6 tips to improve your Early Years learning journals

1. Documenting children's ‘wow’ moments

One great way to add some variety to your learning journeys is to include milestones, or ‘wow moments’. Rather than more formal observations, these are celebrations of when a child does something for the very first time.

Standard dates that will apply to any child are a good place to start, such as “My first day at nursery” or “My first birthday at nursery”. From here you can include the first time they tried something new, and when they managed to achieve the little wins.

2. Add more photos to your learning journals

Observations require a certain level of detail, and that takes time. But we’re an increasingly visual bunch, and the more you can explain with photographs the better. They say, 'A picture's worth a thousand words,' after all.

3. Include the child's voice by recording their favourite things

Is there a song or nursery rhyme a certain child can’t get enough of? Their favourite book, toy, or role play area you’ve made? Include it!

Adding ‘My Favourite’ pictures or little notes serve a bunch of different purposes. Once the children are off to big school, it’s a lovely way for parents to look back at all the things they’ve loved doing along the way. It’s also great for parents to further understand their children’s interests at nursery.

4. Don’t double-up on paperwork

The ultimate frustration is when staff are forced to do work more than once. Handwriting a draft observation on a post-it note and copying out 'in best' for the child's journal is just a way to waste time. Invest in a digital system where staff can draft observations and come back to them later. If you have less secure staff, take advantage of AI support for writing and approval flows before anything goes live.

5. Involve the children in recording their own learning

Show children how you record their achievements and you'll get them involved with celebrating and documenting their learning too. Before you know it, you'll be hearing, "Take a photo of me to put on the app!"

Plus, you can reflect together on what they've been up to.

Getting quality one-on-one time with the children and a chance to walk them through some emotional development along the way, this is a great way to integrate some of your paperwork into the work that matters. Look through photos from their first day compared to now, reminisce about old friends who've now moved on to 'big school', or celebrate a recent achievement.

6. Create variety in how you document children's learning

By now you should have a few more things to add to the learning journals than the formal observations. Videos, photos, observations by parents and carers, the child's artwork, and their voice all come together to create a rich tapestry of the child's journey with you.