you think you might want to make a report in a framework you don't currently have enabled, you just need to turn it on from the Assessments section of the control panel.

Making the reports themselves is hopefully quite a simple process. Once you've selected your template and child, you will be taken to a report form. Regardless of the template, you will have some text boxes which you can fill in. They're all named so you can fill them with whatever is most appropriate. The only one you have to fill in to save it is the very first one - the title.

To the left of most fields you'll have a little box: '- Hide Field', or '+ Show Field' if you've already clicked to hide it.

If you choose to hide a field it will not be visible on the report when it's saved.

If you'd like to leave the box blank, but fill it in by hand when you print the report, then leave the field visible here. After you have saved the report, you can choose to export it. At this point you will have the option to include those empty fields.

The next option you'll come across which you might not be immediately sure about is this one:

You'll find that in the reports that can be populated with assessment data. The button in the top right allows you to choose the period that the assessment data relates to. You can change it at any point, but it will replace any assessment scores that are already on the account, regardless of whether they were filled in by Tapestry or manually.

Similarly there is an 'Autofill' button for the next steps section with EYFS reports. You can use it at any point, but it will replace any information currently in the related text box.

Another new one is to do with adding what the relatives think about the report. It looks like this:

This is useful for if you're with relatives when you're going through the report, and you want to add their contribution then and there.
You simply need to click on the button that says 'Add contribution on behalf of relatives' to reveal a text box.
They can add their own contributions from their own accounts once the report is published though, so you don't need to fill it in for them.

As you reach the end of the report, you might find a section for getting signatures of a selection of relevant people. To take the signatures, you'll need to click on the blue 'sign' button, then the appropriate person can draw in the box.

Finally you'll find a media box. You can use this to upload any pictures or videos you'd like, but also for any documents.

So that's about it! Your report will autosave fairly regularly to reduce the risk of any data loss from you leaving the page suddenly (whether that be a loss of power to your device or loss of connection to Tapestry), but it doesn't do it constantly so we'd still really recommend that you save regularly.

If you come across something that you don't think works very well or isn't clear, please get in touch - just email customer.service@eyfs.info. We'd love to hear your feedback!

January 7, 2020

If you use the International Early Years Curriculum framework for the children in your care, you can tag the statements and outcomes as part of observations on Tapestry. The framework is available on both the browser version of Tapestry and the Tapestry app (for iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire devices).

You can find our tutorial for how to turn that on here:

December 17, 2019

You can now export and print name labels for your Tapestry children. We’ve got two sizes of label right now - 80mm x 50mm and 177mm x 40 mm, and a few choices in terms of colour, how much of each child’s name is included, and whether their profile picture appears or not.

You can find out more about it here:

Tapestry.info

You can see our written tutorial about it here:

Creating Name Labels written tutorial

You can find our video tutorial for it here:

Creating Name Labels Video

Happy Christmas!

November 19, 2019

We’ve just added the Cherry Garden framework to Tapestry. It is a flexible, child centred assessment framework for students with SLD/PMLD working at a level expected for typically developing children aged 0-5 years.

You can read a bit more about it here:

We have a number of tutorials for it in our main tutorials list but you can start by looking at this one – it’ll tell you how to turn it on.

November 7, 2019

If you're using the International Early Years Curriculum framework with the children at your setting, you can make and store your assessments on Tapestry.

If you'd like to do that, and if you're a manager on Tapestry, you can enable the framework from the browser version of Tapestry. That will turn it on for all staff (and can be made visible to relatives if you'd like).

All you'll need to do is login, click on your name in the top right hand corner (1) and go to 'Control Panel' (2), then go to 'Settings' (3), and 'Assessments' (4). That will take you to the page where you can enable/disable any framework, but the one you're looking for is in the International section. Just click on 'Configure' (5).

That will open a box on your screen. To make sure it is enabled for staff at your setting you need to tick the first tick box. You can also enable it for relatives by ticking the second one. Enabling it for relatives means they will be able to see the outcomes you have ticked as part of observations. They won't be able to assess the outcomes themselves though.

