This section describes some of the common elements of the EarlyWorks application, and the terms used to describe them in this Manual. We recommended that you familiarise yourself with this section before starting.

We use the term ‘click’ for any action you have to do to select an item on the screen:

If you are using a mouse, hover over the item, then click your primary mouse button.
If you are using a stylus or your finger, tap the item.

We use the term ‘enter’ to refer to text that you type, using whatever methods suit your device, including speech-to-text.

Hints & Tips

Many textboxes in EarlyWorks can accept speech-to-text. Talking into your device to make an observation etc. can save you a lot of time, and means you don’t have to focus on a keyboard while dealing with the other tasks you need to attend to. Check your device to see if it accepts speech and converts it to text—most phones and tablets do, though it may be something you need to turn on in the device’s settings. And then learn how to use this function—it may save you a lot of time.

Screen Navigation

Breadcrumbs

You will visit various screens as you use EarlyWorks. A ‘breadcrumb trail’ of the screens that you accessed before the current screen is shown below the menu. You can click any blue link to return to that screen.

Tabs

Some screens contain multiple sections, grouped by related information (tabs). Only one tab is visible at a time. To access the various sections, click the blue text on relevant tab at the top of the screen.

Screen Help

Most screens in EarlyWorks display help text for the current screen, below the breadcrumb trail.

You can hide this text temporarily by clicking the small cross (×) in the top right of the help text box. Once you are familiar with the screen, you may not need this information—click Don’t display this message again to hide the help. Note: You can always redisplay this help by clicking Hello, <your name> > Redisplay All Help.

Screen Elements

Mandatory Fields

Some fields are NOT optional—you must add information to them. A red asterisk (*) next to the field’s label indicates a mandatory field.

Buttons

Most buttons are represented in this Guide as Button, Button, or Button. Click a button to perform the action listed on the button.

Textboxes

You enter text in a textbox. Note: If your device supports speech-to-text, you can talk to enter the text in some textboxes.

Dropdown Lists

A dropdown list contains a predefined list of items. Click the arrow to select an item from that list.

Checkboxes

Checkboxes are either checked (ticked, crossed) or unchecked (unticked, blank). Click the checkbox to change from ticked to unticked, or vice versa.

Terminology

This Manual uses these words:

‘Program’; however, your service may have changed this to ‘Curriculum’ in the Settings screen. If so, substitute ‘Curriculum’ wherever ‘Program’ is used.
‘Experience’; however, your service may have changed this to ‘Curriculum Plan’ in the Settings screen. If so, substitute ‘Curriculum Plan’ wherever ‘Experience’ is used.
See also Change the Label for Program and/or Experience.

The Glossary at the end of this Manual defines many of the terms used in this document.

Common Tasks

Log in to Your EarlyWorks Account

Note: You must be connected to the internet to use EarlyWorks.

Go to login.earlyworks.net.au.
Enter your email address and password.

Click Log In.
Read the Conditions of Entry, then click I Accept to display the dashboard screen relevant to your role.

About Passwords

Passwords:

Must not be the same as any previous password you have used for EarlyWorks
Must contain at least seven characters, comprising at least ONE character from three or more of these character groups:
- Uppercase characters (e.g. ABCD)
- Lowercase characters (e.g. abcd)
- Numerals (e.g. 1234)
- Special characters (e.g. @#$%)

For example, AbR4caDa$R4 (11 characters, using characters from each character group) is a valid password, whereas AbracaDabra (11 characters, but only using characters from two character groups) is not valid.

A password for each EarlyWorks user (including families) is automatically generated and emailed to them when their user details are added to EarlyWorks. At their first-ever login, they are asked to change their password. If they later forget their password, they can click ‘forgot password’ on the login screen to be automatically issued with a new password. Alternatively, administrators can email them a new, auto-generated password, or generate new passwords for multiple users (see Send a New Password and Issue Bulk Passwords). After a new password is generated and sent, the user is asked to change it on their next login.

About Push Notifications

EarlyWorks App users can now receive push notifications for new observations, journal entries, comments, daily communications, quick notifications and documents. The EarlyWorks App is available from the Apple AppStore and Google Play.

Manage Records

Find

There are several ways you can find a record:

Many list screens have a Find textbox at the top of the list. Enter the word you’re looking for, then click Find.
Scroll the list to locate the record.
Sort the list by clicking certain column headings. See Sort.
Filter the list by choosing a room, status etc. from the dropdown list at the top of the screen. Turn off this filter to redisplay the full list (often this means selecting the All option in the list).

Sort

In some screens, you can sort the listed records by clicking the text in a column heading. The first click sorts the records in ascending order; click again to sort in descending order. Each subsequent click reverses the previous order. An arrow to the right of the column heading shows the direction of the current sort order (pointing up for ascending, down for descending).

Edit

To edit a record on a list screen, click anywhere in its row (but not a button, checkbox, trash can [rubbish bin] icon, or link).

Note: You can only edit records if you have permission to do so. Permission is determined by your login credentials.

Delete

To delete a record from a list screen, click the trash can icon for that row.

Note: You can only delete records if you have permission to do so. Permission is determined by your login credentials. You cannot delete records that have other records attached to them; instead, change the status of these records to ‘inactive’.

Print to a File

Note: You must have Microsoft Word (or a program that can read doc and docx file types) and Microsoft Excel (or a program that can read csv files) installed to save and print a document.

In various parts of the EarlyWorks system, you get the option to print a document. You may be asked to select what aspect of the system you want to print, and what report format to print to (paper size and orientation; e.g. A4 Landscape, A3 Landscape). Only choose a paper size that your printer can handle.

Import Data

Click Maintain > File Data Import to display the Import Data From File screen. All file templates are in CSV (comma-separated value) format and can be opened with Microsoft Excel.

To add educator or family login details in bulk, see Import Staff.
To add child details in bulk, see Import Children.

File Types and Sizes

You can upload files (images, documents etc.) in certain areas of EarlyWorks. The file types that EarlyWorks can accept are:

Image files: jpg, jpeg, gif, png (Note: ONLY jpg and jpeg can be used for a child’s profile picture)
Compressed files: zip, rar
Document files: doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, pdf
Audio files: mp3, ogg, wav, m4a
Video files: mp4, avi, m4v, mov, mpg, wmv

The maximum size for an individual file is 5 Mb.

Educator’s User Guide

Educator Dashboard

About the Dashboard

The Educator Dashboard gives you an overview of current activity.

Elements displayed on the dashboard:

‘Welcome to version’ at the top of the dashboard has a link to software features recently added to EarlyWorks.
Numbers in red circles indicate the number of new items added to that section since you last logged in.
Recent details are summarised in boxes below the version bar:

Child Alerts

Each child’s learning and development should be documented regularly and frequently while they are with the service. On the Child Alerts screen, you can see how many learning journey entries, individual and group observations, experiences, and journal entries each child was included in, and the date the last entry was made. Dates in amber (orange) text indicate that you have reached your set warning alert; those in red text tell you that you have exceeded your maximum time since the last entry.

You can see a summary of Child Alerts on your dashboard. For more detail, use the Child Alerts screen.

Click Admin > Child Alerts to display the Child Alerts screen.

You can view the list by All Rooms (the default), or select a room from the dropdown list at the top of the screen.
Understanding this screen:
- All dates are the date of the last entry.
- Numbers in green circles show how many records of this type were entered for the child.
- Last Learning Journey Entry refers to the individual comments made on a child’s record about their abilities and progress in relation to the service’s learning outcomes.
- Last Individual Observation / Last Group Observation refers to the last time this child was included in either a group or individual observation.
- Last Experience refers to the planned extensions of learning that have involved the child.
- Last Journal Entry refers to the last time the child was part of the daily journal.
Click a child’s name to display their Child Summary screen. Then click Return to Child Alerts to go back to the Child Alerts screen.

Experiences Awaiting Evaluation

The written evaluation of experiences is one way educators can show how they:

critically reflect on and evaluate the program, how this is documented, and how their evaluations are used to make informed curriculum decisions to improve outcomes for children (NQS 1.2, Guide to the National Quality Standards, p. 37)
provide evidence that written programming and evaluation is ongoing, appropriate, and inclusive of each child (NQS 1.2, Element 1.2.1, Guide to the National Quality Standards, p. 39)
are engaged in ongoing planning and evaluation that centres on children’s learning and development (NQS 7.1, Guide to the National Quality Standards, p. 172)

To make sure that evaluations occur regularly and frequently, educators are notified on their dashboard of any experiences for their rooms that are awaiting evaluation. Administrators can view on their dashboard a list of all experiences throughout the service that have not yet been evaluated.

You can see a summary of Experiences Awaiting Evaluation on your dashboard (to see more details of the experiences awaiting evaluation, click More…). This list is sorted by the most recent entry.

Click View Experience to display the Edit Experience screen. See Manually Add an Experience to the Program for details on how to complete this screen.

If the Experience does NOT require an evaluation, click Dismiss to add ‘Not Required’ to the Evaluation textbox on the Edit Experience screen. Note: This is a permanent change—you are not asked to confirm this deletion, and the item is immediately removed from the Experiences Awaiting Evaluation screen. If you later need to add an evaluation, go to the Edit Experience screen for the experience and change the text in the Evaluation textbox.

Child Comments

You can see a summary of Latest Child Comments (the five most recent) on your dashboard. This list is sorted by the most recent entry.

View Child Comments

On the dashboard, click More… below the Latest Child Comments to display the View Child Comments screen where you can view comments in more detail, and see all comments, not just the most recent five.

All comments are displayed. You can filter this list by selecting the comments to view from the dropdown list at the top of the screen. You can view All Comments (the default), Educator Comments, Family Comments, or Child’s Learning Journey comments. Note: ‘All Comments’ is for all time, not just this week or year.
Comments for all your rooms are displayed. If you only want to see comments from a specific room, select that room from the dropdown list at the top of the screen.
Each comment row shows the date the comment was written, the child it relates to, who wrote it (Author column), and who has viewed it (in blue text below the comment). Comments that have not been viewed have a New Comment label.
Click Child Summary to display the Child Summary screen where the child’s comment history can be viewed in full. This action will mark the comment as ‘read’.

Tasks

Tasks and reminders alert you to complete all compliance tasks (regular or one-off) on time.

You access your tasks from your dashboard or the Admin menu. Education Assistants can only see their tasks; Room Leaders can see theirs and other educators’ tasks; Administrators can see all tasks.

On the Tasks screen:

Black text means the task is due within the next 28 days.
Red text means an overdue task (i.e. not marked as completed).
Grey crossed-out text means the task was completed within the previous 28 days; after 28 days, these completed tasks automatically move to the Completed Tasks tab.

View Tasks

Click Admin > View Tasks to display the Current Tasks tab on the Tasks screen. Your tasks are shown by default; click the dropdown list at the top of the screen to see tasks allocated to others.

Once a task is finished, click Complete.
To reinstate a task that was marked as ‘Complete’ in error, click Reinstate. You have 28 days to do this.
To review all completed tasks (for all time), click the Completed Tasks tab.

