Tapestry Reflections – A Practitioner’s Perspective

Reflective practice is how we ensure we are providing the best practice and how we continually improve the quality of our setting. It’s something we have always done, whether we are writing lists, sharing ideas in a diary, working on action plans for Ofsted such as our old Self Evaluation Forms (SEF), making peer observations/supervisions or evaluating training for continuous professional development for my staff team and I.

Tapestry Reflections is enabling us to record and evaluate, to think about changes and acknowledge what is working well, helping us to build on our strengths and identify areas that need improvement.

From recent activities we’ve been able to think about how the activity was carried out:

• What worked well?
• What was the impact on outcomes for the children?
• Why didn’t it work well, what could have been improved?

Linking our reflections to Intent, Implementation and Impact as mentioned in the new Ofsted Education Inspection Framework (EIF) 2019.

For example, we have a Reflection written about Story Time, as the updated Statutory Framework for EYFS states ” it is … crucial for children to develop a life-long love of reading – and the promotion of personal development… through literature” is one of the sources of evidence Ofsted cites in its 2019 School Inspection Handbook for excellence in teaching and learning.

Until this was written as a ‘Reflection’ it had only been something discussed at a staff meeting and in my diary. By allowing the staff team to link observations about stories to the Reflection we have been able to evaluate from an adult’s perspective and the children’s. It became noticeable that children should be excited by reading, that they should be able to choose when they would like a story, not a whole group activity when other staff tidy up!

Post Reflection we are recording how the book was enjoyed, how the adult read to the children in a way that excited and engaged them, introducing new ideas, concepts and vocabulary. Boosting staff confidence too.

This is all recorded on Tapestry for Ofsted to see our reflective practice as a working document.

We love the new Reflections tool. Thank you Tapestry team.

For more information about accessing and enabling the Reflective Practice feature within Tapestry, watch this short video