Reports

Reports are the summative write-ups that sit alongside the day-to-day journal. Where an observation captures a single moment, a report draws a stretch of the child’s journal together into one considered summary for their family.

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The progress report

There is one kind of report: the progress report — a narrative summary of a stretch of a child’s journal, drawn from their published observations. It’s a single piece of writing rather than a fixed set of boxes, so you can cover a term, a half-term or any window that suits your setting. The list works like the observations list: Mine / All scope pills, status chips and a child picker. You can also reach a single child’s reports from the Reports sub-tab on their Journal.

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Starting a report

1. Click New progress report.
2. Pick the child (this step is skipped if you started from a child’s profile).
3. Set the reporting period — the stretch of the child’s journal the report covers. It defaults to the last three months.
4. Click Create. You go straight into the editor.

Only published observations inside that period are drawn on.

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Changing the period later

You can change the period at any point while the report is still editable. Save, and the report re-reads the journal for the new window — the observation count updates. That means you don’t need to start again if you picked the wrong term, or if you want to widen a thin half-term.

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Writing the report

A progress report is one rich-text body, so you can use headings, bold and lists to structure it however your setting likes.

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Draft from observations

If AI drafting is on, Draft from observations builds a first draft from the child’s published observations in the period. It reads the observation text, next steps and any framework areas they were tagged with — never the photos. The draft is shaped by whichever learning frameworks you have switched on. It structures the narrative around your areas of learning, using the exact area names from your enabled frameworks — including a framework you built yourself. Where an observation wasn’t tagged, the AI works out which of your areas it evidences from what the observation describes; it can only choose from your real area names, never invent one or borrow from another curriculum. Frameworks that describe how a child learns rather than what they’ve achieved — Characteristics of Effective Learning being the usual example — are woven into the prose instead of getting headings of their own. If your setting has no framework switched on you still get a report. It’s simply grouped by what the observations actually show. A drafted passage reads like this:

Ava shows great interest in communicating and engaging with others. She uses language confidently to negotiate and suggest ideas, such as arranging to take turns riding a tricycle and counting laps aloud to ensure fairness. Ava enjoys experimenting with colours and names, for example, mixing blue and yellow paint and expressing surprise at the colour green.

Every detail there traces back to a real observation. The draft replaces the body text and saves nothing automatically — review it and make it yours before sharing. The button tells you when it can’t run: No observations in this period to draft from when the period is empty, or Save the new period first when you’ve moved the dates without saving.

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Approval and sharing

Reports use exactly the same workflow as observations — Draft, Pending approval, Changes requested, Published — with the same roles:

• Regular staff Submit for approval; publishers and managers Publish directly.
• Approvers Publish or Return with comment.
• Published reports appear on the family’s Reports page in the parent portal.

See Observations → The approval workflow for the full picture.

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Settings

• AI drafting — offers staff a first draft built from the child’s observations. On by default. Switch it off and staff write reports themselves.
• Report writing rules — plain-language rules, one per line, checked whenever a report is submitted or published. Staff see friendly reminders; nothing is ever blocked.

Report rules are kept separate from your observation rules, because reports are written for a different audience and a different purpose. Rules that suit a report might be:

Never name another child in a report. Don’t compare a child to their peers or to an average. Always end on what we’ll work on next.

Use Test these rules to see what staff would be shown before you commit to the wording.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Can I add my own sections to a report?

Not as separate boxes. A progress report has a single body, but you can structure it however you like using headings within the rich-text box — and an AI draft already organises itself around your areas of learning.

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Where has the progress check at age two gone?

It isn’t in Pigeonhole at the moment. It’s coming back as part of assessments; until then, progress reports are the only report type.

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Do reports still follow our framework if staff don’t tag observations?

Yes. Turning Let staff link observations off only hides the picker on the compose screen. Your enabled frameworks still shape AI-drafted reports, and the AI infers the area from what each observation describes. See Observations → Learning frameworks.

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Does a report include the child’s photos?

No. A report is a written summary. Photos stay in the journal, which families can see alongside the report — and are also included in journal exports.

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What if a child has very few observations in the period?

Widen the reporting period and save, then draft again. The observation count under the date fields tells you how much the report has to work with before you start writing.