The questions managers ask before they say yes

A practitioner writes down what she saw a child doing, in her own words. Obsly turns that note into a written observation, with the relevant framework wording attached. She reads it, changes anything she wants, and saves it. The observing is hers; the writing-up is what it takes off her plate.

No. Tapestry stores your observations; Obsly writes them. They do different jobs, so keep whatever you already use. There is no migration, no switching, and nothing to undo if you decide it is not for you.

No. Obsly does not track progress, score children or judge where anyone is “at”. It writes up a single observation from a single note. Any judgement about a child stays with the practitioner and the setting, exactly where it belongs.

When a practitioner presses Create, her note is sent once to a language model along with the framework statements valid for that child’s age. What comes back is a written-up observation that stays faithful to what she wrote. She then reviews it before anything is saved.

Every framework link is drawn from the statements valid for the child’s age, and each one quotes the words from the practitioner’s own note that support it. You can see why a statement was attached, rather than taking it on trust.

It stays thin. Obsly will not pad a short note into something the practitioner did not observe, and it will not invent detail to fill a page. A brief, honest observation is more use at inspection than an embellished one.

Yes — the practitioner can edit the draft freely before saving, and nothing is recorded until she does. It carries her name and her accountability. Obsly is a drafting assistant, not an assessor.

One thing, once, when a practitioner presses Create: her note with any child’s name removed, the child’s internal reference number, and the framework statements for that child’s age. That is the whole of it.

Your setting stays the data controller and Obsly acts as your processor, handling children’s information only to provide the service. In practice we send the least we can — the note with any child’s name removed, plus an internal reference number — so what leaves your setting is kept to a minimum. You remain responsible for your lawful basis and the usual consents.

They can, and it writes fluently while inventing framework statements that do not exist. It also means a child’s details sitting in a consumer chatbot — a data-protection problem your setting would own. Obsly sends only what is needed, quotes real statements, and shows the practitioner what is going first.

Yes. Before anything leaves the setting she sees exactly what is about to be sent, and nothing is sent until she chooses to create the observation.

We make no claim of Ofsted approval, and you should be wary of any tool that does. What is true is that the regulator has been clear it wants less paperwork done for inspection and more time spent with children. Freeing your team from writing-up points the same way.

The practitioner observed the child, edits the draft and signs it off under her own name. What changes is the half-hour of typing, not the professional judgement. Think of it as a drafting assistant, the way a spell-checker is — the words and the responsibility remain hers.

Fair, and most of it is. The difference here is that every framework link quotes the words from your own note, and it refuses to pad a thin note into something it isn’t. Try it on the free plan with a note of your own and judge it on that.

Yes. One practitioner and up to five children, free, with no card required. It is enough to try Obsly properly in one room before anyone has to decide anything.

Because the comparison to make is with staff time, not software. If everyone between them saves half an hour a week on writing-up, it is covered — and that is a sum you can do without believing a word we say.

There is no per-practitioner quota and no charge per observation — you pay for the staff who use it, not for how much they write. A single, generous setting-wide daily ceiling exists only to catch runaway automated use, and a setting working normally will never come near it.

A manager invites them by email. Each person follows the link, sets their own password, and joins the setting — there are no shared logins to hand round. Managers control the staff list and can remove someone’s access at any time.

You drop to the free plan, and your records and staff list stay intact. If the staff still on the account exceed the free plan, a manager can reopen on a suitable plan, or reduce the staff list, before creating observations and exporting child records again.