Nursery World - Learning Journeys

How learning journeys help settings to capture the wonder of the early years and build a holistic picture of children’s development. By Wendy Howes, Jackie Wells and Sally Cave

Learning stories are individual to the child and their family, and rely on practitioners tuning in to them

Guildford Nursery School has a long tradition of documenting children’s learning, and while we use an online tracking tool (Di Chilvers’ Development Map), we have always maintained paper Learning Journeys, as we feel they are more accessible for children.

The children love looking at and sharing their Learning Journeys; it is their go-to book, especially when they are feeling less secure. However, we wondered about the purpose and audience of these written observations.

We wanted to ensure that our documentation of children’s learning and development reflected our Froebelian principles of ‘valuing the holistic nature of development and the uniqueness of every child’s capacity and potential’ (Flewitt R and Cowan K, 2020). We also wanted to make sure that our documentation was equally useful and meaningful to the children, the parents and the staff.

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included