A flexible framework for children with learning differences
The team at Tapestry worked with Cherry Garden School, an outstanding specialist school for pupils from 2-11 years old in the London Borough of Southwark to bring their assessment framework to life on Tapestry. Using their years of teaching experience working with children with learning differences and disabilities, and by building on parts of the popular Routes for Learning framework, Cherry Garden have created a unique, child-centred framework for students working at a level expected for typically developing children aged 0-5, with an additional bridging framework for branch maps 11 and 12 in key areas at a level expected in Year 1.
If you use the MOVE programme, you can also enable a branch map based on that as part of the Cherry Garden framework. Just get in touch with MOVE with your Tapestry account ID – they will be able to instruct us to turn it on for you.
You can use the Cherry Garden frameworks, alongside recording videos, taking pictures, writing notes, and using hashtags, to monitor children’s progress on Tapestry. It will allow you to document their learning and share it with parents and carers in a quick, easy, and engaging way.
One screen that we’re particularly excited about for branches 1-10 is the Orchard graphic. This was created to fulfil a key element of what Cherry Garden wanted to achieve with this framework – demonstrating lateral progress. Many alternative assessment tools have an expectation that progress is always linear. We know that is often not the case though, especially for children with learning differences, and Cherry Garden allows them to follow their own path.
It comes in two parts; a tree and a flower. Parents and children can see them as well from within their own accounts, provided you have set their user permissions to allow that.
The tree is for those working in the higher branches, whose support needs are less complex/severe. Leaves will grow on the tree as the child is observed as having secured their learning in each statement. By clicking on the leaves, you can see the corresponding observations or a note if the assessment was made as part of the Baseline.
If a child is working in branches 1-4, they will have a flower for each strand instead. The petals on these flowers represent each statement and they will grow in size as the average refinement increases and will deepen in colour as more observations demonstrating the statement are made. Again, by clicking on it, you and your families will be able to see those observations or assessment from the Baseline.
If you’re interested in reading a bit more about the framework itself, take a look at this article on our Forum: Cherry Garden Branch Maps – a different approach to assessment for children with learning differences and disabilities.
Here is a quick video of Stephen Kilgour, one of the creators of the Cherry Garden framework, talking about the Branch Maps and Cherry Garden on Tapestry:
If you’d like to use the Cherry Garden framework in your school or setting, you can download offline versions of them below. The branch maps must not be used for commercial purposes or included in digital software other than Tapestry. Copyright remains with Cherry Garden School and The Foundation Stage Forum.
Communication, Language, and Literacy Branch Map
Communication, Language, and Literacy Bridging Branch Map (B11 and B12)
Physical Development Branch Map
Mathematical Development Branch Map
Mathematical Development Bridging Branch Map (B11 and B12)
Personal, Social, Emotional Development Branch Map
Expressive Arts and Design Branch Map
Understanding the World Branch Map
Cherry Garden Assessments Conversions
The Branch Maps must not be used for commercial purposes or included in digital software other than Tapestry. Copyright remains with Cherry Garden School and The Foundation Stage Forum.
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