Observations

The staff app is the quickest way to capture a moment while it’s happening. Observations are on the Development tab, which opens on your own observations. The buttons at the top right open Home Moments, your termly reviews and a new observation.

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Capturing a moment

1. Tap + on the Development tab.
2. Take a photo or short video — capture is photo-led.
3. Tag the children involved.
4. Add a few words about what happened, plus optional next steps and learning links.
5. Save, then Submit for approval — or Publish if you have the Publisher role.

Tapping publish asks you to confirm, since that shares the moment with the tagged children’s families straight away. If a tagged child is being monitored, an Evidence for something you’re monitoring? switch appears near the bottom. Turn it on to link the observation to what you’re monitoring. See Monitoring.

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Publishing later

To hold an observation back until a set time, turn on Publish later before you submit and pick the date and time.

• Regular staff — the time is a request. Your approver sees it and can keep or change it.
• Publishers and managers — the Publish button becomes Schedule. The observation waits as Scheduled and goes out automatically at that time.

A scheduled observation shows a blue banner with its publish time. Publishers and managers can open it to Publish now, change the time with Change scheduled time and Reschedule, or Unschedule it back to the approval queue.

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You need a connection

Saving sends the observation straight to Pigeonhole, so you need signal or Wi-Fi. Photos and videos start uploading as soon as you add them, while you write, and Save waits until they’ve all arrived. If a save fails you’ll see Could not save and the observation stays on screen — try again once you’re back online.

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The AI assistant

The ✨ Assist panel turns rough notes into a written-up observation — type them or tap the microphone and dictate. Tap Draft and you get a title and a written observation back, plus suggested learning links you can accept or dismiss individually. Nothing is applied without your say-so, and your photos are never sent to the AI. Always read the draft before submitting — it’s your observation.

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Writing reminders

When you submit or publish, your writing is quietly checked against your setting’s rules — like referring to other children as “a friend”. You’ll see the phrase, the rule, and a one-tap fix. It never blocks you: Proceed anyway is always there.

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Approvals and changes

If an approver returns your observation you’ll get an email with their comment, and it appears at the top of the edit screen. Make the changes and resubmit.

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Colleagues’ drafts

If your setting shares drafts with staff, colleagues’ drafts appear under All with the author’s name on each row. When editing is allowed, tap Edit to work on one — a note at the top shows whose draft it is, and you can only Save draft. Submitting and deleting stay with the author. If someone else saved it while you were editing, you’ll see Could not save with “Someone else changed this observation while you were editing it”. Reopen the observation to see the latest version and add your changes again. Published observations appear on each child’s Development tab and in their family’s app.

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Home Moments and comments

If your setting has Home Moments turned on, the Home Moments button (the house icon) at the top of the Development tab opens the moments families have shared from home. Its badge shows how many are waiting for you. The list opens on My key children; tap All to see moments about other children. You can review, return and comment on moments from the app. See Reviewing Moments in the App. When comments are on, published observations show a Comments section where you can reply to the child’s family.