Add Scheduled Tasks

The Task Schedule List lists all scheduled tasks and reminders for room leaders and administrators. When you assign a task to a person, that task gets listed on their dashboard.

Click Maintain > Task Schedules List to display the Task Schedule List screen. (To edit an existing scheduled task, click in its row.)

Click Add New Task Schedule.

On the General Information tab:
- Task Name: Either select a task name from the Choose dropdown list (this automatically completes the Task Name, Description, and Frequency fields) or enter the task name. Add the name of the person to the task—this makes it easier to see who each task applies to on the Task Schedule List screen (e.g. Shannon Watson: First Aid).
- Description: Describe the task (optional if you selected a task from the Task Name dropdown list).
- Start Date: Select the first date that this task must be completed by (e.g. if a staff member’s Working With Children check expires on 1-Jan-2017, select that date).
- End Date: Select the date to stop reminders displaying on the ‘tasks due’ list.
- Frequency: Enter a number and select a time period for how often this task must be done (optional if you selected a task from the Task Name dropdown list). Note: ‘Years’ is not an option for the time period, so convert the number of years into months (12 months = 1 year; 24 months = 2 years, 36 months = 3 years, etc.).
Click the Assigned to tab.
Select the checkboxes of the people this task relates to. For a certification reminder, assign it to both the individual whose certification expires and their administrator.
Click Add Record to save the information and return to the Task Schedule List.

Hints & Tips

To add a one-off event, set the Start Date and End Date to the same date.

Reflections of Pedagogy

You can see a summary of Reflections of Pedagogy on your dashboard. For more detail, use the Reflections of Pedagogy screen.

On the dashboard, click More… below the Reflections of Pedagogy list to display the Reflections of Pedagogy screen.

Reflections that have not yet had any administrator feedback display Feedback Required in red. Only administrators can add feedback.
On the reflections of Pedagogy screen, you can:
- Click Add New Reflection to display the Add New Reflection of Pedagogy screen.
- Click a record to display its Edit Reflection of Pedagogy screen.
Once you are on one of these screens:
- Select the checkboxes related to the reflection.
- Enter your reflection.
- Click Extend if you want to convert your Personal Reflection comment into an observation (see Add a Quick Observation).
- Note: Manager’s Feedback can only be written by administrators.
Click Add Record (for a new reflection) or Update Record (for an edited reflection) to save your changes and return to the Reflections of Pedagogy screen.

Hints & Tips

Regular and ongoing reflection helps services critically reflect on current practice and embed a culture of ongoing commitment to continuous improvement. The Reflections of Pedagogy within EarlyWorks provides educators with a place to reflect on their own pedagogical practices within the context of the service. Educators’ Reflections of Pedagogy are visible only to themselves and the administrators.

The Queensland Government publication ‘Early years curriculum materials – Reflecting on my teaching practices’ states:

‘Research has shown how deliberate and critical reflection on teaching practices contributes to excellence in teaching, and improved educational outcomes for all children. Critically reflective teaching practices encourage teachers to:

Regularly evaluate their approaches to teaching and learning
Understand more about the positive impacts of high-quality effective pedagogies on children’s learning
Become more aware of the importance of high-quality interactions, including strategic intervention and substantive conversations to maximise children’s learning
Use action research approaches — e.g. drawing on alternative teaching strategies to help children to learn when familiar methods fail
Co-construct learning with children and other partners so it is responsive to the child’s family and community.’

Programs

To get started on your programming and documentation, you must create at least one new program. We recommend that you always have at least two programs available so that you can move experiences to the next program if required.

Add new programs for each new program cycle (weekly, monthly, etc. depending on your service’s requirements).

Note: You cannot delete a program that is attached to an active room, or that has related observations, experiences, and journal entries associated with it. If you need to remove a program, change its status to ‘Inactive’.

Add a Program

Click Programs to display the My Programs screen.

Click Add New Program.
Enter the name of the new program. This name usually reflects a program period (e.g. April; May; Week 1; Week 2; or a date range, such as 13 Jan 17 – 18 Jan 17), a project area title (e.g. Sustainability Project), or a child’s name (e.g. Jackson Smith).

Select the room this program relates to from the Room dropdown list. For Family Day Care (FDC), select your service name. Once you’ve selected your room, you can click View Room Outcomes to see the framework outcomes for that room; click Return to Program to go back to the Add New Program screen. You can print these outcomes by clicking the dropdown arrow on that button and selecting Print Room Outcomes.
The learning framework defaults to Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). If you use another framework, select it from the dropdown list.
Leave the status as Active. If you later want to archive this program (i.e. when you no longer need access to the experiences under that program), you can make this an inactive record.
Click Add Record to save and return to the My Programs screen, where your new program is listed and is ready to be completed.

My Programs Screen

Click Programs to display the My Programs screen.

You can view the list of programs for all rooms or select a specific room from the dropdown list. Similarly, you can view either active or inactive programs. You can also search for programs using the Find function.
- Each row lists the room and represents one program period.
- Blue numbers indicate how many Observations, Programmed Experiences, or Journal entries have occurred during the program period.
- Red numbers indicate that an Observation in this program does NOT have any children or observed outcomes allocated to it.
To view a program, click View Program on the far right of its row. The View Program dropdown list has extra options, such as print the program, view program-related comments, and view program-related reflections. These extra options all generate a Microsoft Word document that you can save and print.
To record a comment or communication related to this program period, click the program name to display the Edit Program screen. Note: These comments are only available to the educators allocated to the room and are NOT visible to families.
Click the Comments tab:
- Click Add New Comment to record program ideas, suggestions, support, critical reflections, educator direction, etc. Click Save Comment to save your comments and return to the Edit Program screen.
- Click Edit to change an existing comment. Click Save Comment to save your changes and return to the Edit Program screen.
- Click Extend to convert this comment into an observation. Click Save Observation to save it and return to the Edit Program screen.
- Click Reply to reply to a comment. Click Save Comment to save your reply and return to the Edit Program screen. (See also: Reply to Comments in a Child Summary.)
- Click the trash can icon to delete the comment. You are asked to confirm this deletion.
- Click Update Record to save and return to the My Programs screen.

To view or print details about more than one program, select the checkboxes for each, then click the View Selected Programs dropdown list.

Add an Observation

EarlyWorks creates programs, experience evaluations, child portfolios, and child learning profiles directly from observations and daily journal entries. An observation or journal entry is the written documentation of something that has occurred. Following the Observation process in EarlyWorks will help you complete a detailed, professional planning cycle each time. Creating your first observation will get you started.

Click Programs to display the My Programs screen.

Click Edit Observations to display the list of observations for that program. (To edit an existing program, click anywhere in its row. To delete an observation, click the trash can icon—you are asked to confirm this deletion.)

Click Add New Observation to display the Add New Observation screen. This screen has several tabs, and opens to the General Information tab (details below).
Once you have completed details on all tabs, click Save & Stay to save your data and make the Related Documents tab visible, which is where you can upload photos, videos, and documents.
When you have finished with this screen, either:
- Click Update Record to display the Edit Experience screen where you can add your planned next experience to the program, or
- Click Save & Stay to save your work and remain on the Edit Observation screen, or
- Click Cancel to return to the My Programs screen—any work you haven’t saved will be lost.

General Information Tab

The selected program name is shown. You can select a different one from the Program dropdown list.

Enter a meaningful title for your observation. You will create links from and to this title in the future—if you have five observations all called ‘Sensory Exploration’ you won’t know which one to link to.
Today’s date is automatically entered. You can choose another date.
Select your Observation Style from the dropdown list:

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Use Evaluation if this observation is supporting evidence for a programmed experience (Suggestion: Name this observation ‘Evaluation of…..’).
Time Sample helps you track behaviour and evaluate strategies for behaviour support plans.
The other observation style names help you decide how you will write the narrative/content of the observation.

The framework defaults to the one you selected when adding the new program. You can select a different one from the Framework dropdown list.
Record your observation in the Narrative textbox:
- Detail the children’s interests, learning, skills, language, etc. you observe so you can plan the next experience appropriately.
- Hint: Use this textbox to provide evidence for the first step of the planning cycle (Observe/Record) or the fifth step (Evaluate), assuming you have created the appropriate links and documented the content appropriately. See The Program Planning Cycle for more information.
- Use the formatting toolbar in each textbox to select the font, font style, text alignment, etc. to personalise your printed observation.
Record your Reflection of Learning, analysing the learning that has taken place (e.g. what did the children learn? How did they learn it?):
- Hint: Use this textbox to provide evidence for the second step of the planning cycle (Reflect on the learning that has taken place). See The Program Planning Cycle for more information.
In the Next Experience textbox, enter the experience that you will provide in the current or next program as an extension/follow-up to this observation:
- EarlyWorks places this information into Narrative textbox of the Edit Experience screen for the program you selected. If you don’t enter anything into this textbox, you can’t create an experience from the observation and will have to add it manually. See Add an Experience to the Program from an Observation and Manually Add an Experience to the Program.
- Hint: Use this textbox to provide evidence for the third step of the planning cycle (Planning). See The Program Planning Cycle for more information.
If you want the family to see this observation on their child’s Child Summary screen, select the Families can view this Observation checkbox. You can change this at any time.
If this is an observation for a specific child, select the Flag as an individual Observation checkbox to include it as an individual observation in the Child Alerts list.

Preceding Experiences Tab

Note: You can skip this step if it’s a spontaneous observation.

On this tab, you can select one or more experiences from the program that led to this observation:

Click the ‘+’ icon next to a program to display its attached experiences, then select one or more checkboxes for the preceding experiences. Make sure you click Save & Stay before you go to the Children Observed tab.
When you select a preceding experience, EarlyWorks automatically adds a reference into the Evaluation textbox of that experience on the program (this means you don’t need to write a separate evaluation; you can add more information to this Evaluation textbox later, if necessary).

Children Observed Tab

Note: Children are listed on this screen alphabetically by first name.

Select the children who were involved in the observation. To include children from other rooms in this observation, select their names from the Invite child to this room dropdown list, then click Invite.

Once you have selected the children, a ‘Voice of the child’ textbox is displayed for each selected child. Enter the ‘voice of the child’ (which could be verbal or non-verbal communication) or record any observation that was specific to this child. Families will only see their own child’s information.

Observed Outcomes Tab

When you select outcomes and record comments on this tab, EarlyWorks automatically adds this information to the child’s learning profile and adds it to the child’s overall learning journey comments. This helps you provide evidence of the child’s ongoing learning and development.

Select the checkboxes of the outcomes and developmental milestones observed. Click the ‘+’ icons as many times as required to expand each list, then select one or more checkboxes. You can select observed outcomes and/or developmental milestones for a specific child (the names displayed in this tab reflect those selected on the Children Observed tab).

Click Comments next a child’s name to add a comment relevant to that outcome or developmental milestone for that child. These comments contribute to a child’s individual learning journey document. They are only visible to educators and administrators unless you make them visible to the family by unchecking the Educator only comment checkbox. Click Save Comment to save your comment and return to the Observed Outcomes tab.

