Tips & Tricks

Understanding Child Statuses on Tapestry

April 8, 2025
By Vanna

In this article we’ll cover the five different child statuses available on Tapestry; what each one means, the differences between them, and we’ll answer some frequently asked questions about the statuses.

Enrolling

This was designed for when you want to add a new cohort of children at the end of the academic year before your current children have left.

You can’t use the full functionality of Tapestry with children that are enrolling. You can only:

Add them as key children for staff
Link them to relatives
Add them to groups
Fill in their All About Me
Add name labels for them
Add memos for them
Add documents for their relatives
Use them within the Management System.

It’s only possible to add the same number of enrolling children as you have active child spaces, so if you have an up to 60 child package, you could add up to 60 children as enrolling. Once you make an enrolling child active, it’s not possible to change them back to enrolling.

Enrolling children won’t automatically become active at a certain point on your account so you’ll need to manually activate them.

Active

Only active children contribute to the number of child spaces on your account.

A child can be added as active or as enrolling and then activated at a later point. You can also reactivate inactive or awaiting deletion children within 90 days to become active again.

Inactive (All data retained)

You can make a child that is active, or awaiting deletion, inactive on your account. Once you make a child inactive, they will no longer contribute to your number of active children, so it will free up a child space on your account.

Inactive children will remain on your account until you reactivate or delete them. There is currently no cap on the number of inactive children you can have on your account, but this might be something we add in the future.

Inactive (Partially Deleted)

This is the recommended status for children once they have left your school or setting.

There is no cap on the number of partially deleted children you can have on your account. Once you choose to partially delete a child they will show as “Inactive – Partially Deletes in x days” for 90 days, during which you can restore them to active to retain all of their data.

After the 90 days they will be partially deleted which means most of the child’s data, such as photos and videos, will be deleted. The rest of their data will be retained until you choose to fully delete them. The data that is kept is as follows:

The child’s name
Their DOB
Their booking, registration, invoice and payment data
Their accident forms
Any reflections they are attached to

After they have been partially deleted from your account you can change them to active but this doesn’t recover their data that was deleted within the process. This deleted data will remain in our backups for a further 90 days during which we can recover for a charge.

Deleted (Fully Deletes in x days)

Once you select a child to be fully deleted from your account, they will remain in an awaiting deletion state for 90 days. During this time you can restore them to active or you can make them inactive. At the end of the 90 days they will be deleted from your account.

If they are included in any group observations with other children who are still active, these observations will not be deleted. Any reflections for them will also not be deleted, but their name will be changed to ‘deleted child’ for data protection reasons. After they have been fully deleted from your account they will remain in our backups for a further 90 days during which we can recover their data for an additional fee.

Status	How many children can I have?	What functioned can you do with them?	When are they deleted from Tapestry?	What status changes can I make to themo?
Enrolling	As many as your subscription size e.g. up to 40 enrolling children for a 40 child package.	Link them to relatives Assign them to staff as key children Add them to Memos Add them to groups Print name labels for them Complete their About Me Add Documents for their relatives Use them within the Management System View their history	Only after you manually fully delete them	Active Deleted (Fully Deleted in xdays)
Active	As many as your subscription size e.g. up to 40 active children for a 40 child package.	All functions on Tapestry that you can complete with a child You can only access tracking screens for active children	Only after you manually fully delete them	Inactive (All data retained) Inactive (Partally Deleted) Deleted (Fully Deleted in x days)
Inactive (All data retained)	Currently unlimited	Export their learning journal Bulk export media Bulk export accident forms ad Care Diary entries Bulk export invoices Export Management System bookings and registrations Merge with other children View their history	Only after you manually fully delete them	Inactive (All data retained) Inactive (Partally Deleted) Deleted (Fully Deleted in x days)
Deleted (Fully Deletes in x days)	Unlimited	Export their learning journal Bulk export media Bulk export accident forms and Care Diary entries Bulk export invoices Export Management System registrations View their history	Deleted (Fully Deletes in x days)	Enrolling (only if deleted from Enrolling status) Active
Inactive (Partially deleted)	Unlimited	Bulk export accident forms Bulk export invoices Export Management System registrations Merge with other children View their history	Some of their data is deleted 90 days after you mark them for partial deletion. The retained data is kept indefinitely and will need manual deletion	Active (after partial deletion only their data will be made active) Deleted Inactive (All data retained) Inactive (Partially Deleted)

Should I deactivate, partially delete, or fully delete a child?

If you know a child will return to your setting, we would recommend making them inactive as then you can simply reactivate them when they return. If they are definitely leaving your setting we would not recommend inactivation as retaining all of their data may be in contradiction with your GDPR policies, and, whilst we don’t currently have this in place, we may put a limit on the number of inactive children you can have on your account.

If you know that children are definitely leaving your setting, we would suggest you delete them. Partial deletion is our recommendation as this will retain certain information that you may require at a later stage (such as accident forms). When you no longer need to keep any of the data, or have sufficient hard copies of everything you need to keep, you can fully delete them.

Remember, if you delete a child from Tapestry, you still have 90 days in which you can restore them or download their journal again if there are any issues.

What do I do if I've run out of space and I need to receive more children via a transfer?

When you transfer children between Tapestry accounts, they will arrive in the receiving setting as enrolling, meaning they will not contribute to your number of active child spaces. You won’t be able to make them active and use the full functionality of Tapestry with them though until you have enough free spaces on your account.

If the children currently on your account are leaving, you can export their journals and delete them, this will then create extra spaces for you to make the enrolling children active.

If you want to keep all or some of the current children active and will be over your package limit, you will need to upgrade to a larger size. For help with this, you can email us at customer.service@eyfs.info.

I have several accounts, can I move spaces from one into another?

Package sizes for Tapestry accounts are set and are not customisable, so it’s not possible to share spaces between separate accounts.

How long should I keep a child inactive for?

If you know the child will be returning to your setting, you can leave them as inactive until they do return, otherwise we would recommend (partially or fully) deleting the child as keeping them on your account may not be in line with your GDPR policies. If you have any concerns about deleting children, do remember that you have 90 days in which you can restore them or download their journal again.

Can I reuse active spaces if a child leaves part way through the year?

Yes! If a child leaves your setting during the year, you can make them inactive or you can delete them. Doing either will free up a child space on your account.

Can I restore children who are completely gone from my account?

After the 90 day awaiting deletion period – when the child is fully deleted from your account – they will remain in our back-ups for a further 90 days. During this time, they can be restored but we do charge an additional fee for this as it’s a manual process that must be performed by our developers.

Can I export PDF journals and media ZIP files for inactive and awaiting deletion children?

Yes! It is still possible to export PDF learning journals and ZIP files of photos and videos for children that are awaiting deletion or inactive on your account. The process is exactly the same as doing this for active children.

Can parents still access their account if their child is awaiting deletion or made inactive?

If the parent’s account is still active they will still be able to log into Tapestry. However, if their child is inactive or awaiting deletion they won’t see any of the child’s data. If you have exported a child’s learning journal and/or media ZIP file, the parent will still be to download these.

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.