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Learning Lab » Tips & Tricks » Printed & PDF Journals – Advice for Staff

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  • Tips & Tricks

Printed & PDF Journals – Advice for Staff

  • September 18, 2025
  • By Vanna
  • 4 min read

In this post we have outlined some advice for staff within your setting, on supporting relatives downloading their child’s journal and/or ordering them as printed books. 

Downloaded PDF Journals

It’s possible for relatives to generate a PDF export of their child’s learning journal. Rest assured this doesn’t give relatives access to data that they can’t already access, but will enable them to generate the PDF from their own account without the need of a manager. If relatives are looking for advice on how to do this, you can refer them to this tutorial.

After a journal has been exported by a relative, the export will appear within Documents & Downloads > Downloads section, where you can also download a copy to see what it contains.

Screenshot showing how to access the Downloads page on Tapestry

You can also check the account history to see who has generated exports. To do this, go to the Help > Using Tapestry > History.

You can use the filters to narrow down the history events. Click on ‘Filter & Sort History‘.

Screenshot of Tapestry, with an arrow pointing to where staff can find history results
From the pop-up box, select ‘Download‘ as the subject and triggered by ‘Relatives‘. If you want to view history for a specific relative then you can select them from here as well. Otherwise, click on ‘Apply‘ to apply the filters.
Screenshot of the history filters being applied on Tapestry

You’ll then see all of the relevant history events such as when a PDF export was generated and when they downloaded it.

screenshot showing specific results in the account history

Printed Journals

We’ve teamed up with a publisher, Group Hugs, to offer parents and carers the ability to purchase printed copies of their child/ren’s learning journals. This is only possible once a PDF journal export had been created. This can be done by relatives themselves, but a manager on the account will also be able to generate the export.

Useful things to note

  • You can export journals for active, inactive, and awaiting deletion children
  • If you delete / make a child inactive this won’t delete the export once it’s been generated
  • Relatives will need to remain active to access the export
  • Exports will be available for 90 days once generated
  • Relatives do not need to follow the link in the notification email in order to access the download. They can still access it by logging Tapestry on the browser, or the app.

Before you proceed with generating the export we would recommend to first add a profile picture for the child/ren. This is because the front cover of the printed journal will use the photo that appears on the cover page. This can be done through Configuration > Children > Manage Children page. For further guidance on this, click here.

If there is no cover page or no profile picture, then the child’s photo on the front of the printed journal will be replaced with an image of a tree.

screenshot of printed journal with front cover
screenshot of printed journal without front cover

So that relatives can purchase a physical copy of the journal, you can’t just export their observations in bulk through the Observations page. You will need to export the journals as PDF’s and you can find guidance on how to do this here.

The journal/s will then be generated, which you can see from the Documents & Downloads > Downloads. If relatives are permitted to receive notifications, and they haven’t disabled the notification type ‘File ready to download’, then they’ll receive a notification once the export is ready for them to access. Once it is available, they’ll be able to purchase a printed journal directly from their Tapestry account.

If a relative no longer has access to their account or the journal was generated over 90 days ago, they will still be able to purchase a printed book if they have the PDF file (if they downloaded it when they had access or you passed this on to them outside of Tapestry). This is particularly useful when it comes to ordering backdated copies. To do this they can simply upload the PDF journal to the publisher, Group Hugs.

If you have any questions about this process please get in touch at customer.service@eyfs.info and we’ll be happy to help! 

Vanna

Product Support Specialist
Vanna first became familiar with Tapestry whilst training for her teaching degree at Brighton University. She then got to know Tapestry even more as an early years teacher working in Eastbourne. Vanna was delighted when she saw a vacancy to join the product support team and jumped at the chance to help other educators who use Tapestry. When Vanna isn’t working, you’ll find her eating chocolate, having a little line dance boogie, or annoying her cat, Todd.

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