Remember to press 'Submit' once you are done.

If you have ticked to enable the curriculum, it will now be available to all managers and staff on your Tapestry account via the browser version and the Tapestry app (available for iOS, Android, and Amazon fire devices).

You just need to add an observation, by clicking on the 'Observations' tab at the top of the page (1) and then clicking on the '+ Add Observation' button (2),

and select the appropriate outcome from the curriculum. For more information about adding an observation on Tapestry, please see this tutorial.

Go back to Main Tutorials Page

September 2, 2019

It's now possible to pay by card through your Tapestry account or through our new payment portal, rather than having to go to the FSF.

If you have a manager's login to Tapestry you just need to go to the control panel and click on 'View and pay your invoices' on the 'Overview' page.

If you don't have a login, you can go to https://pay.tapestryjournal.com/.
You'll need to know the post code of the address the Tapestry is registered to and the invoice number but once you've entered those you will be able to view and pay the invoices associated with that account.

May 20, 2019

You will now be able to find the Pre Key Stage 1 and 2 framework on Tapestry! You will be able to add assessments in it within observations on the browser version and be able to see which statements have been assessed how many times within a selected time frame from the tracking screen.

To turn it on for your account, you'll need to go to your 'Control Panel' then 'Settings' > 'Assessments' and look in the United Kingdom section.

Tapestry for Users in Australia · May 9, 2019

On Tapestry you can set up assessment periods which you can then use in the tracking screens to see where children are and how they are progressing between the periods.

We highly recommend you set these at the beginning of your academic year as changing your assessment periods during the year may alter the scores that show up in your snapshots.

When setting up your assessment periods, we suggest you set them to match your service's term dates and therefore have 4 periods. This is so you can easily see which term each outcome was achieved in. If you choose to have more or fewer you will still be able to distinguish it from most screens by choosing a 'custom period', but each staff member will have to set that manually every time they go to look at the data. I should also say that there is also an option to view data for the full year or even the entire time the child has been on Tapestry.

As amending the term dates is a setting change, you will need to be signed into the browser version of Tapestry as a manager and go to the Control Panel by clicking on your name in the top right-hand corner then selecting 'Control Panel' from the drop-down menu.

You will then need to click on 'Settings' (1) and select 'Summative Assessments' (2) from the drop-down menu. That will take you to a page where you can see, amongst other things, the term dates you currently have set. If any, or all, of these need changing, click on the 'Change Assessment Periods' button (3).

If you do decide to reduce the number of periods you have, you can remove the extra ones by clicking on the 'X' button (1) or you can add a new period by clicking on the 'Add Period' button (2).

To change the dates, you just need to click on the drop down boxes for start/end date (3). You can change the term names by in the 'Name' boxes (4). To save your changes you will need to click on the 'Submit' button (5).

When you change your term dates it's important to remember that a new academic year on your account starts at the beginning of the first term in your list. You can see from the screenshot above that in this account our new academic year will start with Term 1 on January the 1st.

Please do be aware that changing these dates will affect your previous periods and years on Tapestry and so the scores that already exist in your snapshots may change.

If you only make a minor change, e.g. you tweak the dates within a period or change the period's name, then you're unlikely to see much change. However, any assessments that have been made as part of observations will be moved to coincide with the period in which they were made, so if any were added in the days you have tweaked, they will move. The manually overridden changes you have made to snapshots should stay where they are for minor changes but for more significant ones (e.g you change the number of periods), the manually overridden scores will be moved to whatever new period contains the last day of the old period. You can read the text box above the periods for more information about this.

If you decide to cancel the changes before you have submitted them, you can just leave the page (either close it, or go to a different page within Tapestry) to leave them as they were. You must do that before you press submit though!

You can also choose to reset them back to Tapestry default ones by clicking on the 'Set Defaults' button (1). Once you've made your changes you then need to click on the 'Save' button (2).

Once you press 'Save' you will be taken to a screen asking you to confirm your period changes.

