Hi Weavers,

We hope you are all enjoying the weather starting to warm up and you have found some time to enjoy it.

We have a few important things to talk about this month so do read on for more details.

The Areas of Concern Screen

Earlier this month, we released the first “assessment” screens to accompany the new Development Matters document on Tapestry.

On this screen, practitioners will be considering each child’s progress and development. They will be able to choose from “Concerns”, “No Concerns” and “Review” for each of the 7 areas of learning.

By default, Tapestry will assume that practitioners have ‘No Concerns’, but you can confirm that by selecting it specifically. By choosing ‘Concerns’ you can highlight to yourself and your colleagues that you feel this child needs additional support. ‘Review’ is for children and areas of learning where you’re not quite sure whether the child is developing as expected yet – that might just mean you need to think about it in a bit more depth or discuss with a colleague or manager before making a judgement.

In all cases though, you will be able to quickly and easily refer to the evidence you’ve collected in terms of observations for the child in each Area of Learning, and create reflections to record your own thoughts, questions, and aims.

We have written 2 tutorials for each screen (Guided View and Group View) – you can find them here:

Development Matters 2020 - Areas of Concern (Guided View)

Development Matters 2020 - Areas of Concern (Group View)

Ben and I also recorded this video where we discuss the screens in a bit more detail from a practitioner’s point of view. This may be a good starting point before you get going with the screens. It might also be a helpful training tool for other staff.

Preparing for the EYFS in 2021

The reformed EYFS will become statutory in September 2021, so what does this mean for you and your setting?

Our Education Team have put together a few steps you may want to consider during the lead up to the new academic year. 

Expanded versions of each of the steps are available to view and download on our website. 

TEC

On the 25th March we held our 3rd Tapestry Education Conference (TEC). It was the first online version of TEC, and the theme was Reflecting on Anti-Racism in the Early Years. We were delighted that Liz Pemberton co-hosted the event, and that Shaddai Tembo and Faith Chow took part with their presentations and in the panel discussion with Liz. To learn more about this crucial and important conversation, and to access the presentations and the recording of the live event to start/continue discussions in your setting, you can visit our website here

New iOS update 

The iOS app has a new update available to download: Version 4.3.0

This update allows you to see and use Flags on the app. We have put together this short video which shows you how they work.

Please note, this isn’t available on the Android app just yet – but we are currently working on it! 

Cyber Security

The National Cyber Security Centre published some excellent guidance this month aimed specifically at people in the Early Years sector.

This guidance is comprehensive; it covers backing up your information, password control, communicating with your families, protecting your devices among other very important information for any setting using technology. You can read the full guidance here

That’s it for this March edition of the newsletter. Wishing you a great Spring break.