Open in app: Settings → Observations. Observations can be switched off entirely from the Features card on Site Profile.
The approval workflow
Every observation and report moves through the same four states:
How a member of staff moves through those states depends on their role:
- Regular staff write an observation, then Submit for approval. Everyone who can approve gets an email. They can withdraw it back to a draft while it’s waiting.
- Publishers and managers skip the queue — they see a Publish button instead of Submit for approval, and publish their own work directly.
- An approver either publishes the observation, or returns it with Return with comment. A comment is required, so the author always knows what to fix. They’re emailed, edit, and resubmit.
The Publisher role is granted per staff member on their profile, under additional roles. It also lets them publish announcements directly. See Staff Permissions.
Who can see and edit what
Sharing drafts with staff
By default a draft is private to whoever wrote it — even managers can’t see it. Half-finished notes about a child stay unread until their author chooses to submit them. If your team works together on observations — finishing a colleague’s write-up at the end of a shift, or tidying an apprentice’s draft — you can share drafts with every member of staff. Choose an option under Staff drafts in the Journal emails & AI rules card:
Once drafts are shared they appear in everyone’s All list, with the author’s first name on the Draft badge so nobody mistakes a colleague’s draft for their own. The Draft chip reads Drafts rather than My drafts.
Sharing never changes who a draft belongs to:
- Only the author can submit or publish it. A colleague editing it sees Save draft only.
- Only the author can delete it — managers included.
- Observations sent back with changes requested stay private to their author and approvers, whatever this setting says.
- The author’s name stays on the observation, and every edit is recorded in the audit log.
If two people edit the same observation at once, the first save wins. The second person sees “Someone else changed this observation while you were editing it” and their save is refused rather than overwriting the first — their changes stay on screen, so they can copy anything they need, reopen the observation and add it back.
Staff using an older version of the Pigeonhole app can see shared drafts but won’t be offered Edit until they update the app.
Journal emails and AI rules
- Default digest frequency — families get an email summary of new journal moments. Choose Daily (the default) or Weekly. This applies to parents who haven’t picked their own preference; each parent can override it in their own account.
- Yearly journal export — pick a month and day (for example 31 August) and every child’s previous-year journal is sent to their family on that date. Off by default.
- Staff drafts — whether staff can see, or see and edit, each other’s drafts. Only the author by default. See Sharing drafts with staff.
- AI drafting — lets staff turn rough notes or a voice note into a first draft. On by default. Switching it off doesn’t disable the writing-rules check below.
- Observation writing rules — see below.
AI writing rules
Writing rules are the most useful control on this page. Write them in plain language, one per line, and the AI checks staff writing against them whenever an observation is submitted or published:Refer to other children as ‘a friend’, never by name. Never mention allergies or medical details.Staff see a friendly reminder with a suggested rewrite, plus a Fix all option and a Proceed anyway button. Nothing is ever blocked — the rules nudge, they don’t gate. Human approval is unchanged.
Leave the box empty and no check runs at all.
Testing your rules
Click Test these rules to see exactly what staff would be shown, without saving first and without storing anything. Type something a member of staff might realistically write and click Check it.
Ben played in the sand pit with Ava this morning. He couldn’t have the biscuits at snack because of his nut allergy.is flagged twice — once for naming another child, once for the medical detail. The one-click fix gives:
Ben played in the sand pit with a friend this morning. He didn’t have the biscuits at snack today.Notice that Ben’s own name is left alone. The check allows the names of the children the observation is actually about — only other children are flagged.
Learning frameworks
Frameworks let staff link an observation to areas of learning. They are all off by default — leave them off if your setting doesn’t use framework linking, and tagging stays optional for staff either way.
Use the eye icon on any framework to preview exactly what’s inside it — every area and every statement, grouped by band — before you switch it on.
Whichever frameworks you enable also shape AI-drafted reports: the draft is structured around your areas of learning, using your area names. See Reports.
Tagging and what parents see
Two switches at the bottom of the card control how frameworks show up day to day. Unlike the framework switches above them, these are saved with the Save button on the card.- Let staff link observations — shows the framework picker when staff write an observation. On by default. Turn it off if tagging every moment is more work than it’s worth for your team.
- Show areas of learning to parents — displays the linked areas on each observation in the family journal. On by default, and only shown while the switch above is on. Turn it off if the curriculum language is more confusing than helpful for families.
Turning Let staff link observations off does not stop your frameworks shaping AI-drafted reports. It only takes the tagging itself off staff’s plate — the report drafter still works from your enabled frameworks and infers the area from what each observation describes.
Building your own framework
If your setting follows a curriculum that isn’t one of the built-ins, click Build your own. Give it a name and an optional version, then add the areas staff will tag — these become the chips on the compose screen. Statements are optional detail within an area; add them only if your setting works that way, and use the band field to group them. Your framework switches on as soon as you create it and sits alongside the built-ins with an edit pencil. The built-in frameworks can’t be edited.Journal exports
Journal exports are keepsakes for families: a PDF of the journal plus the original photos and videos, emailed as a secure download link. The link needs a one-time code sent to the family’s email and expires after 14 days. They happen three ways:- Yearly — on the export date you set above, each child’s previous year’s journal is sent automatically.
- When a child leaves — once their leaving date passes, their complete journal is sent automatically.
- Manually — pick a child on the settings page and click Generate export at any time.