If you've only made small changes, e.g. kept the same number of terms but changed some of the dates a little bit, you will be able to see your current periods (1), the new ones (2) and to continue you just need to click 'Save' (3).

If you are trying to make larger changes e.g. changing the number of periods, not only will you see the current periods (1) and new periods (2) but you will also be shown the information about the period changes (3) and you will be presented with an information box (4). It's very important that you read this if you want to proceed because you can only go ahead after you have agreed to this (5). You won't be able to click the 'Save' button (6) until you do agree.

Tapestry for Users in Australia · May 9, 2019

Here are a list of tutorials to help you with all of the different features on Tapestry.

If you have a relative account, the best place to go for help using Tapestry is here. Alternatively you can speak to a manager at your child's setting.

Setting up Tapestry (managers only)

If you can't find the answer to your query here, you can contact our customer support team by emailing support@tapestryjournal.com.au

Tapestry user conversations · May 8, 2019

Hi everyone,

Some of you may have experienced some errors today and yesterday whilst using Tapestry. Although you would have been able to access Tapestry you may have been unable to quickly move between pages or save new entries.

This was the case between 13:10 and 13:23 GMT on the 7^th of May and between 13:30 and 14:10 GMT today.

We’d really like to apologise for that.

As you know, we pride ourselves on our levels of availability and do all we can to ensure that your access to Tapestry is uninterrupted. Unfortunately, at points over the last two days we have experienced an increase in load on our servers. This essentially means that our servers, which keep Tapestry available, are trying to do too much at once and can’t handle the strain. As a result, they can slow down or fail to carry out the tasks we’re asking them to do (e.g. load pages, generate PDFs, and save new entries).

We’re really sorry for any inconvenience this caused you, especially if it meant that you needed to repeat any work.

Our developers are confident they have worked out what was causing this extra load and have resolved the issue so you should not experience the same thing again.

You will be able to see a history of past issues and any current ones from our status page: http://tapestryjournalstatus.com/.

If you have any questions about this, please do get in touch. Our email address is customer.service@eyfs.info. We always aim to get back to emails within 2 working days.

Best wishes,
The Tapestry Team

March 25, 2019

When you delete a report it will now stay on your account for 30 days, during which time, a manager will be able to restore it from within Tapestry.
You can use the page filters on the 'All Reports' page to view all reports with that new 'deleted' status.
Please note that this won't apply to reports deleted before 10am today (25/3/19).

February 26, 2019

This tutorial will explain how the scores in the Cherry Garden Baseline and Statement Screens are calculated. These are the scores that will then carry through to the Strand Scores and Progress screens so it's important that they're correct.

The way they are calculated is a little different to how the other scores are worked out so even if you're familiar with other assessment types on Tapestry, it's worth reading this through.

The main difference is that the scores from the baseline and then earlier assessment periods carry through to later assessment periods. This means that even if you don't get chance to assess a child in every subject area within the framework during every period, as long as you've assessed them at least once on Tapestry (be that an override or an observation), you'll be able to see that in the current period's statement screen.

In addition to that, scores from the previous period will have some impact on the current period. The thought behind it is that data should take into account a wider history of the child.

To skip to a relevant section of this tutorial, please use the links below.

Blank Baseline/Statement Screens Option 1: Making observations
Blank Baseline/Statement Screens Option 2: Overriding
Future Periods
Adding new assessments to future periods
How baseline works
Some final things to note

I will start by looking at how you might get a score into the baseline or a statement screen if there are no scores already there.

Blank Baseline/Statement Screens Option 1: Making observations

Every time you make an observation and tag a statement in it, the refinement you select will be taken into account in the baseline/statement screen and will influence the final score that shows up for that statement (unless there has already been an override which I'll come back to in option 2). If you only have one observation then it will just be that refinement. If you have multiple observations then it will be an average of all of them.

For example:

I make one observation called 'Hopping with Miss Matthews' and assess a statement as 'refinement 1'.

When I go to the statement screen for that period I will be able to see that that observation and corresponding score.

