Tapestry Survey 2024: Five Things We Learnt
by Anna Pedroza on July 2
This is the fifth year of the annual Tapestry survey and we had a great response.
More than 550 early years educators took the time to give us their view, which we really appreciate. Primary educators also responded with just under a 100 sharing their thoughts.
Below we have shared five things we learnt from early years educators. We will also be sharing findings from primary colleagues in due course.
1/ The expanded offer and available places
69% of respondents said that their setting had offered the expanded offer for two-year-olds. However, of these almost two thirds (59%) have not been able to provide extra places, and a similar number reported not recruiting extra staff.
The findings suggest that provision was only available to existing families using the setting, with no extra places available for new families. One respondent explained: "We already provided provision to 2 year olds. The funding has meant that our existing families took it up."
Encouragingly, more than half (54%) of respondents felt the first month of the expanded offer had gone well. However, a third (33%) also said they’d had to pass on extra costs to parents and two thirds (62%) said they’d needed to produce new information for families.
Respondents shared lots of comments, which highlighted some of the challenges felt by settings. One respondent said: "Staff are stretched, we are unable to recruit, and the parents aren’t given enough info." Another added: "Funding rates are low and they do not cover the hourly rate, while everything else has increased." And another revealed: "Can’t get staff working longer hours to cover."
Looking ahead to the expanded changes in September, more than half of respondents (54%) felt they were only partially prepared, at best.
2/ Changes to the way educators make observations
A quarter (24%) of respondents told us that the number of observations they were making had increased in the past year, with half (52%) reporting they had stayed about the same.
The way observations are captured continues to evolve. A quarter (26%) reported that they had reduced the number of written/typed observations in the past year. A similar number (25%) had increased their use of photos for observations and a fifth were using video to a greater extent.
3/ Using observations to support all aspects of practice
Respondents used observations in many ways beyond capturing children’s development. Almost all used them to share with parents and carers and half (55%) used them to understand how well provision was supporting their children. One respondent explained that "they are an important part of the 'plan-do-review’ cycle to plan for the individual child as well as find gaps in learning in the setting as a whole."
Almost half (45%) made use of observations to support professional development as well with one explaining: "we carry out peer observations regularly and share feedback during staff meetings".
4/ Advice for the new government
We asked respondents to give us their views on what they felt the next government should include in early years policies. We offered a number of options and greater funding (89%) and more support for children with additional support needs (81%), topped the priorities. Half (54%) felt subsidised professional development qualifications should be offered to those pursuing a career in the early years.
We received the most additional comments for this question. These included many wanting the new government to make changes to increase the status of the sector in recognition of its important role in education, one respondent explained: "For us not to be labelled as childcare. We are early years professionals who deliver early education." Another added: "Education about how qualified childminders actually are and that we are not simply childminders."
Other comments underlined the importance of Sure Start centres. Over half (53%) felt that these were important to reinstate with one respondent explaining: "Sure Start must be reinstated to help parents and carers in areas of social and economic deprivation." Another comment suggested the new family hubs were a good development, but there needed to be greater spread saying: "The new family hubs which are very similar [to children’s centres] are starting to fill the gap but not in my location."
5/ Encouraging families to share their child’s learning
We were interested to know how settings encourage families to share how their child is learning at home. Unsurprisingly, asking them to contribute to their online journal is most popular (91%) which is combined with talking to families at drop off or pick up (81%). We found it interesting to see how both online and face to face communications were important for encouraging parents.
Where families add their own contributions to an online learning journal, we found it interesting that so many had added their own observations and photos.