QIP Evidence Tab

If you believe that the observation supports the Strength areas of the Quality Improvement Plan (QIP), then click the QIP Evidence tab.

Select the relevant Quality Area (QA), Standard, or Element. These selections will be included in the service’s QIP evidence to support the service’s NQS Strengths.

Add a Quick Observation

If you don’t have time to complete a full observation while you are working, add a quick observation with basic details that you can complete later.

Click Quick Observation to open the pop-up Add Observation window.
Select the program from the dropdown list.
Enter the title of the observation.
The date defaults to today. You can select another date.
Enter brief notes about this observation in the Narrative textbox. You can add to this later.
Click Save Observation.

Add an Experience to the Program from an Observation

When you initially create a new observation and enter text into the Next Experience textbox on the General Information tab of the Edit Observation screen then click Update Record, the Edit Experience screen displays with that text automatically added into its Narrative textbox. You can now enter the name and intended outcomes for this next experience.

On the Edit Experience screen, the selected program name is shown. You can select a different program from the Program dropdown list. This experience will be added to the selected program.

Enter the Experience Name. This displays as ‘Title’ on the printed program.
The Narrative textbox is pre-filled with the planned next experience that you added in the Next Experience field on the General Information tab of the observation. See General Information Tab.
Note: You don’t need to do anything on the Preceding Observations and Children Involved tabs as this information is already completed.
Click the Intended Outcomes tab. Click the ‘+’ icons as many times as required to expand each list, then select one or more checkboxes for the outcomes you intend to support through this experience.
If you believe that the experience will support any of the NQSs, click the QIP Evidence tab and select the checkboxes of the relevant QAs, Standards, and/or Elements.
Click Update Record to save this experience and add it to the selected program. You are returned to the list of experiences for the selected program.

Manually Add an Experience to the Program

If experiences do not evolve directly from observations, indicate why you are including them in the program.

Click Programs to display the My Programs screen.

Click Edit Experiences in the program line that you want to add to.
Click Add New Experience.

On the Add Experience screen, the selected program name is shown. You can select a different program from the Program dropdown list. This experience will be added to the selected program.
Enter the Experience Name.
Enter the details of the experience in the Narrative textbox.
Click the Preceding Observations tab.

Click the ‘+’ icon next to Non Program Related to expand its options. Select one or more checkboxes that reflect where the experience has come from.
Click the Children Involved tab, then select the checkboxes of the names of the children this experience applied to. You can either select children one at a time, or select Attending, All, or None to uncheck all the checked boxes.
Click the Intended Outcomes tab, then expand the outcome groups and select the checkboxes for each outcome you intend to support through this experience. You MUST add at least one intended outcome.
If you believe that the experience will support any of the NQSs, click the QIP Evidence tab and select the checkboxes of the relevant QAs, Standards, and/or Elements.
Click Update Record to save this experience and add it to the selected program. You are returned to the list of experiences for the selected program.

Link an Observation to a Next Experience

The Observation List and Journal List screens contain links to all experiences planned as extensions of learning observations or journal entries.

These links help educators use a single experience as the ‘Next Experience’ for multiple observations; e.g. when educators have created different observations of children that ultimately lead to a single planned experience. This is explained in the example below.

Isaac’s Fruit Tower was the initial observation that led to the experience of ‘Healthy Food Choices – Lunch Table Discussions’. In the same week, another observation was recorded of children baking pretend cakes and sweets in the sandpit; this observation was called ‘The sand castle sweet shop – Baking’. The educator felt that the extension of learning for this observation should be around healthy food choices and discussing healthy eating habits, which is the same as the experience for ‘Isaac’s Fruit Tower’. In this instance, you DO NOT add a written Next Experience when adding the second observation—instead, you add a link in the experience that was planned as a result of the previous observation.

After writing the second observation, without a next experience, click the title of the experience that you wish to link to from the Next Experience column.

In the example below, you’d click the ‘Healthy Food Choices – Lunch Table Discussions’ link to go to the Edit Experience screen.

From the Edit Experience screen, click the Preceding Observations tab.
Select the relevant checkboxes. In this example, you’d select ‘The sand castle sweet shop – Baking’ to link this observation to the existing experience ‘Healthy Food Choices – Lunch Table Discussions’.

Click Update Record.
The Observation List screen now lists the links in the Next Experience column of both observations, as shown below.

All links display in the viewable and printable observations, thus ensuring that there is a clear and visible cycle of planning. Educators must make sure that they only create links between relevant observations and planning.

Multiple Rooms can Create a Single Program (assists with primary caregiving)

You can create a viewable/printable program that combines multiple rooms/groups. This helps services implement Primary Caregiving for children, where services combine rooms for programming purposes or where services choose to program for individual children or learning areas.

Each group within a room creates their observations, programs, and journals as normal.

Click Program to display the My Programs screen.

Select the checkboxes of the programs you want to combine. You must have access to these rooms before you can print a combined program.

To view or print details about the combined program, click the required option from the View Selected Programs dropdown list. If you choose to print, click Produce Report and save the generated Microsoft Word document to your computer or device—you can then open and print it from Microsoft Word.
The new combined program details (in italics) which programs and room each experience originated from.
If you opt to view the combined programs on screen, click Return to Program List to return to the My Programs screen. If you opt to print, click Cancel on the Produce Report screen after you’ve saved the Microsoft Word file to return to the My Programs screen.

Daily Communications

The Daily Communications list allows administrators and educators to view a summary of all educator-to-family communications, including information on meals and other notes. More detailed information such as individual child portion sizes, bottle information, nappy/toileting information, sleep and rest times, as well as any personalised messages can be viewed by clicking on the date row that you wish to view.

Click Admin > Daily Communications to display the Daily Communications screen.

To view detailed information related to a date, click anywhere in that row to display its detailed Daily Communication screen.

Menu details and group notes (top part of the screen) are visible to all families in the room; specific child information (bottom part of the screen) is only visible to that child’s family.

Hints & Tips

Daily Communications are sometimes known as the ‘Daily Communication Book’ or ‘Digital Daily Sheets’.
The Viewed By list in the Daily Communications Group Notes textbox lets you know who has seen these communications (‘Viewed by’ information is in blue text).

Add Daily Communications

Click Admin > Daily Communications to display the Daily Communications screen.

Click Add New Communication to start a new record.
In the top part of the screen (visible to all families in the room), enter:
- menu information
- any group notes.
In the bottom part of the screen (visible only to each child’s family):
- Select the portion sizes of meals for each child, using the dropdown lists.
- Enter any bottle information.
- Enter any nappy or toileting information (use W, S, D, or T for wet, soiled, dry, toilet).
- Enter sleep/rest times.
- Enter any child-specific notes.
- To include children from other rooms in this daily communication, select their names from the Invite child to this room dropdown list, then click Invite.
Click Send Notification to Families to send email notifications to families that new daily communication information is available.
Click Update Details to save the entered information, then click Cancel to return to the Daily Communications list.

Menu Upload option for Daily Communications.

Administrators can upload their services food menu in advance to prefill the daily communications food menu information.

To upload the service’s food menu from the Daily Communications screen:

Click on Import Menu.

Click [Download Menu Import File Template]
This will download an Excel spreadsheet template to be completed as below.
Once complete, save the file to your desktop and return to the menu import screen.
Click on Select File, choose the file you wish to upload, and click Import File to proceed with the upload.
Once you have returned to the Daily Communications screen, all future dated items will be available by selecting Future Communications from the drop-down menu.

The Program Planning Cycle

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You must be able to efficiently and effectively manage program planning and documentation. The step-by-step processes for adding observations, programmed experiences, etc. are explained in detail in Programs. In this section, we explain how to monitor this information and how to check that the planning cycle is visible and evidenced through documentation. You should have a visible planning cycle for rooms and for individual children.

Room Planning Cycle

Observations

Click Programs to display the My Programs screen.

Click Edit Observations in the program line to display the Observations screen, which lists the observations recorded in this program period. Most of the planning cycle can be seen on this screen.

Observe = The Narrative column shows the content of the recorded observation.
Question = (Reflection complete) indicates that the reflection of learning was completed within the observation.
Plan = The Next Experience column shows the planning that has occurred.
Act and Reflect = The Evaluation box indicates that the experience was implemented and there is a written evaluation. This evaluation could be a reference to an observation or journal entry; or it could be the written evaluation form the experience.

Typically, observations that were preceded by an experience have linked text in the Preceded By column. If there is no ‘preceded by’ experience, then the observation is listed as ‘Spontaneous’. There should be a relatively even mixture of spontaneous and planned experiences occurring within the service’s observations and planning.

When educators link preceding experiences to an observation, a link is automatically created in the Evaluation textbox of the experience as evidence of the evaluation occurring. This contributes to the visible planning cycle.

If a reflection of learning was conducted as part of the observation, then ‘(Reflection complete)’ (in green text) is displayed in the Narrative column. If you cannot see this, then a reflection of learning was NOT conducted.
If ‘Visible to family’ (in orange text) is in the Narrative column, then this observation can be viewed by the families of the children tagged in this observation. Families CANNOT view observations that don’t have this text.
To edit an observation, click anywhere in that row to display the Edit Observation screen. You can change any information in the fields and tabs on this screen.
Click Update Record to save your changes and return to the Observations screen.
To view the observation on screen, click View Observation.
To save the observation to a Microsoft Word document for printing, click the dropdown arrow next to View Observation, then click Print Observation.

Experiences

Click Programs to display the My Programs screen.

Click Edit Experiences in the program line to display the Experiences screen, which lists all experiences for this program period.
- In the list of experiences, there should ALWAYS be something recorded in the Preceded By column.
- The experience’s Narrative and Preceded By text is automatically created when educators include a next experience in their observations or journal entries.
- If an experience was added manually, then educators can select from ‘non program related’ preceding observations such as: Educator Initiated – Intentional Teaching, Family Input, Spontaneous – Child initiated, Spontaneous – Educator initiated, or Community (see Manually Add an Experience to the Program).
- When the program period ends, the Evaluation column should also contain text. An empty Evaluation column indicates that the planning cycle has not finished.
To edit an experience, click anywhere in the row to display the Edit Experience screen. You can change any information in the fields and tabs on this screen.
Click Update Record to save your changes and return to the Experiences screen.

Journal Entries

Click Programs to display the My Programs screen.

Click Edit Journal to display the Journal Entries screen, which lists all journal entries recorded for this program period.
As for observations, there should be a mixture of planned and spontaneous experiences recorded in the journal. Each journal entry can have more than one ‘preceded by’.

If a reflection of learning was conducted within the journal, then ‘(Reflection complete)’ (in green text) is displayed in the Narrative column. If you cannot see this, then a reflection of learning was NOT conducted.
If ‘Visible to family’ (in orange text) is in the Narrative column, then this journal entry can be viewed by the families of the children tagged in this journal entry. Families CANNOT view journal entries that don’t have this text.
To edit a journal entry, click anywhere in the row to display the Edit Journal screen. You can change any information in the fields and tabs on this screen.
Click Update Record to save your changes and return to the Journal Entries screen.