If I then make another observation, this time called 'In the Jungle Room' and assess it as refinement 3, I will be able to go back to that statement screen and see that the overall refinement has changed to 'R2' (the average of the two refinement scores I have added so far) and the second observation shows up when I click on the score.

You can see from the above that when you're looking at a statement (which had not been assessed at the start of the period), the score at the end of the period will be the 'mean' of the refinements you select in the observations for that period.

Blank Baseline/Statement Screens Option 2: Overriding

Your second option is what we call 'overriding' and is a way of recording your professional judgement without having to add supporting evidence. If you use this method, the score you've selected will always be the one that sticks, regardless of any observations you make. It will not change in the period you entered it for unless you or someone else purposely changes it by making a new override or deleting this one. You're likely to use this on baselines/statement screens if you have collected data at an earlier point elsewhere, or if you want to quickly mark off lower band statements that you can instantly see have already been achieved by the child.

You can override a whole branch at once by clicking the 'Branch X' at the top of the chart and selecting the appropriate refinement (1) or clicking on the tick under a specific statement and setting a refinement for that statement alone (2).

If a score is already displayed on one of the statement/baseline screens and you want to change it, you can do so by overriding it. Any observations you've made will still show up in pop up box when you click on the orange bar telling you the final refinement, but the actual score will be what you have manually entered.

Future Periods

Once a baseline or statement screen shows a refinement for a statement, that refinement will carry across to the next period, meaning that even if you don't make any assessments for a statement in a new period, a refinement will show. Unless you make a new assessment, Tapestry will assume that the most recent refinement you made is still correct.

This is what it will look like:

You can see the refinement for the statement in Branch 3 has been carried across from a previous period because it has a black arrow next to it.

The statement under Branch 2 however has no black arrow, which means that score is based on data collected in the current period.

This score isn't limited to only carrying forward once. In the case of the statement above, every future period will say R1 with a black arrow until a new assessment is made.

Adding new assessments to future periods

Here's the slightly trickier bit. If you have a carried forward score, then add an observation, the refinement will show up as the average between the carried forward score and the observation score. The carried forward score will be worth the same as one observation in the calculation.

For example, if in the baseline the statement is scored as R1, then in Autumn period, you make an observation with the assessment R3, the final score would be R2. That's worked out as 1+3 (as the refinement scores) divided by 2 (the number of scores).

If you've actually made 4 observations in the Autumn period, each with the statement assessed as R3, the calculation would be 1 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 divided by 5, then rounded to the nearest whole number, so the refinement would be R3.

If you disagree with the refinement for whatever reason you can always override it to whatever you think is most appropriate.

The final score for the period will then carry through to the next period where the same rule will apply.

How baseline works

The baseline is always considered the starting point of a child's assessment history on Tapestry. The time it covers will be considered a period by itself, and anything that happens in that time frame will only contribute towards the baseline data. Any observation made during that period will only contribute towards the baseline score, not any period in the statement screen, even though the date the observation was made on will also fall into a period. Any observations made before the baseline period starts will not appear anywhere - the baseline is always the starting point.

For example:

If your baseline period runs Sept 1st to October 30th and your autumn period runs Sept 1st to December 30th, an observation made on September the 20th will only affect the baseline score. If you looked at the Autumn period statement screen a score would show up, but it would have the black arrow next to it because it has been carried over from the baseline.

If your baseline ran from October 1st to October 30th though (and your autumn period is still Sept 1st to December 30th), the observation made on September the 20th not appear in your summative assessment data anywhere.

Some final things to note

1) The criteria have no impact on score. If one has been selected it will carry through to every future assessment period unless you untick it as part of an override - it cannot be done through an observation.

2) Only the final score for the most recent period will impact the final score of the next period. If in autumn term you made 3 observations which averaged out to be R1, just one R1 value would carry forward to spring term. Then if your spring term observations and that one R1 value from autumn averaged out to give a final score of R2, only one R2 value would carry though to summer - the R1 from autumn wouldn't.

