Developing folios in Balgreen Early Years ASG, Edinburgh

Project summary

Staff development opportunities were devised to visit other nurseries and share or discuss practice. The project would create opportunities for three-way discussions – staff, parent and child – and a process for children and staff to reflect on their work and their learning.

The learning intentions were to:

• involve staff, parents and children in identifying, recording and reflecting on evidence of children’s learning
• give opportunities for self and peer assessments.

• Staff, children and parents to work collaboratively to produce a record of children’s learning.
• Children to access their folders to share their achievements with friends, staff and family.
• Staff to understand the benefits of this approach to learning and feel confident in their role in the process.

Evidence was gathered from conference evaluation forms, from reflections on the whole project by staff, and from parental evaluations and reflections from children. Colleagues invited to the open day also gave useful written feedback.

Case study extract

Each nursery began the process by working through the practicalities of collecting photographs, observations and children’s work.

The visits to other nurseries began late November. A feedback form was devised to record information to share and reflect on. Common themes emerged: how are next steps planned; who has ownership of the personal learning folios; who writes in the folio and when; does the folio go home if not how is it shared; and finally how does the parent contribute? Everyone valued the visits. 

Sharing observations from the visits informed decisions about how to proceed in each nursery and encouraged comparison and evaluation. 

Staff comments on comparison and evaluation

‘Comparing the style of the profiles, although similar, I prefer our colour-coded method.’ 

‘It makes me think that our special folders could be a bit more personal to each individual child, if they are telling the story of each of their photos.’ 

Impact on learners and teachers

In analysing the child’s learning in the 3–5 curriculum as reflected in the photos, staff know the impact very well. The curricular headings inform parents about the curriculum and help to make their child’s learning explicit. The visual impact of the photographs of their child’s learning is very strong: ‘The photographs say more than a thousand words’. Another parent commented that ‘it joined school time with home time’. 

The children are proud of their achievements and keen to share their folios. They are definitely personal! ‘I liked me in it,’ one child reflected. ‘When I took it home I put it in my bed under my pillow.’ They are beginning to self-evaluate and notice changes in themselves. A parent commented, ‘he enjoyed remembering what he was thinking/doing in the photos.’ All children are now saying ‘I’ll put that in my folder.’  In Children’s House Nursery School children select the photographs to be included. Staff model the writing process by scribing the children’s captions. This approach has been adopted by some of the other nurseries. In Tynecastle Nursery School effective use of questionnaires to parents and for staff to use with children helped children identify what they would like to learn next. In Balgreen Nursery School a format was devised to structure and record the three-way discussions between child, parent and link worker with each suggesting next steps and signing the form. Cameron House Nursery School has developed its folios to include colour-coding to the area of the curriculum, sticky labels of the features of learning, examples of children’s work and a handwritten scribed comment from the child to highlight their awareness of their own learning. 

Sharing the project with other ASGs and nursery colleagues on an open day allowed rigorous questioning from peers – further defining why decisions were made and how the process had developed. 

Have the success criteria been met?

It is an ongoing process. Each nursery started at a different point. In Cameron House the project contributed to building a new team. In each nursery, photographic and written evidence was collected and presented in different ways. This has been developed by each team to suit their particular context. Ownership of the folio by the child is slightly different in each nursery. In all nurseries the documentation supports discussion; staff are confident about planning and can make informed decisions about developing practice and children’s next steps. Our second learning intention, to give opportunities for self and peer assessments, has only been partly met. We intend to make this a focus in our next project. 

Next steps

• Child could share folder with their primary one teacher as part of transition arrangements.
• Encourage contributions to the folder from home.
• Develop a system to follow up all of the next steps by incorporating them in daily planning.
• Investigate ways to include Individual Education Plans and Care Coordination plans
• to ensure that parents with English as an additional language can contribute to the process.
• Focus on the interaction between staff and child reflecting on the child’s learning to promote self and peer evaluation and metacognition.

Contact details

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