Individual Child Planning Cycle

To see the planning cycle for an individual child:

Click Child to display the Child List screen.

Locate the name of the child whose details you want to view. Either use the Find function to search for the child’s name, or scroll down the list to locate the child. To help you find by name, you can sort the first or last name columns, or you can filter by room and/or active/inactive records.
Click Child Summary in the row for the child’s name to display the summary screen for that child.
Click More in the Recent Observations box to display the observations for this child. You can follow the individual planning cycle of Observation, Planning, and Evaluation on the screen:
- Narrative = Observation
- Next Experience = Planning
- Evaluation = Evaluation.

Click Return to Child Summary to go back to the child’s information, then Return to Child List to return to the Child List screen.

Planning for the Individual Child

Learning Journey Comments

Learning journey comments record a child’s current knowledge and abilities in relation to the learning outcomes set by the service. To prompt educators to regularly add to these comments, they are displayed on the Child Alerts list (see Child Alerts).

When you add comments to the child’s learning journey, EarlyWorks adds them to the child’s Learning Journey document. This document groups comments by outcome and date, thus showing a child’s learning journey over time.

To produce a Learning Journey document, click Children to display the Child List screen.

Locate the name of the child whose learning journey you want to view. Either use the Find function to search for the child’s name, or scroll down the list to locate the child. To help you find by name, you can sort the first or last name columns, or you can filter by room and/or active/inactive records.
Click Learning Journey in the row for the child’s name.
Select the date range and click Generate to produce the report.
Save the generated Microsoft Word document to your computer or device—you can then open and print it from Microsoft Word.

Add Learning Journey Comments

Comments should be a professional analysis of the child’s current abilities/knowledge and goals in relation to the selected learning outcome. When educators view the observation, they can see the learning journey comments for each child. Families will only see the comments for their child, and only if they were granted permission to see the comment.

Click Children to display the Child List screen.

Locate the name of the child whose details you want to view. Either use the Find function to search for the child’s name, or scroll down the list to locate the child. To help you find by name, you can sort the first or last name columns, or you can filter by room and/or active/inactive records.
Click Child Summary in the row for the child’s name to display the summary screen for that child.
Click More in either the Recent Observations box or the Recent Journal Entries box to display the entries for this child.
Click anywhere in a row to display the Edit Observation (or Edit Journal) screen.
Click the Observed Outcomes tab.
Click Comments for the child and learning outcome you want to record a comment for. If a comment already exists, click Update Comment to amend it.
Enter your comment on the Add Outcome Comment pop-up window.
By default, comments are only visible to educators and administrators, but you can make them available to families by unchecking the Educator Only Comment checkbox.
Click Save Comment to save your comment and close the pop-up window.
Repeat steps 7 to 10 for any other children you want to add comments to.

Use Learning Journey Comments to Inform the Program

You can use learning journey comments to inform program planning. These comments help you show how the child’s current knowledge and abilities are incorporated in the design and planning of the program, and how each child’s learning and development needs drive curriculum decisions. You can also add comments to a child’s record that relate to the child’s current knowledge, ideas, culture, abilities, and interests. These comments can be converted into observations. (NQS Element 1.1.2)

Click Children to display the Child List screen.

Locate the name of the child whose details you want to view. Either use the Find function to search for the child’s name, or scroll down the list to locate the child. To help you find by name, you can sort the first or last name columns, or you can filter by room /or active/inactive records
Click the child’s name to display the Edit Child screen.
Click the Comments tab.
Select Child’s Learning Journey from the dropdown list to filter the comments.
Click Extend next to the comment you wish to use in the program to display the Add Observation pop-up window. Extending a comment converts it into a Quick Observation:
- Select a program from the dropdown list.
- You can change any information on this screen. When you have finished, click Save Observation to save your changes.
Click View/Edit to continue to the Edit Observation screen where you can enter the planned next experience for the program.
Click Update Record to save your changes and return to the Observations screen, where you can see that a comment about this outcome was used to inform the program.

Individual Child Analysis Chart

You can view and compare a child’s planned and actual observed learning outcomes. This helps you monitor your planning in relation to the learning outcomes for an individual child.

Outcome numbers are listed on the y-axis; numbers of observations are listed on the x-axis; planned outcomes are shown in orange; and actual outcomes are shown in blue.

Click Children to display the Child List screen.

Locate the name of the child whose details you want to view. Either use the Find function to search for the child’s name, or scroll down the list to locate the child. To help you find by name, you can sort the first or last name columns, or you can filter by room and/or active/inactive records.
In the child’s row, open the View Profile dropdown list, then click Analysis Chart.
By default, a chart for the year-to-date is displayed, but you can specify a different date range. If you change the date range, click Display to refresh the chart.
Click Return to Child List.

Child Profiles – Planned and Observed Outcomes

A child’s profile is an automatically generated document that details exactly how and when each learning outcome was observed for a specific child. This information is divided by calendar-year quarters, with totals for the number of times each learning outcome was observed for the child. Use this information to reflect on your planning and provide evidence that you are supporting each child’s strengths as well as those areas needing further development.

A child’s profile also includes evidence of planning for each learning outcome. Learning outcomes are tallied in the same way as observed outcomes. These contribute to your planning and assessment of learning for the child.

Using the child’s profile, you can see the planned outcomes, as well as the program this planning was included in. This helps you show how curriculum decision-making contributes to each child’s learning and development opportunities (NQS Element 1.1.1). Make sure your planning emphasises how this decision-making maximises each child’s learning and development to assist in reflecting exceeding practices.

Click Children to display the Child list screen.
Locate the name of the child whose details you want to view. Either use the Find function to search for the child’s name, or scroll down the list to locate the child. To help you find by name, you can sort the first or last name columns, or you can filter by room and/or active/inactive records.
In the child’s row, click View Profile to display the Individual Child Profile screen for the selected child. (To save and print the profile, click Print Profile from the View Profile dropdown list, select the year ending date, select a paper size and orientation [A4 or A3, landscape] from the Report Format dropdown list, click Produce Report, then save the generated Microsoft Word document to your computer or device—you can then open and print it from Microsoft Word.) The icons in the calendar columns are:
- Green tick – this outcome was observed
- Green number – number of times this outcome was observed
- Clipboard – this outcome was planned for
- Blue number – number of times this outcome was planned for.
Click Return to Child List.

Hints & Tips

To help services provide evidence that documentation about each child’s program and progress is available in an accessible format and that opportunities are provided for discussion with families (NQS Element 1.1.4), services can produce and provide the child’s profile and learning journey to families (in person, through EarlyWorks, or through email). This is done by selecting the print option for either document. Make sure you review this document thoroughly before making it available to families—ALL comments are included in the child’s profile.

Tools

Notification Feed

Users can view a list of notifications generated from EarlyWorks.

For Administrators and Educators this function is available from the Admin > Quick Notification menu option. Families will be able to access this feed from the main menu.

Booked Attendance List

You can print a list of children showing their booked attendance days for the week, without having to access your service’s child care management system. Note: This list reflects the days checked on the child’s profile, NOT actual attendance; it does not account for expected half-day or ad hoc attendances. Grey cells mean the child does not attend on that day.

Click Admin > Attendance List to display the Attendance List screen.

Select the room you wish to view from the Room dropdown list.
Select a paper size and orientation (A4 or A3, landscape) from the Report Format dropdown list.
Click Produce Report to generate an Attendance List in Microsoft Word format.
Save the generated Microsoft Word document to your computer or device—you can then open and print it from Microsoft Word.

Rooms

You can view the learning outcomes for a room, or add information that’s common to a room—such as group photos, supervision plans, documents related to the room, etc. Only administrators can add a room.

In EarlyWorks, a ‘room’ can be a physical room, or it can be a group you’ve created to which you can apply the same programs etc.

View Overall Room Information

Click Maintain > Rooms to display the Room List screen. This screen lists each room and the number of active children allocated to it (or allocated to the educator, in the case of FDC).
From this screen, you can:
- Click Export to download the list of rooms to a CSV file that can be opened with Microsoft Excel. (Typically, only Administrators would use this function.)
- Click View Outcomes to display the learning outcomes for the room, for the quarter.
- Click the View Outcomes dropdown list, then click Print Outcomes. Select the year-end month from the dropdown list, select a paper size and orientation (A4 or A3, landscape), then click Produce Report to generate the Rooms Outcomes list in Microsoft Word format. Save the generated Microsoft Word document to your computer or device—you can then open and print it from Microsoft Word.
- Click the View Outcomes dropdown list, then click Analysis Chart. This chart shows the room’s planned and actual observed learning outcomes, which helps you monitor your planning in relation to the learning outcomes for the room. Outcome numbers are listed on the y-axis; number of children each outcome applies to are listed on the x-axis; planned outcomes are shown in orange; and actual outcomes are shown in blue.

To change a room’s name or status, click the row for that room to display the Edit Room screen. Make the changes, then click Update Record to save your changes and return to the Room List screen.

Add and Manage Related Documents for a Room

You can add group photos, documents, etc. to a room. Each document can have one or more children associated (‘tagged’) with it—or none. Documents may include notices to families, special event images, before and after photos of environment changes, etc.

CAUTION: If you link (tag) a child to an image, you make that image available to that child’s family via their image gallery. Permission may be required from the parents/guardians of other children in these images.

Click Maintain > Rooms to display the Room List screen.
Click the row for the room you want to add documents to; this displays the Edit Room screen.
Click the Related Documents tab. Existing documents associated with the room, and the children these documents relate to, are shown at the top of the screen.
Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click Add files (at the bottom of the Select Files section).
Either select one or more files from your computer, device, or camera, or drag and drop one or more files from your device onto the Select files ‘window’.
Click Start Upload.
Once the files are uploaded, the Related Documents tab shows a thumbnail of each, under which is a textbox for the caption (the default caption for image files is today’s date, if your administrator has set this [see Use Upload Date as the Default Image Name]; for other documents, it is the document’s file name—you can change the caption of each file), and a list of children in the selected room you can associate with this file (e.g. the names of the children featured in a photo).
Select the checkboxes of each child related to each file, or select Attending to tag children attending on the day, select All to tag all children in the room, or None to uncheck all checkboxes. See Show Only Children by Attendance when Selecting Children for Images in the Administrator’s Guide for more information and instructions.
On this screen, you can also:
- Change the order of the files by clicking the Move Down and Move Up links above each file’s thumbnail image.
- Click the red cross to delete a file. You must confirm this deletion.
Click Update Record to save your changes and return to the Room List screen.

Child Information

Click Children to display the Child List screen, which lists all children who attend your service.

Use the Room and Status dropdown lists to filter the records. You can sort the information by clicking on the column headings. You can also use the Find function to search for a child’s name, or scroll down the list to locate the child.
Click Learning Journey in a child’s row to download the child’s learning journey as a Microsoft Word document. (See Learning Journey Comments for more detail.)
Click Child Summary in a child’s row to view their individual portfolio—observations, journal entries, daily communications, educator and family comments, and the child’s image gallery. Families see the same view, but can only view the observations, journals, and comments that educators have made visible to them.
Click View Profile in a child’s row to display the Individual Child Profile, which is based on the information held in EarlyWorks. (See Child Profiles – Planned and Observed Outcomes for more detail.)