3) The details pop up box that appears when you click on the orange bar showing the refinement score doesn't show the carried over scores at the moment. This means that if you try to work out how an average has been calculated you might get stuck. We are aware of this though and will change that in a future update.

4) If you would like to use the Cherry Garden Orchard graphic, we recommend having 3 refinements enabled on your account and assigning the third refinement when a child is secure in a statement. Although statements with any refinements will show up on the flower, only statements assessed with the third refinement will appear on the tree.

So that's it, I hope this all makes sense. If not though, or if you have any follow up questions generally please just email us: customer.service@eyfs.info.

Go back to Main Tutorials Page

February 22, 2019

The Cherry Garden statement screen is one way of keeping track of where your children are during each period. This has a group view version for seeing the attainment of the children within a group side by side and an individual view screen where you can see the existing scores of a specific child, add new observations and override current scores.

In this tutorial I will focus on the Individual View but you can find the tutorial for Group View screen here. Before you look at either of these tutorials though, you might want to start with the tutorial on how the Cherry Garden snapshot scores are calculated. You can find that here.

To access the statement screens you need to be on the browser version of Tapestry. You'll be able to find them in the 'Tracking' section (1) by going to the 'Cherry Garden' section (2), then 'Statements' (3).

When you've selected the 'Individual View' you will be taken to a page where you need to tell Tapestry what you want to see. By default the current year and period will be selected but if you'd like to change those so you're looking at a previous date you can (1)! You can also look at future terms but data will not display there until the first day of that period has passed.

You also need to choose a child (2) and the area you are interested in seeing (3). If you're only interested in seeing specific branches then you can narrow that down too (4).

Once you have made the above choices a chart will appear showing the statements for the area and branches you've selected.

You should be able to see a key at the top of the page telling you which colour relates to which aspect (1), and as you scroll down the page you'll see the colours of the boxes the statements sit in match that key (2 and 3). You will be able to drag the page across to scroll through the different branches (4).

You also might be able to see orange bars at the top of some statements. These mean that the child has an assessment for that statement.

There are three varieties of that. The one with no other symbols (1) indicates that it is an average based on observations you have made. The one with a black arrow on (2) indicates that this score has carried through from an earlier term, and the one with a pencil (3) means the score has been selected from this screen as an override. You can see our tutorial about how scores are calculated by going here if you'd like to know more.

Whenever you do see a orange bar, you can click on it to see any observations which have been made for this child at any point which have that statement selected.

If you want to override a score so that it fits with your professional judgement you can do so from this individual view page. You just need to click on the tick beneath the statement (or the cross if it has already been overridden) (1), then select the new refinement (2).

Your selected refinement will show up with a pencil next to it.

If you do make any changes like this when on the statement page, you must press 'Save Changes' at the top of the page before you leave it.

You can also add a new observation from this page by clicking on the plus button (1).

That will bring up a pop up which allows you to make an observation. It will have the statement you've selected pre-ticked (2), but you will need to select any level 2 criteria for yourself as well as choose the refinement, which will be set to the lowest level refinement by default (3).

You will be able to add a title, notes, and additional information, and change the author and your preference for when it is added to the journal (4), but the created date will always either be now or the very last day in the period you're looking at, if it is an earlier one (5).

You will not be able to add media from this page either but the observation will go into your list of them so you can edit it from there to add some media if you'd like to.

Remember to save any observation you make here at the bottom of the pop up box.

When you you're happy with all the scores, you can lock this child's statement screens for this period if you'd like.

To do that, just scroll to the top of the page (but just below where you chose the period, child, and area), tick the box labelled 'Locked' (1) and then 'Save Changes' (2). Please note though that locking it will apply to all of the areas, not just the one you are looking at at that moment.

It will mean that no scores that have been calculated based on observations will change for this child in this period, regardless of what is added in the future, and you won't be able to change any manually overridden scores for this child in this period without unlocking it.

