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The Development area is where your team records children’s learning and shares it with families. It has three parts, each switched on or off from the Features card on Site Profile and configured on its own tab of Settings → Development:
  • Observations — the day-to-day learning journal: photos, videos and short stories about single moments.
  • Two-year checks — the EYFS progress check at age two, tracked from 23 months and signed by parents online.
  • Progress reports — narrative summaries that draw a stretch of a child’s journal together.
All three use the same approval workflow, the same roles and the same AI writing support, each with its own writing rules.
Open in app: Settings → Development, with a tab each for Observations, Progress reports and Two-year checks.

Observations

The approval workflow, sharing drafts, learning frameworks, AI writing rules, digest emails and journal exports.

Two-year checks

Switching checks on, level wording, who’s due, approval and parent signatures, and checks done elsewhere.

Progress reports

Reporting periods, drafting from observations, approval and report writing rules.
Writing these day to day? The staff guide to Development walks through capturing an observation, completing a two-year check and writing a progress report step by step.

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The approval workflow at a glance

Regular staff Submit for approval; staff with the Publisher role and managers Publish directly. See Observations → The approval workflow for who can see and edit what.
  • Home Moments and Comments — photos families share from home, and comment threads on observations.
  • Child Permissions — media permissions that trigger a reminder when staff tag a child.
  • AI Features — every AI feature in Pigeonhole and how to switch each one off.