Hints & Tips

Icons on the Child List screen provide information about photo permission

$C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\icon_cam_green.png$	Permission has been granted to upload and share images with other families.
	Permission has been granted to upload images, but no permission has been granted to share these images.
	No permission is granted to upload images. All images of this child MUST be deleted from EarlyWorks.

Add a Child

Click Children to display the Child List screen.
Click Add New Child to display the Add New Child screen.

Enter the child’s details (Note: All fields, except Secure Notes, are visible to families on their child’s summary page):
- You must enter information into the mandatory fields.
- Use Attendance Notes for information about unusual attendances (e.g. casual booking, fortnightly attendance).
- The default Status is ‘Active’. Select ‘Inactive’ if the child hasn’t started with the service yet, or is away for a period of time.
- Use Child Notes for information about a child’s likes, interests, current goals, etc. This information is usually taken from the enrolment form and updated every 6 to 12 months; we recommend that you add a date to new entries.
- Secure Notes are for educators and administrators only. They contain information that supports educator practice (e.g. specific behavioural guidance, unusual sleep and rest requirements [dummy, blanket, patting]). Note: Secure Notes are NOT visible to the family.
- Medical notes can be included for a child. These notes will also be available on the printed Attendance List (available from the Admin menu), the Child Summary screen and the Child Profile.
- Add the name and email address of the child’s primary family contact. EarlyWorks will email them their login details as soon as the child’s record is saved.
- Click Change to upload a photograph of the child, if you have one. Photos must be in JPG or JPEG format, and less than 5 Mb in size. The photo does not display until you save the record.
Click Add Record to display other tabs for information related to the child—Family Logins (this list shows all family logins for the room—select the checkboxes of the family members related to this child), Related Documents, and Comments. (See Logins [in the Administrator’s Guide], Documents, and Child Comments for more detail.)
When you have finished adding information about the child on these tabs, click Update Record to save the information and return to the Child List screen.

Edit a Child

Click Children to display the Child List screen.
Click in the row for the child’s name to display the Edit Child screen, where you can change the child’s details, add related documents (photos, forms, birth certificate, etc.), or link family logins to the child.
Click Update Record to save the changes and return to the Child List screen.

Add Documents and Images to a Child

These documents could include photos, scanned copies of the child’s work, or other documents related to the child. Families do not see these files.

Click Children to display the Child List screen.

Click in the row for the child’s name to display the Edit Child screen
Click the Related Documents tab.
Click Add files (at the bottom of the Select files section).
Either select one or more files from your computer, device, or camera, or drag and drop one or more files from your device onto the Select file ‘window’.
Click Start upload.
Once the files are uploaded, you can:
- Change the caption for each (below the thumbnail of each file)—the default caption for image files is today’s date, if your administrator has set this [see Use Upload Date as the Default Image Name]; for other documents, it is the document’s file name.
- Change the order of the files by clicking the Move Down and Move Up links above each file.
- Click the red cross to delete a file. You must confirm this deletion.
Click Update Record to save the changes and return to the Child List screen.

Delete a Child

Click Children to display the Child List screen.
If you have added a child in error, click the trash can icon in the child’s row to remove the record. You are asked to confirm this deletion.

Hints & Tips

You cannot delete a child with associated experiences or observations recorded for them. Instead, change their status to ‘inactive’.
If you try to delete a child who you’ve added in error and who has no associated experiences or observations, but you cannot do so, check the child’s record for a room. Remove the child from the room by selecting Select one from the Room dropdown list. You should then be able to delete the child.

Child Comments

Any educator or administrator can add comments to any child. Family members can only add comments for their child/children.

Click Children to display the Child List screen.
Click in the row for the child’s name to display the Edit Child screen.
Click the Comments tab to view comments about the child. On this tab:
- Coloured circles on the left are comments from staff (educators and administrators).
- Coloured circles on the right are comments from family.
- Each person’s initials are shown in their circle.
- Each person has a different coloured circle for their comments (colours are applied randomly, but are always the same for the same person within the one comment thread; e.g. in the example below, SW’s comments [a staff member] for this child in this comment thread are always in purple, while JL’s comments [a family login] are always in a reddish brown).

Click Add New Comment and enter the new comment. By default, comments added to a child’s record are not visible to families. You can make a specific comment visible to families by unchecking the Educator only comment (Not visible to family) checkbox. Click Save Comment to return to the Edit Child screen.
You can attach photos and/or documents to a comment—see Attach Images to a Comment for more detail.
You can ‘extend’ a comment—this will convert it to a Quick Observation. See Use Learning Journey Comments to Inform the Program for more detail.
Click Update Record to save your changes and return to the Child List screen.

Reply to Comments in a Child Summary

Families and educators can reply directly to an individual comment. You can view child comments from the dashboard (where the five most recent comments are displayed), the Child Summary screen (from step 4 below), or using the Child menu option (steps below).

Click Children to display the Child List screen.
Click in the row for the child’s name to display the Edit Child screen.
Click the Comments tab to view comments about the child. By default, all comments are shown, but you can filter the comments at the top of the screen to show just those by Educator, Family, or that come from the child’s learning journey.
Click Reply in the comment you are responding to.

In the pop-up window, write your reply above the dashed line at the top of the window.

If this reply is for the child’s family, uncheck the Educator only comment checkbox.
Click Save Comment. Your reply is appended to the comment and you are returned to the screen you accessed the comment from.

Attach Images to a Comment

Files—such as documents, forms, and photos—can be attached to a comment. Photos allow you to share a child’s special moments with their family. If you choose to ‘extend’ a comment that has attached files, these files will automatically be included in the observation.

Click Attachments in the comment you want to attach one or more files to.

On the Comment Attachments screen, click Add files (at the bottom of the Select Files section).
Either select one or more files from your computer, device, or camera, or drag and drop one or more files from your device onto the Select files ‘window’.
Click Start Upload.
Once the files are uploaded, you can change the caption for each (below thumbnail of each file)—the default caption for image files is today’s date, if your administrator has set this [see Use Upload Date as the Default Image Name]; for other documents, it is the document’s file name.
Click Save & Return to return to the screen you came from (either the Comments tab on the Edit Child screen or the Child Summary screen).

Observation/Journal view as family option

Administrators and Educators can view an individual child’s journal and observation records in the same way that a family member will see it.

From the child summary dashboard screen, select family view from the drop-down list of the record you wish to view.

From the observation/journal list screen, select family view from the green drop-down list of the record you wish to view.

Upload Documents

Administrators and educators can upload important documents such as parent handbooks, policies, notices (such as newsletters or event flyers), and forms (such as medication and permission slips), etc.

You can upload documents for ALL families, for individual children or rooms, or those related to observations. The maximum document size is 5 Mb. See File Types and Sizes for information on which file types EarlyWorks accepts.

To upload one or more documents for ALL families:

Click Maintain > Documents to display the Documents screen.

Click Add files (at the bottom of the Select files section).
Either select one or more files from your computer, device, or camera, or drag and drop one or more files from your device onto the Select files ‘window’.
Click Start upload.
Once the files are uploaded and the file name is listed, go to the top section of the screen.
Add a title for the document.
Select the Document Type from the dropdown list.
Click Save. Families will be notified of the new document.
Click the breadcrumb trail or a menu option to move away from this screen.

Add QIP Strengths and Improvements

Your service’s written Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) is developed from administrator and educator QIP notes in EarlyWorks. Evidence to support your service’s QIP can be generated automatically through reflections of pedagogy, observations, program planning, and comments.

The QIP is a ‘living’ document so you don’t need to add all the information at once—you can add to and edit this information at any time by returning to the QIP Strengths or QIP Improvements screens.

Adding a QIP Strength

Click Maintain > QIP Strengths to display the QIP Strengths screen. To edit an existing strength, click in its row.

Click Add New QIP Strength.
Select the Primary Quality Area from the dropdown list.
Add information about your service’s Strengths. If you add any Ongoing Notes, preface each with the date added—this provides evidence that you are continuing to revisit and reflect on the service’s plans for quality improvement.
Click the Elements tab.
Select the checkboxes of all National Quality Standards and Elements related to the QIP strength.
Click Add Record to save your information and return to the QIP Strengths screen.

Adding a QIP Improvement

Click Maintain > QIP Improvements to display the QIP Improvements screen. To edit an existing improvement, click in its row.

Click Add New QIP Improvement.
Select the Primary Quality Area from the dropdown list.
Add information about your service’s Improvements Sought, etc. If you add any Ongoing Notes, preface each with the date added—this provides evidence that you are continuing to revisit and reflect on the service’s plans for quality improvement.
Click the Elements tab.
Select the checkboxes of all National Quality Standards and Elements related to the QIP improvement.
Click Add Record to save your information and return to the QIP Improvements screen.

Hints & Tips

Depending on the service’s polices, family input can be included in the QIP. Families cannot add this themselves—instead, you need to manually enter their feedback into the QIP notes.
Hint: Add the family member’s name and date to the note.

Update Personal Settings

On the Update Settings screen (Maintain> Settings), you can set the number of days before a minor or major child alert displays (see Set the Frequency of Child Alerts).

Administrator’s User Guide

Setup Checklist

When you first log in to your EarlyWorks account you are asked to enter aspects of your service information using the Setup Checklist.

Add Rooms (or Groups for FDC)

Click Create rooms on the Setup Checklist to display the Room List screen.

Click Add New Room to display the Add New Room screen.
Enter the room/group name.
Select a status from the dropdown list. The default is Active.
Click Add Record.
Repeat these steps for each room.
Click the Dashboard breadcrumb to return to the Setup Checklist.

Hints & Tips

In EarlyWorks, a ‘room’ can be a physical room, or it can be a group you’ve created to which you can apply the same programs etc.
For long day care services, the number of rooms and their names depends on how the service is set up (e.g. Baby’s Room, Toddler Room, Kindy Room = 3 rooms).
For Outside School Hours Care (OSHC), FDC services, or any single group service, the room name will usually be the name of the service (e.g. Little Bee’s Family Day Care, The Hang Out – OSHC = 1 room).
Use Maintain > Rooms to get to this screen later.
See Rooms in the Educator’s Guide for more detail.
You can also make a room’s status ‘Inactive’; all observations etc. associated with that room (except children) also become inactive. The room’s children remain active—either remove children from that room and place them in another room, OR make individual children inactive.

Add Individual Staff

Note: Use these steps to add staff one at a time. Follow the steps for Import Staff to add bulk staff records.

Click Add your staff on the Setup Checklist to display the Login List screen.

Click Add New Login.