Unlocking it is easy though! To do that you just need to go back to the status box at the top of the page and click again on the tick box labelled 'Locked' (1). That will then give you two options: 'Keep assessments as overrides' or 'Use Tapestry's latest estimates' (2). Keeping the assessments as overrides will mean that the scores for this child in this period will stay the same as they were when locked, but that the pencil mark will appear and they won't update with any future observations made (you will be able to change them manually again though).

If you choose to use the latest estimate instead then the scores which were manual overrides to begin with will stick, but those which were calculated based on observations will be recalculated. If you haven't made any other observations then they will stay the same, but they might change if you have made new observations.

Once you have decided, click 'Save Changes' (3) to finish unlocking it.

That's it for the individual screen! If you have any questions about it please just get in touch with us by emailing customer.service@eyfs.info.

Go back to Main Tutorials Page

February 20, 2019

To set these you need to be logged into the browser version of Tapestry and look in the 'Tracking' tab (1). From there you will need to go to the Cherry Garden section (2) and then select 'Target Setting, Individual View' (3).

That will take you to a screen where you need to select the child you want to set a target for (1). You can also change the year if you don't want to look at/set the target for the current academic year (2).

As soon as you have selected a child, a list of the all the strands will appear (1). The 'Starting Branch' and 'Starting Completion' will already be filled in (2). Those will be the baseline scores, or, if you don't have one of those, the first branch level that is available for that strand. For example, whilst 'Language & Communication' starts at branch 1, 'Number' starts at branch 4. The child in my example hasn't started Number activities yet so it is still at the the lowest possible level.

If the child has been with you for several years or if you haven't entered the baselines sores on Tapestry, the default ones might not be relevant though, so you can override those scores with whatever you like.

You can do that simply by clicking on the box you want to change and choosing the appropriate figure.

You then need to set the target itself. You do that in the same way - just by selecting the appropriate branch and completion percentage (1).

This should be where you want the child to be at the end of the last period of the academic year.

If you don't think they'll have started developing into a particular strand or if you just don't want to set a target for a particular strand, you can just leave it blank.

Once you are happy with the targets you have set, remember to save (2). You can come back and change these at any point so don't worry too much if you're not 100% sure about what you've selected.

That's it! If you want to see how you can track the progress that is being made and how on track the child is, please go our tutorial on Target tracking for Cherry Garden.

Go back to Main Tutorials Page

February 19, 2019

To make a baseline you need to be logged into the browser version of Tapestry, then click on 'Tracking' at the top of the page (1), select 'Cherry Garden' (2), then click on 'Individual View' in the Baseline section (3).

That will take you to a page that allows you to select the child you want to baseline (1), and the area you want to baseline (2).

Once you have chosen those things the rest of the page will load. That will start with a status box allowing you to lock the baseline and to select a start and end date. These things will apply to all of the areas, so if you're baselining a child all in one go, then don't lock it until you're finished. I'll come back to locking later on in this tutorial though.

For now you just need to select the dates this baseline applies to. By this we mean the period of time in which you are evaluating the child for their on entry assessment. Again, this is for all the areas - not just the one you've selected. By default the start date will be the day the first Cherry Garden assessment was made on Tapestry for the child, or the current day if none have been made. The end date will be 6 weeks after the start date, although you can change that to anything that suits you.

Any assessments made as part of observations between the two selected dates will contribute to the calculated average score that shows up here. Anything you enter yourself from this page will take priority though and will stick, regardless of any observations made.

Remember to save your changes when you've selected the most appropriate dates and that any changes you make to the dates here will apply to the baseline of all the areas for this child, but it will not affect any other child.

You can now see the statements relating to the area you've selected. You should be able to see a key at the top of the page telling you which colour relates to which aspect (1), and as you scroll down the page you'll see the boxes the statements sit in match that key (2 and 3). You will be able to drag the page across to scroll through the different branches (4).

As you make observations you will start to see orange bars appear with the refinement level selected.

You can click on the orange bar to see the observations that were used when calculating that refinement level (it will be the average of the refinements selected in the obs).

