Skip to content
Explore TapestryExplore
Educators' HubEducation
Log In
Tapestry Support written in grey and purple text, with a cog replacing the 'O' in Support.
  • Tutorials
    For Staff
    For Relatives
  • Features
  • Resources
  • Parents & Carers
  • Learn Tapestry
    Learning Lab
    Demos & Training
  • FAQs
Contact Us
Try Tapestry for Free

Learning Lab » Tips & Tricks » 5 ways to use Reflections on Tapestry

An illustration of a group of teachers discussing a Reflection they have been contributing to on Tapestry.
  • Tips & Tricks

5 ways to use Reflections on Tapestry

  • May 18, 2025
  • By Vanna
  • 6 min read

Reflections is a powerful tool on Tapestry which can be utilised in a variety of ways on your account.

They are only visible to staff, providing a space for open discussions and peer support.

If you don’t already have it enabled, a manager can do this through the Control Panel > Features > Reflections > Enable.

Whilst you may already have in mind how you’d like to use Reflections, here are 5 ways we think you can use this feature.

An illustration of a teacher high-fiving a pupil

1. Reflecting on your practice

You may want to reflect on your own practice following on from feedback or for your own professional development. Reflective practice is an important way of allowing you to develop your own way of working and this tool provides a space for you to record these thoughts and ideas. You can then follow up on this by recording the impact of any actions you took. We have an interesting article on reflective practice which you can read here.

Whatever prompts you to reflect on your own practice, this tool can help you centralise your thoughts and next steps in one place. Using the ‘Visibility’ drop-down menu, you can choose to share it with just managers or with the whole team on your account. This way you incorporate the views and experience of others to help with your next steps.

This can also offer the opportunity to evidence any targets that you have against your own development. 

With the ability to share this information with just the managers on the account, such as your SLT, they can monitor and gain insight into your professional development. Also, the ability to export the reflection allows you to share this with other members of staff who are not on Tapestry.

2. Reflecting on children

Reflections can be helpful for when you are looking to support a particular child or group of children

As relatives do not have the ability to view this information, you can openly discuss behaviours, support techniques and best practice when it comes to supporting them. Reflections can also help build a holistic picture of the child which will be helpful if you need to seek support from other professionals.

You can upload any supporting documents through the media and documents tool you feel will help benefit you, the child, and the outcome of the reflection.

You can also link flags to the reflection whether they are ones already on Tapestry, such as EYFS 2021, or your own set of bespoke flags. 

Using the EYFS 2021 flags will link the reflection to the Areas of Concern screens which you might already be using to monitor children’s progress. This way you can quickly refer to the reflections you have made for the child without having to switch screens. 

Staff who also work with the child/ren can include their input whether that be linking observations they have created of the child or adding comments of their own.

This collective document can help to show the support and adaptations you have put in place for the child or children you work with, and what the impact of this has been.

Using the ‘Status’ option you can quickly define the impact of the reflection – whether it is or isn’t ready for discussion, embedded in practice, or it didn’t work out and you have abandoned it. You can add further detail on what happened in the ‘Impact’ section.

3. For external support

You may have external agencies/support coming in, whether it be for CPD purposes or to work with a child or a group of children. Through reflections, you can build up a bank of supportive documents and notes etc. so you’re prepared for this discussion.

If you are seeking support for a particular child or group of children, you can link their observations, activities, or other reflections that have been created, allowing all these examples to be in one place.

Perhaps you have upcoming meetings with your leadership team regarding children’s development. If you’ve used the EYFS 2021 flags within Reflections, you can view reflections linked to the different areas of learning within the Areas of Concern screens. These can act as memory jogs to support you in these discussions.

You can export reflections if they need to be shared offline or stored as a back-up outside of Tapestry.

4. Reflecting on your environment

It’s important to reflect on your learning environment often to ensure it stays inclusive, relevant, and engaging for the children. Reflections can help you manage your thoughts, processes, and next steps on improving this space.

If the children have prompted you to reflect on your environment – and you have some relevant observations – you can link those to your reflection to build a more cohesive picture.

You may not have anything to link to the reflection and that is OK. You can use the other dedicated areas to include any relevant information. The ability to upload related documents such as pictures and articles can help you store this information in one place, making it easy to refer to.

You might also want to make notes of links to new resources you’re looking to invest in and/or start gathering feedback from colleagues about their thoughts and ideas. 

5. As a collaborative document

Reflections can come in handy in a busy environment where you may not have much time to have extended conversations with your colleagues. Whether it be about a particular child, your practice or theirs, or anything else you are looking to develop, staff can access the reflection in their own time.

You may have staff within your team who have strengths in particular areas and you would like their input. Whether they are a manager or staff user, you can choose which staff user type has access to the reflection so that they so that they can contribute their thoughts and ideas.

This could be through commenting or editing the reflection and adding supporting documents. This central space can be one to refer to, update or expand upon for all those who are be involved. The flexibility of this allows staff to do this as and when they have the time.

An illustration of 4 people sat round a table with coffee cups

So that is 5 ways you can make use of the Reflection feature on Tapestry!

For support using Reflections on Tapestry, you can take a look at our tutorials or if you have any questions or feedback about Reflections, you can email us at customer.service@eyfs.info. 

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.

Have you tried Tapestry yet?

Take out a free, no-obligation two week trial today.
Sign up for free
Read More
Tips & Tricks
Adam

Understanding Relative and Staff Statuses on Tapestry

This guide covers the different user statuses that relatives and staff members can have on your Tapestry account.

Read More »
19 August, 2026
Business manager reconciling and checking over parent payments on Tapestry
Tips & Tricks
Kat

Reconciling funded hours and parent payments: a simple routine for your accounts

A guide to keeping funded hours and parent-paid fees aligned in your accounts, using Tapestry Pay, Funding Loop, and Tapestry’s own built-in tools.

Read More »
28 July, 2026
Photo of a checklist
Tips & Tricks
Kat

Getting Tapestry Ready: End of Year Checklists

Read our post that highlights the major things you will need to do at the end of each academic year on Tapestry, and take a look at our interactive checklists.

Read More »
16 July, 2026
Tapestry logo in a white circle

join our mailing list

Be the first to hear when new features are released!

Stay in the loop
Sign up
Stay in the loop
Facebook-f Instagram Linkedin Youtube BlueSky Logo
Quick Links
  • Tutorials
  • Features
  • Resources
  • Parents & Carers
  • Parents' Club
  • Learning Lab
  • Demos & Training
  • FAQs
Get In Touch
  • customer.service@eyfs.info
Security
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

© 2026 All Rights Reserved.