Enter the person’s name and email address.
Select the person’s role (Administrator, Team Leader, or Educator Assistant) from the Login Type dropdown list.
If you choose the Login Type of Team Leader or Educator Assistant, the Room Assignments box displays on screen. Select the checkbox(es) of the room(s) where this person usually works. You can add and remove access to other rooms as required.
The default setting is to email notifications of new child comments to relevant educators and administrators, and display these notifications on the educator’s/administrator’s dashboard (you cannot turn this off). If you want to turn off email notifications for this person, select the Do not email notifications regarding new child comments checkbox.
Select a status; Active is the default. Use ‘Inactive’ for staff on leave or who haven’t started their employment with the service yet.
Administrators can restrict individual educator’s ability to make observations and journals visible to families. This allows services to more easily monitor the content made available to families, and to ensure observations and journals are edited before being released.
Click Add Record to save the details and return to the Login List screen.

Hints & Tips

Use Maintain > Logins to:

add new staff later
edit the details of an existing staff member.

Import Staff

Note: Use these steps for adding multiple staff records from a data file. Follow the steps for Add Individual Staff to add staff records one at a time.

Click Import staff on the Setup Checklist to display the Import Data From File screen.

In the Import Login Records section, click [Download Login Import File Template] to download the LoginTemplate.csv file (a spreadsheet template) to your computer or device. You use this template to enter login information in a format compatible with EarlyWorks.
Open LoginTemplate.csv with Microsoft Excel. All headings are listed and two examples are shown. Do NOT change the column headings.
Either manually enter the login information into this spreadsheet, or import data into it from your child care management system. All login information must match the columns in the template downloaded in the previous step.

Login Type: For staff, this must be either Administrator, Team Leader, or Educator Assistant. For family logins, use Family. Make sure you ONLY use these types, and make sure they are spelled correctly.
Status: Enter A for an active login, or I for an inactive login. ‘Inactive’ could be used for those on leave or who haven’t started with the service yet.
Send Password on Insert: Enter Y to automatically email login and password information to the person, or N if you do not wish to send this information at this stage.

If the two sample rows are still listed in the spreadsheet, delete them. If you forget to do so, you can delete them later from the Login List screen.
Save the file.
In the Import Login Records section, click Select File… and choose your saved file.
Click Import File. When the import is finished, EarlyWorks will show the number of successful records imported or if any errors occurred. Errors can relate to incorrect formatting of email addresses (e.g. leaving out the ‘@’), or incorrect Login Type, Status, or Password words or codes (usually a result of mistyping).
Click the Dashboard breadcrumb to return to the Setup Checklist.

Hints & Tips

Use Maintain > File Data Import to import multiple staff at a later date.

Add Children

Note: Use these steps to add children one at a time. Follow the steps for Import Children to add multiple child records.

Click Add your children on the Setup Checklist to display the Child List screen.

Follow the Add a Child steps in the Educator’s Guide.

Import Children

Note: Use these steps for adding multiple child records from a data file. Follow the steps for Add a Child (in the Educator’s Guide) to add child records one at a time.

Click Import children on the Setup Checklist to display the Import Data From File screen.
In the Import Child Records section, click [Download Child Detail Import File Template] to download the ChildTemplate.csv file (a spreadsheet template) to your computer or device. You use this template to enter child information in a format compatible with EarlyWorks.
Open ChildTemplate.csv with Microsoft Excel. All headings are listed and two examples are shown. Do NOT change the column headings.
Either manually enter the login information into this spreadsheet, or import data into it from your child care management system. All login information must match the columns in the template downloaded in the previous step.
- Date of Birth: Must be in the format DD MMM YY (e.g. 14 Dec 2015; 08 May 2017).
- Room Name: Must exactly match the name of a room in your service. Make sure it is spelled correctly.
- Days of the Week: Enter the three-letter word for each day the child will attend, separated by commas, but NO spaces (e.g. Mon,Wed,Thu).
- Publish Consent Indicator: Enter Y if the family consents to sharing their child’s images with other families; N if they do not consent.
- Status: Enter A for an active child record, or I for an inactive one.
- Send Family Password on Insert: Enter Y to automatically email login and password information to the family contact email address, or N if you do not wish to send this information at this stage. See Send a New Password and Issue Bulk Passwords for information and instructions on sending a password later.
If the two sample rows are still listed in the spreadsheet, delete them. If you forget to do so, you can delete them later from the Child List screen—you may need to unlink these child records from their rooms (on the Edit Child screen) before you can delete them.
Save the file.
In the Import Child Records section, click Select File… and choose your saved file.
Click Import File. When the import is finished, EarlyWorks will show the number of successful records imported or if any errors occurred. Errors can relate to incorrect formatting of email addresses (e.g. leaving out the ‘@’) or birthdates, or other incorrect details (usually a result of mistyping; follow the formatting guidelines above).
Click the Dashboard breadcrumb to return to the Setup Checklist.

Hints & Tips

Use Maintain > File Data Import to import multiple children at a later date.

Add Scheduled Tasks

Click Schedule tasks on the Setup Checklist to display the Task Schedule List screen.
Follow the instructions under Add Scheduled Tasks in the Educator’s Guide section.

Hints & Tips

Use Maintain > Task Schedules to add or edit scheduled tasks at a later date.

Add QIP Notes

Click Enter information about your QIP on the Setup Checklist to display the QIP Notes screen.
Follow the instructions under Add QIP Notes in the Educator’s Guide section.
Select the Include these notes in the QIP checkbox, if required.

Hints & Tips

Use Maintain > QIP Notes to add or edit QIP notes at a later date.

Create a Program

Click Create your first Program on the Setup Checklist to display the My Programs screen.
Follow the instructions under Add a Program in the Educator’s Guide section.
For information on all aspects of a program, see Programs and The Program Planning Cycle in the Educator’s Guide.

Hints & Tips

Use Programs to add, edit, or delete programs at a later date.

Custom Settings

Click Maintain > Settings to display the Update Settings screen. Personal Settings relate specifically to you, whereas Service Settings relate to your service as a whole.

Add, change, or delete the relevant settings on the General Information tab. For further information on each setting, see:
Add, change, or delete details about the service on the QIP tab. These details will display on the QIP and may be used by regulatory authorities to contact you, so make sure all details are up-to-date.
Click Update Settings to save your changes.

Set the Home Page for Families

Administrators can select which screen they would like families to have as their home page.

EarlyWorks uses colour-coded Set the Frequency of Child Alerts

EarlyWorks uses colour-coded child alerts (minor and major) to notify educators and administrators (through their respective dashboards) when a child is overdue to be:

Observed in relation to their individual learning journey
Included in an observation
Planned for within the program
Included in the daily/weekly photo journal.

These alerts help services meet their requirements for documentation, as outlined in QA 1 of the NQS, in regulations 73 to 76 of the Education and Care Services National Regulations, and in section 168 of the Education and Care Services National Law.

To set the alert frequency:

In the relevant textbox, change the number of days after which the minor and/or major child alert warning is displayed.

Allow All Families to View Photo Journal Images

By default, EarlyWorks does not allow images of children to be shared outside the child’s family without written consent.

If your service has obtained written permission for every child for all images in the journal to be shared, this security can be removed from the journal ONLY:

Select the Allow any image to be shared on journals regardless of family consent checkbox.

Hints & Tips

CAUTION:

ALL parents/guardians for ALL children in the room must give their consent. If only one parent/guardian refuses, then NO images can be shared.

Collecting, verifying, and collating these permissions is not a function of EarlyWorks—services must ensure they have followed all privacy laws and obtained all necessary written permissions before they consider selecting this checkbox.

If you are in any doubt, DO NOT select it.

Show Only Children by Attendance when Selecting Children for Related Documents and Images

When you add documents (including images) and need to select the children who were part of an observation- or journal-related document, EarlyWorks lists the names of those marked for attendance that day in bold at the top of the selection list to simplify the selection process. You can still select children who were not marked for attendance that day—they are listed after those in bold—unless you change this setting.

To hide the names children not marked for attendance:

Select the Hide names of children not marked for attendance… checkbox.

Use Upload Date as the Default Image Name

When you upload an image or any other document, the default title in EarlyWorks is the existing file name (for images, this might be a meaningless system-generated code). You can change an image’s file name when you upload it by manually editing the caption in the textbox, or you can change the default caption name for all images to the date uploaded. Note: This setting only applies to image files, not other documents. (See also: File Types and Sizes.)

Without date as default caption

With date as default caption

To change the default caption name of an image to the date uploaded:

Select the Use today’s date as uploaded image name checkbox.

Show Reflection of Learning, Next Experience, and Children’s Voices in Journal Output

By default, Reflections of Learning, Next Experience, and Children’s Voices are NOT printed in the Journal.

To include these in the Journal output:

Select the Show Reflection of Learning, Next Experience and Children’s Voices in Journal Output checkbox.

Change the Name of the Learning Framework Options

EarlyWorks comes preloaded with the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) (the default for all programs) and the My Time, Our Place – Framework for School Age Care. Other learning frameworks can be added to EarlyWorks upon request (admin@earlyworks.net.au).

Alternatively, services can add their own framework:

Change the name of an Alternative Framework to the new framework’s name.
- Change the Default Framework for the Service

Change the Default Framework for the Service

You can select which learning framework appears at the top of the selection list when choosing a Framework for a Programme, Experience, Observation or Journal.

For example, if you provide Outside of School Hours care you may want the “My Time, Our Place” learning framework to appear as the default framework for Programmes, Experiences, Observations and Journal. Likewise, if your service is a Kindergarten, you may want your state’s Kindy Curriculum framework to appear as default.

Change the Label for Program and/or Experience

EYLF uses the term ‘curriculum’ to cover ‘all the interactions, experiences, activities, routines and events, planned and unplanned, that occur in an environment designed to foster children’s learning and development’ (p. 9). The My Time, Our Place – Framework for School Age Care uses the same definition to describe ‘program’ (p. 6)

Similarly, some frameworks use ‘Experience’ while others use ‘Curriculum Plan’ to mean the same thing.

EarlyWorks uses the word ‘Program’ and ‘Experience’ by default; however, you can change these words to suit your service’s requirements. To change the words on the relevant labels in EarlyWorks:

Change the text for the Label for Program/Curriculum and/or the Label for Experience/Curriculum Plan.

Administrator Dashboard

The administrator dashboard summarises the service’s programming documentation and reflections requiring feedback for the current calendar month.

Elements displayed on the dashboard:

‘Welcome to version’ at the top of the dashboard has a link to software program features recently added to EarlyWorks.
Immediately below the version bar are these summary totals:
- The number of observations conducted by the service this calendar month, and how long since the last observation was recorded.
- The number of experiences added by the service this calendar month, and how long since the last experience was recorded.
- The number of journal entries conducted by the service this calendar month, and how long since the last journal entry was recorded.
- The number of reflections of pedagogy awaiting manager feedback this month. Click the link in this box to display the Reflections of Pedagogy screen where you can view reflections; you can provide feedback by clicking in a row, then entering your feedback in the Manager’s Feedback textbox.
Below the summary totals are these graphs:
- A bar/line graph showing the trends of observations, experiences, and journal entries throughout the service each month for the previous 12 months.
- Pie charts showing each educator’s proportionate contribution to the service’s overall observations, experiences, and journals for this calendar month. Click on a pie chart to show the Staff Alerts screen (see Staff Alerts for more detail).
At the bottom of the dashboard are the start and end dates for the Current Invoice Period and the maximum number of active child records for that invoice period. EarlyWorks will charge your service for this number of children for the current invoice period.

