Observations and Reports

Observations are how you share what children have been doing with their families. This guide covers capturing them on the web, the AI assistant, and writing progress reports.

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Capturing a moment

1. Click New observation on the Observations page.
2. Add photos or a video first — capture is photo-led, and the first image becomes the journal thumbnail.
3. Tag the children involved. Group observations are fine; every tagged child’s family sees it.
4. Add a title (optional), then describe what happened.
5. Add next steps and learning links if your setting uses them — both optional.
6. Save.

What you do next depends on your role. Most staff click Submit for approval — a manager or publisher is emailed and reviews it. If you have the Publisher role you’ll see Publish instead and can share it with families directly.

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The AI assistant

The ✨ Assist panel turns rough notes into a written-up observation. Type or dictate what happened in whatever shorthand you like:

ben found woodlouse under the log with the magnifier, watched it curl up, asked why it did that

Click Draft and you get back a title and a written observation:

Exploring woodlice under logs Ben finds a woodlouse under a log while using a magnifier to look closely. They watch carefully as the woodlouse curls up into a ball. Ben shows curiosity and asks why the woodlouse curls up in this way.

It may also suggest learning links below the notes box. Accept the ones that fit with ✓ and dismiss the rest with ✕ — nothing is added unless you say so. A few things worth knowing:

• The draft replaces the “What happened?” box, but a title or next steps you’ve already typed are never overwritten.
• It won’t invent detail that isn’t in your notes. Vague notes give a vague observation — the more you put in, the better it reads.
• Your photos are never sent to the AI. Only your typed notes.
• Use the microphone to dictate instead of typing. The transcription is added to your notes for you to check before drafting.

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Writing reminders

When you submit or publish, your writing is checked against your setting’s rules — things like referring to other children as “a friend”. If something is flagged you’ll see the phrase, the rule it breaks, and a suggested rewrite, with a Fix all button. You can always click Proceed anyway. The reminder never blocks you, and it never changes your writing without you clicking.

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If your observation comes back

An approver can return an observation with a comment explaining what needs changing. You’ll get an email, and the comment appears at the top of the edit screen. Make the changes and click Resubmit for approval. While an observation is waiting for approval you can withdraw it back to a draft if you’ve thought better of it.

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Working on a colleague’s draft

Your manager can choose to share drafts with all staff, so the team can finish or tidy each other’s write-ups. When drafts are shared:

• Colleagues’ drafts appear under All on the Observations page, with the author’s first name on the Draft badge.
• If your setting allows editing, open the draft and click Edit. A note at the top reminds you whose draft it is.
• You can only Save draft. Submitting or publishing, and deleting, stay with the author — it’s still their observation.

If someone else saves the same observation while you’re editing it, your save is refused with “Someone else changed this observation while you were editing it”, so neither of you overwrites the other. Your changes stay on screen: copy anything you need, reopen the observation to see the latest version, and add your changes back.

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Writing reports

A progress report is the summative write-up for a child you key-work, covering a stretch of their journal rather than a single moment.

1. Go to Reports and click New progress report — or start from the Reports sub-tab on a child’s Journal.
2. Pick the child and the reporting period. Only published observations in that window are used.
3. Write the report, or click Draft from observations to get a first draft built from the child’s journal.
4. Submit for approval, or publish if you can.

A report is one piece of writing in a rich-text box, so add your own headings if you want to break it up. If your setting has learning frameworks switched on, a Draft from observations draft is organised around your areas of learning — and it works out the area for observations that weren’t tagged, so an untagged journal still gives you a structured draft. The same writing reminders apply to reports, checked against your setting’s separate report rules.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Can I see another member of staff’s observations?

You can see everything that’s been published. Drafts are private to whoever wrote them unless your setting shares drafts with staff. Observations returned with changes requested are always private to their author and approvers.

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Why wasn’t my filter kept?

It should be — the Observations page remembers your Mine/All choice, status chips, room and child for each setting. If a list comes back empty, check the room and child pickers: a remembered child who has since left will still be selected until you clear it.

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I tagged the wrong child and it’s already published.

Ask a manager — only managers can edit an observation after families have seen it.

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The AI assistant isn’t there.

Your setting has AI drafting switched off. Write the observation yourself; everything else works the same.

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Why does it say “limited recorded evidence” in my report draft?

The AI only writes from observations that actually exist in the period. That line means there wasn’t much recorded for that area — widen the period, or write that part from what you know.

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There’s no learning links box on my observation.

Your setting has framework linking switched off. Carry on writing the observation as normal — reports drafted from your journal still follow your setting’s areas of learning.