At St Helens we use Tapestry as a way to communicate with the parents and carers of the children in our class. This is done through a weekly update called ‘Explorers News’ and it highlights the key learning that we have covered that week. Such as the phonetic sounds they have learnt, what we have been doing in maths, what topic we are covering and anything else of interest that has happened that week. This is accompanied by photos of the children completing some of these tasks.
The Explorers News is an informal recording that will support our end of year decision on the children’s Early Learning Goals. It is no longer used to record data as we are required to assess the children in the last academic term following “Day-to-day informal checking of what children have learnt will inform teaching and learning on an ongoing basis throughout the final year of the EYFS” (Early Years Foundation Stage Profile, 2023).
Tapestry is also a useful tool for us to contact parents through, for example if their child has been working hard on a certain task or wants to take part in show and tell. Parents are also able to show us things that they get up to at home which we can then talk to the children about or may inform our topic selection.