Admin Menu

Staff Alerts

You can view a summary of all educator’s contributions (observations, experiences, and journal entries) to the service’s documentation made within a date range, as well as details of individual educator contributions. This information can help you identify an individual educators’ training and development requirements, as well as contribute to performance appraisals for each educator.

Click Admin > Staff Alerts to display the Staff Alerts screen, which summarises the contributions for the current month.

Select the From and To dates for the time period that you wish to view.
Click Display to display the information for that time period.
To export this data as a CSV file that can be opened with Microsoft Excel, click Export.

View Individual Educators’ Observations, Experiences, and Journal Entries

Click Admin > Staff Alerts to display the Staff Alerts screen.
Click the educator’s name to view their contributions to the service’s observations, experiences, and journal entries.

Filter by record type using the dropdown box at the top of the screen (All Activity is the default view). You can sort the list by date/time or type of activity by clicking on the corresponding column heading.
To view or edit an individual entry, click in that row to display the edit screen for that observation, experience, or journal entry.
If you make changes, click Update Record to save the changes and return to the relevant screen for the program activity; if you haven’t made changes, click Cancel to return to the relevant screen for the program activity.

Child Alerts

See Child Alerts in the Educator’s Guide section for more information and instructions.

Attendance List

See Booked Attendance List in the Educator’s Guide section for more information and instructions.

Daily Communications

See Daily Communications in the Educator’s Guide section for more information and instructions.

Experiences Awaiting Evaluation

Click Admin > Experiences Awaiting Evaluation to display the Experiences Awaiting Evaluation screen.

On this screen:
- The list of all experiences awaiting evaluation is sorted by the most recent entry.
- To view by room, select the room from the dropdown list at the top of the screen.
- Click View Experience to display the Edit Experience screen, where you can add comments in the Evaluation textbox. Click Update Record to save these comments and return to the Experiences screen.
- If the experience does NOT require an evaluation, click Dismiss to add ‘Not Required’ to the Evaluation textbox on the relevant Edit Experience screen. Note: This is a permanent change—you are not asked to confirm this, and the item is immediately removed from the Experiences Awaiting Evaluation screen. If you later need to add an evaluation to one that has been dismissed, go to the Edit Experience screen for the experience and change the text in the Evaluation textbox.

Child Comments

Administrators can view all recent comments added to any child’s record (Admin > View Child Comments). Comments act as a news feed so that you are informed of all notes relating to the children in your service.

See View Child Comments in the Educator’s Guide section for more information and instructions.

Tasks

Tasks and reminders help ensure that all compliance tasks (regular or one-off) are completed on time.

Using Admin > View Tasks, you can view:

Your own tasks as well as those for other administrators, educators, and families at any time (select the name of the person from the dropdown list at the top of the Tasks screen).
Overdue, due, and completed tasks from the Tasks screen.

See Tasks in the Educator’s Guide section for more information and instructions.

Reflections of Pedagogy

Reflections of Pedagogy can be linked to the service’s QIP to help support any of the Quality Areas relevant to the content of the reflection. By providing feedback on these reflections, administrators can show they are contributing to the overall development of the service’s curriculum (NQS – QA 1), working collaboratively to affirm, challenge, support, and learn from and with their educators (NQS – QA 4, Standard 4.2), and promoting an embedded culture of ongoing continuous improvement (NQS – QA 7).

Administrators can view all reflections of pedagogy (Admin > Reflections of Pedagogy). See Reflections of Pedagogy in the Educator’s Guide section for more information and instructions.

On the Edit Reflection of Pedagogy screen, enter your feedback into the Manager’s Feedback textbox. You can also Include this reflection in the QIP Evidence List by selecting that checkbox. If you select this option, then the detail will be added to the QIP Evidence List as follows:

Generate QIP

See Generate the Quality Improvement Plan.

View QIP Evidence

See QIP Evidence List.

Quick Notifications

Administrators can now send a mass notification to all families, educators and administrators (helpful to notify everyone of unexpected events such as infectious disease or changed operating hours). Users will receive a push notification and an email for these messages.

This function is available from the Admin > Notification menu option.

Maintain Menu

Logins

Educator and family logins are added the same way (see Add Individual Staff and Import Staff for adding educator logins). There is no limit to the number of family members who can log in to EarlyWorks, so grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other close family can be added at the request of a parent or guardian. External support agencies that collaborate on a child’s learning and development can also be added.

Add a Family Login

Click Maintain > Logins to display the Login List screen.

Click Add New Login.

Enter the family member’s name and email address in the relevant fields.
Select the Login Type as Family. This displays the Children box.
Select the checkboxes of the child or children related to this person. Names are listed alphabetically by first name. Use the Find box to search for a name.
Families can view comments, observations, and/or journals by logging into EarlyWorks and via email notifications:
- If the family member does not want email notifications about comments, select the Do not receive notifications regarding new child comments checkbox on this screen.
- For new observations or journal notifications, use the Send Notification to Families checkbox on the relevant Observation or Journal screen when you complete that record.
Select a status; Active is the default. ‘Inactive’ could be used for families whose children haven’t started with the service yet, or who are away for a period of time.
Click Add Record to save the information and return to the Login List screen.

Add Multiple Family Logins

You can add multiple family logins using the import function (Maintain > File Data Import). See Import Staff for steps.

Send a New Password

If a family member forgets their password, you can get EarlyWorks to generate a new one for them. When they next log in, they use the new password, and then must immediately change it to a password of their own choosing. The password they choose cannot be the same as an earlier password they used in EarlyWorks. (See About Passwords for acceptable password formats.)

EarlyWorks does not keep any record of current passwords. Lost or forgotten passwords must be replaced using the method below or Issue Bulk Passwords.

Click Maintain > Logins to display the Login List screen.
Click in the person’s row to display their Edit Login screen.

Click Send New Password.
Click Cancel to return to the Login List screen.

Issue Bulk Passwords

Click Maintain > Logins to display the Login List screen.
Select one or more checkboxes on the left of list of logins to email passwords to multiple logins at the same time. (You can click All or None to check or uncheck all checkboxes.)
Click Email Selected Login Details to send passwords to the selected people.

Deactivate Login Access

Click Maintain > Logins to display the Login List screen.
Click in the person’s row to display their Edit Login screen.

Change the person’s status from Active to Inactive.
Click Update Record to save the change and return to the Login List screen. The person’s name will only show on this list if you filter by Inactive Records.

Set New Password for Login

You can set the passwords for any of your staff or families. From the Edit Login screen, click on the new “Change Password” tab to display the following.

Enter a New Password (and confirm) and click on the Change Password button to update the educator’s or family’s password. The educator or family can now use this new password to access EarlyWorks. Note that they will be prompted to change this password when next accessing EarlyWorks.

How to provide continuing access to families of children leaving your service.

You may be wondering how best to handle the situation where children are leaving your service but families still wish to have access to their child’s information on EarlyWorks.

There are three options available to you:

Option 1: This option will allow families to keep an active login so that they can view their inactive child’s information. This would be used if the child is leaving the service, and you would like to allow the family continued access to the child’s information.

Ensure the family member’s Login Record is still active (using the Login Edit screen).

Make the Child Record inactive (using the Child Edit screen).
Ensure the family member’s Login Record is still linked to the Child Record made inactive in step 2 (using the Family Logins tab on the Edit Child screen).

Option 2: This option only allows families to view information about their children with active records. This would be used if the family has at least one child with an inactive record and one child with an active record, and you only want them to view the active child’s information.

Ensure the family member’s Login Record is still active (using the Login Edit screen).

Make the Child Record inactive (using the Child Edit screen).
Remove the link between the family member’s Login Record and the Child Record being made inactive (using the Family Logins tab on the Edit Child screen).

Option 3: This option will prevent families from having access to EarlyWorks. This would be used if the family no longer has any active children at the service, and you do not wish them to have access to their inactive children’s records.

Make the family member’s Login Record inactive (using the Login Edit screen).

Make all of the family member’s Child records inactive (optional - using the Child Edit screen).
Remove all links between the family member’s Login Record and any existing Child Record (optional - using the Family Logins tab on the Edit Child screen).

Outcomes

EarlyWorks comes preloaded with learning outcomes for EYLF and My Time, Our Place – Framework for School Age Care. On request (admin@earlyworks.net.au), EarlyWorks can include other learning frameworks (e.g. Kindergarten Curriculum Guidelines, Montessori Curriculum, Te Whāriki). Services can also personalise the outcomes available to include additional items such as their service philosophy, theorists, and any other areas that are referenced through their program.

Add an Outcome Group

Click Maintain > Outcomes to display the Outcome Group List screen. (To edit an existing outcome group, click in its row.)

Click Add New Outcome Group.

Enter the name of the new outcome group into the Description textbox using this format: ‘Outcome Group (number): (New outcome group title)’. Make sure you follow this format to ensure outcome groups display correctly.
Select (or enter) the sequence number that reflects the position of the new outcome group relative to existing outcome groups, as shown on the Outcome Group List screen.
Select the framework to associate the new outcome group with.
Click Add Record to save your settings and return to the Outcome Group List screen.

Hints & Tips

Sequence numbers:

We suggest you add sequence numbers such as 10, 20, 30, etc. instead of 1, 2, 3, etc. Why? If you later need to slot a new outcome group in between others, you’ll have a range of available numbers to choose from to maintain the sequence. Otherwise, you may have to renumber all the later outcome groups to reflect their new position in the sequence. For example, if you used 1, 2 ,3 ,4, and 5, then needed to add an outcome group between 1 and 2, you’d have to renumber 2, 3, 4, and 5, incrementing them by 1. But if you used 10, 20, 30, etc. then to add an outcome group between 10 and 20, would mean adding a number such as 13—it would slot into the sequence and you wouldn’t have to renumber all the other outcome groups.

Add Outcomes to an Outcome Group

Click Maintain > Outcomes to display the Outcome Group List screen.
Click Maintain Outcomes next to the group’s name to display the Outcome List screen. (To edit an existing outcome, click in its row.)

To add a new outcome, click Add New Outcome to display the Add New Outcome screen.

$D:\Rhonda\EarlyWorks\admin_outcome.png$

Enter the name of the new outcome into the Description textbox. We recommend you use a number (e.g. 1.5) as the first word of an outcome—this will become its ‘reference code’, and will ensure it displays correctly on the Outcome List and Outcome Groups screens.
Select (or enter) the sequence number that reflects the position of the new outcome relative to existing outcomes, as displayed on the Outcome List and Outcome Groups screens.
Click Add Record to save the information and return to the Outcome List screen.

Hints & Tips

Sequence numbers:

See the Hints & Tips for Add an Outcome Group.

Task Schedules

Administrators and Room Leaders can set reminders for educators’ regular compliance requirements such as Working with Children checks, First Aid Certificate renewals, evacuation drills, and more. Tasks can also be allocated to a family member for items such as providing copies of birth certificates and current immunisation records. Tasks require a due date and are listed separately to comments to families—they display in the family member’s task list as an item that is due.