If you aren't going to/haven't made an official observation but you know a child is capable of something, you can also select a refinement and tick off any relevant criteria from this page. Just click on the blue tick to select a refinement (1) and then the tick boxes to select a criteria (2). Once you have done that a pencil icon will appear next to the refinement. This means it is registered as a manual override and no observations made in the rest of the baseline period will affect the score.

Please remember to save any changes once you have made them.

We recommend that you mark off all the statements a child is capable of in the baseline. If you're working with a child at a higher branch and want to mark off a whole lower branch at once, you can bulk assess a branch for the whole area (all the aspects) by clicking on the white box saying 'Branch x' and selecting the refinement (1). It will apply to every statement and will tick off every criteria.

You can see the screenshot below that Branch 1 has been assessed in this way (2).

As with the one-at-a-time approach, statements marked off in this way will have a little pencil mark next to them to indicate a manual override (3).

Again though please remember to save any changes when you're done (4).

Once you're happy with all the scores, you can lock the baseline, if you'd like. This will mean that no scores that have been calculated based on observations will change on this form, regardless of what is added in the future, and you won't be able to change the manually overridden scores without unlocking it.

To do that you just need to scroll back to the status box at the top of the page, click on the tick box called 'Locked' (1) and then 'Save Changes' (2).

If you want to unlock it at any point you can do so by deselecting that same 'Locked' tick box (1). That will then give you the option to 'Keep assessments as overrides' or 'Use Tapestry's latest estimates' (2). Keeping the assessments as overrides will mean that the scores throughout the child's baseline stay the same as they were when locked, but that the pencil mark will appear and they won't update with any future observations made (you will be able to change them manually again though).

If you choose to use the latest estimate instead then the scores which were manual overrides to begin with will stick, but those which were calculated based on observations will be recalculated. If you haven't made any other observations then they will stay the same, but they might change if you have made new observations.

Once you have decided, click 'Save Changes' to unlock it.

The only other thing to note is that you can export each area of the baseline to PDF as many times as you like and at any point. You can then store that as an offline copy and/or print it off.

To do that just click on the PDF button under the status box but near the top of the page.

Go back to Main Tutorials Page

February 19, 2019

We've worked with Cherry Garden School, an outstanding specialist school for pupils from 2-11 years old in the London Borough of Southwark, to bring their assessment framework for children with learning differences to life on Tapestry! Using their years of specialist teaching experience and by building on parts of the popular Routes for Learning framework, Cherry Garden have created a unique framework for students working at a level expected for typically developing children aged 0-5 years.

In short, it is a bank of statements relating to 9 areas of learning (this is broken into 24 aspects). Each aspect has up to 10 branches indicating a different 'level' with branch 1 being roughly equivalent to what you'd expect from a typically developing 0-5 month old, and branch 10 being roughly equivalent to a typically developing child in the first few months of year one. Every statement can be refined to show very small steps of progress and some statements have different criteria to show the skill is being displayed in different contexts, for example the statement 'Uses simple sentences' has criteria of 'To make a request', 'To comment', and 'To ask a question'.

In this tutorial I'll cover how you can enable and configure the Cherry Garden framework on Tapestry.

As with enabling all frameworks on Tapestry, the first thing to do is make sure you're logged into the browser version of Tapestry as a manager. You'll then need to click on your name in the top right hand corner and select 'Control Panel' (1).

From there simply go to ' Settings' (2), then 'Assessments' (3) then scroll down the page a little (4).

You'll find the Cherry Garden framework option in the 'United Kingdom' section, so just click the button next to it, 'Configure' (5).

That will bring up a pop up box. The first thing to do here is tick the box to enable the framework (1). Once you have done that you will see an option to also 'Display Cherry Garden to relatives' (2). As with the other assessments, if you tick to include it, this means that any Cherry Garden assessments you make (or have made) as part of an observation will be visible to relatives. The screens within the tracking section (e.g. the statement and progress screens) will not be visible to relatives regardless of what you choose here though.

