Online system that records children’s learning at nursery wins top award

An online learning system for nurseries has continued to revolutionise the industry after winning a second top award this year.

Learning Journals is a curriculum based system that allows parents and nursery staff to record details of a child’s day online.

It replaces the old method of writing everything down on paper which many nursery staff felt was too time-consuming.

The stystem has now won the prestigious NMT (Nursery Management Today) National Award for Nursery Innovation of the Year.

This is the second award won by Learning Journals this year – having also received the Scottish NMT Award in the same category in September.

Owner David Clark, who developed Learning Journals with wife Natalie, was presented with the award by Boyzone’s Keith Duffy at an event held in central London.

David said: ‘Over the past 12 months we have grown our community of customers to hundreds of nurseries across the UK. We have 10s of thousands of parents, children and staff actively engaging with the system. We are also trailing the system in primary schools. We are so proud that this all started almost by accident from our little family run nursery in Stockbridge, Edinburgh.’

The panel at the awards ceremony said that Learning Journals is ‘very user friendly’.

They added: ‘The system is time saving and produces a clear professional report of individual learning taking account of parental and child voice.’

Natalie had worked in childcare for more than 15 years before she developed the system with David, whose background is in IT and marketing.

They developed the site together in line with the standards are set by the nursery, the local authority, OFSTED, Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate.

David added: ‘Learning Journals have made it simple to record even the smallest details of a child’s day. The system itself is simple with ease of use for both nursery staff and parents alike; powerful in tracking experiences, outcomes and next steps; efficient with staff spending less time on administration and more time with the children and flexible enough to access anywhere with an internet connection using tablet, desktop, PC or Mac.’