Click Maintain > Task Schedules to display the Task Schedules screen, which lists all current tasks, whether allocated or not. Tasks are listed in due date order.
Follow the steps under Add Scheduled Tasks in the Educator’s Guide.

Documents

See Upload Documents in the Educator’s Guide section for more information and instructions.

Rooms

Administrators can access information on all rooms within a service. This information includes:

The number of active children in a room (useful for FDC services to assess the number of children per educator).
Learning outcomes the room has/hasn’t observed.
Images and/or documents uploaded to the room.

See Rooms in the Educator’s Guide for more information and instructions. See Add Rooms (or Groups for FDC) for information and instructions on how to add a room to the service.

Quality Improvement Planning

EarlyWorks simplifies the creation of the service’s Quality Improvement Plan (QIP), and helps you ensure this important document is always up-to-date. Educators can contribute their own QIP notes, which can be included in the final QIP at the discretion of the administrator.

Hints & Tips

Depending on the service’s policies, family input can be included in the QIP. Families cannot add this themselves—instead, you need to manually enter their feedback into the QIP notes.
Hint: Add the family member’s name and date to the note.
Depending on the service’s policies, the service can print a copy of the QIP for families; families cannot do this themselves.

Create a Quality Improvement Plan

Click Maintain > QIP Strengths to display the QIP Strengths screen or Maintain > QIP Improvements to display the QIP Improvements screen.
Follow the instructions under Add QIP Strengths and Improvements in the Educator’s Guide section.

All strengths and improvements added by administrators are automatically included in the QIP Microsoft Word document. Educator’s QIP information is NOT automatically included in this QIP and require administrator approval (select the Include these notes in the QIP checkbox at the bottom of QIP screen).
Once a QIP strength or improvement is no longer relevant, administrators can uncheck the Include these notes in the QIP checkbox. This makes the note viewable on screen but does not include the plan in the Microsoft Word version of the QIP.

Generate the Quality Improvement Plan

Throughout EarlyWorks there are various ways to contribute to the service’s QIP. The combination of these contributions produces a QIP for downloading, printing, and submitting to your regulatory body. The produced QIP is based on the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) template, and is in Microsoft Word format.

Click Admin > Generate QIP to generate and download your service’s Quality Improvement Plan.

The format of the file name is ‘QIP_YYYYMMDD_<timestamp>.docx’.

QIP Evidence List

As part of their day-to-day processes, educators and administrators will add links to the NQSs using the QIP Evidence tab in the Observations, Experience, Journal entries, and Reflections of Pedagogy screens. This helps service providers gather evidence as part of the rating and assessment process.

To view the evidence:

Click Admin > View QIP Evidence to display the QIP Evidence List screen.

The year-to-date is shown. To change it, select a different date range the top of the screen, then click Display.
Click the blue links to display the details of the observation, experience, journal entry, or reflection of pedagogy.

Programs

See the Educator’s Guide section for more information and instructions:

Add a Program
My Programs Screen
Add an Observation
Add an Experience to the Program from an Observation
Manually Add an Experience to the Program
Link an Observation to a Next Experience
Multiple Rooms can Create a Single Program (assists with primary caregiving)

The Program Planning Cycle

See the Educator’s Guide section for more information and instructions:

The Program Planning Cycle
Observations
Experiences
Journal Entries
Individual Child Planning Cycle
Planning for the Individual Child
Child Profiles – Planned and Observed Outcomes

Child Information

See Child Information in the Educator’s Guide section for more information and instructions:

Add a Child
Edit a Child
Delete a Child
Child Comments
- Reply to Comments in a Child Summary
- Attach Images to a Comment

Glossary and References

Glossary

Term	Definition
ACECQA	Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (http://www.acecqa.gov.au/)
Active	A record that can to be added to, modified, and linked to observations, experiences, and journal entries.
Administrator (as used in EarlyWorks)	A person in charge of an education and care service with the responsibilities of overseeing centre programming and documentation.
CSV	Comma-separated value (file format that can be created by and read by Microsoft Excel)
Curriculum	See Program
Curriculum Plan	See Programmed Experience
DD MMM YYYY	Date format; two-number day, three-letter month, four-number year (e.g. 14 Jun 2017, 09 Sep 2018)
Developmental Milestone	Behaviours and physical skills seen in babies and children as they grow and develop. There are generalised age ranges for when children will reach each milestone. EarlyWorks has included the Developmental Milestones from the ‘Early Years Learning Framework Practice Based Resources – Developmental Milestones’ document for selection within the available Outcomes.
Educator Assistant (as used in EarlyWorks)	An individual who provides education and care for children within an early childhood education and care service who does not hold an Early Childhood Education and Care Diploma.
Educator (as used in EarlyWorks)	An individual who provides education and care for children within an early childhood education and care service. In EarlyWorks, ‘educators’ can be Room Leaders or Educator Assistants.
Exceeding Practices	Practices defined as ‘Exceeding Indicators’ in the ACECQA National Quality Standard Assessment and Rating Instrument
Experience	Experiences may be child-led (from a previous observation), educator-initiated (intentional teaching), or come from family input. Experiences could include: scaffolding of learning that was previously documented through observations extensions of children’s interests, thoughts, and ideas specific activities you plan to do with the children everyday opportunities for intentional teaching areas of learning that you wish to focus on routine changes approaches to transitions provocations that you plan on creating room/space changes community events/celebrations anything you wish to include in your program. See also Programmed Experience This Manual uses the word ‘Experience’; your service may have changed this to ‘Curriculum Plan’ in the Settings screen. If so, substitute ‘Curriculum Plan’ wherever ‘Experience’ is used. See Change the Label for Program and/or Experience.
Extend (as used in EarlyWorks)	Converts the text in a comment box to an observation. This allows educators to create links to the learning frameworks and to plan a next experience from this comment.
EYLF	Early Years Learning Framework
FDC	Family Day Care
Framework	A system of rules, ideas, or beliefs that is used to plan or decide something. (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/framework) In EarlyWorks, specifically relates to an approved learning framework.
Inactive	A record that cannot be added to, modified, and linked to observations, experiences and journal entries. Inactive records can only be viewed, not edited. In some parts of EarlyWorks, you cannot delete a record that is linked to other records—if you no longer require that record, change its status to ‘inactive’.
Journal	Documentation that showcases all the experiences and learning that occurred on a particular day.
Journal Entry	The written description of each experience and learning that occurred on a particular day.
Last Experience	The last time there was a planned extension of learning involving the child. A method to ensure that each child’s learning and development is assessed as part of an ongoing cycle of planning, documenting, and evaluating by ensuring that the written programming and evaluation is ongoing, appropriate, and inclusive of each child. (NQS 1.2)
Last Journal Entry	The last time the child was part of the daily journal.
Last Learning Journey Entry	The last time individual comments were made on a child’s record about their abilities and progress in relation to the learning outcomes used by the service.
Last Observation	The last time this child was observed in either a group or an individual observation
Learning Outcome	A skill, knowledge, or disposition that educators can actively promote in early childhood settings, in collaboration with children and families. (from: Belonging, Being and Becoming, p48)
NQS	National Quality Standard
Observation	A written description of something that was seen and/or heard. An observation is a strategy used by early childhood educators to gather and interpret information to assess learning. Among other things, observations record: learning that has occurred spontaneously or from a programmed experience children’s current knowledge, ideas, abilities, and interests progressive learning over time (learning stories) newly gained skills language development (children’s quotes).
OSHC	Outside School Hours Care
Outcome	See Learning Outcome
Pedagogy	Early childhood educators’ professional practice, especially those aspects that involve building and nurturing relationships, curriculum decision-making, teaching, and learning. (from: Belonging, Being and Becoming, p48)
Planned Experience	See Programmed Experience
Planning Cycle	The National Quality Framework requires educators to show evidence of the planning cycle. The planning cycle comprises steps that are recommended to effectively observe, analyse, and evaluate children’s learning and development to make professional decisions in relation to planning. The steps that EarlyWorks refers to when using the term ‘planning cycle’ are: Observe Question Plan Act/Do Reflect.
Primary Caregiving	An early childhood education and care approach where specific educators are assigned as the ‘key teacher’ for specific children. In this approach, the focus is on building relationships of trust and security.
Program	All the interactions, experiences, activities, routines, and events—planned and unplanned—that occur in an environment designed to foster children’s learning and development (from: Early Years Learning Framework, p45; adapted from Te Whāriki) This Manual uses the word ‘Program’; your service may have changed this to ‘Curriculum’ in the Settings screen. If so, substitute ‘Curriculum’ wherever ‘Program’ is used. See Change the Label for Program and/or Experience.
Programmed Experience	The documented plan for individual interactions, experiences, activities, routines, and events. Also known as a ‘Planned Experience’, ‘experience’ or ‘Curriculum Plan’. This Manual uses the word ‘Experience’; your service may have changed this to ‘Curriculum Plan’ in the Settings screen. If so, substitute ‘Curriculum Plan’ wherever ‘Experience’ is used. See Change the Label for Program and/or Experience .
QA	Quality Area
QIP	Quality Improvement Plan
Reflections of Pedagogy	The written self-reflection of your professional practices, especially those aspects that involve building and nurturing relationships, curriculum decision-making, teaching, and learning.
Room Leader (as used in EarlyWorks)	An individual who provides education and care for children within an early childhood education and care service who holds, as a minimum, an Early Childhood Education and Care Diploma and is in day-to-day charge of a room/group within the service.
Service	A long day care, family day care, preschool (kindergarten), or outside school hours care service.
Spontaneous	Unplanned
Status	See Active; see Inactive
Team Leader	See Room Leader
Voice of the Child (as used in EarlyWorks)	What the child has said or done; captures information for the individual child when an observation or journal has been recorded for a group.
YYYYMMDD	Variation on ISO 8601 date format; four-number year, two-number month, two-number day (e.g. 20170614, 20180909)

References

Australian Children's Education & Care Quality Authority, 2017. Guide to the National Quality Standards. http://files.acecqa.gov.au/files/National-Quality-Framework-Resources-Kit/NQF-Resource-03-Guide-to-NQS.pdf

Australian Children's Education & Care Quality Authority, (nd). National Quality Framework. http://www.acecqa.gov.au/national-quality-framework

Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009. Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. http://files.acecqa.gov.au/files/National-Quality-Framework-Resources-Kit/belonging_being_and_becoming_the_early_years_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf

Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, (nd). Early Years Learning Framework Practice Based Resources – Developmental Milestones. http://files.acecqa.gov.au/files/QualityInformationSheets/QualityArea1/DevelopmentalMilestonesEYLFandNQS.pdf

Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2011. My Time, Our Place: Framework for School Age Care in Australia. http://files.acecqa.gov.au/files/National-Quality-Framework-Resources-Kit/my_time_our_place_framework_for_school_age_care_in_australia.pdf

Queensland Studies Authority, Queensland Government, 2006. Early years curriculum materials – Reflecting on my teaching practices. http://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/p_10/ey_lt_reflect_teaching_prac.pdf