Below that you will be able to set a 'Best Fit Threshold'. This will come into play when you look at the progress screens. We know that children don't always develop skills in the way you might expect and this can be particularly true for children with learning differences. As such it's not unusual for them to be working in multiple branches within an aspect at once. The best fit score however, is the best fit branch for that child in that aspect. It's calculated by finding the branch with the highest % score but excluding those with a % score above the 'Best Fit Threshold'. So essentially, this % should be the % where you would consider a branch complete. You can come back to this and change it at any point though so if you're just getting started and aren't sure yet, it might be better to just leave it as the default (80%) until you're a bit more familiar with it.

The next section is for you to decide how many refinements you'd like. It can be as few as 3 or as many as 10 - just select the number you want from the drop down box. If you'd like a different number though, please just email us at customer.service@eyfs.info and we'll see what we can do.

Please note, if you would like to use the Cherry Garden Orchard graphic, we recommend having 3 refinements enabled on your account and assigning the third refinement when a child is secure in a statement. Although statements with any refinements will show up on the flower, only statements assessed with the third refinement will appear on the tree.

These refinements are for the statements within the branches and how many you choose will depend on how small the steps of progress are that you want to see.

Once you have made an assessment using a particular refinement, you will not be able to reduce the number of refinements until a new academic year (based on how your periods are set up on Tapestry). You can add more refinements at any point, but if you do that, previously made refinements may no longer be correct. Because of both of these things, we recommend that you think about how many refinements you'll need before you get going with assessments and review that at the beginning of each academic year to make sure you're happy.

Beneath that you will be able to name your refinements with a long name, a short name of up to 4 characters (for charts and graphs), and assign a colour to it.

With these refinements, the first one should be your lowest refinement and the highest one numerically should be the most secure one.

When you're happy with all your choices, remember to press 'submit' at the bottom of the page.

That's it! You'll now be able to see the Cherry Garden option in your tracking section at the very top of the page.

You'll also be able to see it as an assessment picker when you're making observations.

Go back to Main Tutorials Page

Tapestry user conversations · December 3, 2018

Hi everyone,

I'm posting this on behalf of Cherry Garden school. As some of you might know, they've created a new assessment framework for children with severe and complex needs and we've recently added that to Tapestry. They're now offering training on how to use that assessment system.

You can find out a bit more about that and book a place if you're interested here:

http://www.cherrygardenschool.co.uk/assessment

Tapestry user conversations · November 30, 2018

Hi weavers,

We're currently building a new Tapestry information website and we'd love your involvement! We thought it would be interesting for prospective customers to see some of our wonderful weavers talking about what they like about Tapestry and any experiences they wanted to share.

So, if you’re interested, what we’d like you to do is record a short video (10 seconds to 1 minute or so) of you/your colleagues, talking about Tapestry. It doesn’t need to be at all high tech or rehearsed, in fact, the more natural the better and humour and wit will be welcomed! You can record it on whatever device you use to take videos for observations, then go here:

https://tapestryjournal.wetransfer.com/

Our email address should already be filled in (customer.service@eyfs.info) so you’ll just need to upload your video file, add your own email address, and write a short message telling us who you are, your setting name, and your postal address (those details won't be passed on to any other company or used on the new site), then press 'transfer'.

As a totally shameless bribe, we’ll post you free Tapestry goodies as a thank you (if you give us your address), and in a month or so, we’ll put our favourite videos on our new website! We’ll email you to tell you if we choose yours and send you a link to where it’ll be.

If you’re not quite sure what to say, here are some examples of things you might want to talk about:

A description of the best video or picture you were able to capture and put on Tapestry or was uploaded by a parent or family member
Why you chose Tapestry
How long you’ve been using it
What sort of things you do on Tapestry
What your favourite Tapestry feature is
How it’s helped with parental engagement
How it's changed things in your setting
How it’s helped with your workload
What it’s saved you time on, and what you can do instead

If you want to get involved but don’t want to send a video, a picture of you using Tapestry would also be welcomed!

If you'd like to go on the website, please submit your video by the 5th of January, but you're welcome to send one later too if you like! Thank you and happy weaving!

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