Testimonials

Our Pre-School has been using Early Essence (E2P) for 3 years now.  We use tablets to record observations and the website for adding detail and publishing observations so parents can see what their children have been up to.  It is a very simple system to use for our key workers.
As admins, we use the extra data tools for collating reports on things like year group data, children above or below expected levels of achievement and we also print spreadsheets for working with key workers on areas of need, next steps etc.
We showed this information to the inspector during our last Ofsted inspection and it was very well received and complimented on, helping us retain our Outstanding rating!
We really love using this platform and would highly recommend it to other groups/schools.

Making the change from paper based Record of Achievements to using Early Essence has been probably one of the biggest but best decisions we have made over the last few years. Both myself, colleagues and parents had a number of anxieties. My main concern was that it would not support a principled approach to observation and assessment in the Early Years – that is, one which focuses on the uniqueness of each child’s learning and development. At the beginning we had many discussions both about the opportunities and dangers such a system brings.
But we need not have worried, the benefits have been enormous –reduction in paperwork for staff and easy access to qualitative and quantitative data for management to name but a few. We have had some lovely feedback from parents for example sharing log on details with family members in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Poland, all of whom are now able to access and take such pleasure in accessing both photographs and observations. However , the main benefit has been to support staff knowledge about meeting children’s needs and interest, in the right hands it actually increases the capacity of practitioners to support children’s learning and development.

The Early Essence system offers early years teachers the chance to track progress of every child at a quick glance. I have found the the colour coded graphs and observation tables so valuable, quickly identifying an area of learning which need more focus and flagging children that could be slipping from the radar! I now use the Early Essence to make any extra notes such as interventions for a child which I can adapt to my own personal needs. I have found this very useful to keep everything in one place. Inputting data has never been more easy and I have particularly liked how I can now give our year 1 teacher my own overviews of the data which has already been made for us by EE showing exactly where a child sits within a level. As teachers know, even if children are expected ELG the degree of this level can vary too! This will support the year 1 teacher more clearly in her planning rather than just giving her a 1 – 2 – 3 grade. Early Essence has enabled the system to be modified to suit teachers choices and considering I am not an IT whizz I have managed to easily find my way around the system, especially with the fantastic support from staff! I have had face to face training which was very useful alongside very fast and useful help support from various members of the Early Essence team using Skype and Email. My EY practitioners love being able to use the system and being able to add the CoEL to observations is so beneficial! As Early Essence grows it is constantly improving which is a big bonus. My feedback given to Early Essence has been valued and Early Essence work hard to continually improve and make it as advantageous for teachers as they can. I have been delighted with this system and would highly recommend it to any Early Years teacher! I do wonder now how I ever managed without it!

I am delighted with the effective and user friendly way this tracker enables the school to extract the key information we need

Having seen the development of Early Essence, I have been greatly impressed by the way in which Scott and Adam have listened to the needs of schools and responded by producing what looks like the most professional, comprehensive data tracking system we have seen. We’re looking forward now to using the full package – it promises to make our data so much easier to analyse and to share with other stakeholders. I’d fully recommend you take a look to see how it can benefit your school.

Early Essence has had such a positive effect at Cavendish and we would highly recommend it to other settings.

From the outset we have been impressed by Scott’s professionalism and understanding of the needs of school’s. We felt that we were consulted and believe that by working together and listening that Scott and Adam have created a special package which will allow children to be tracked and monitored more closely than ever before. We look forwards to embedding the software into our Academy systems. We would like to say a huge thank you to Scott and Adam at Primary Essence.

Early Essence has had such a positive effect at Cavendish and we would highly recommend it to other settings.

Early Essence has had a great impact on the way we track, assess and monitor children’s progress in Early Years. The staff have found the package very easy to use even though they had their reservations at first. We have more time to conduct a higher volume of observations now as we are not spending as much time cutting and sticking pictures/observations into scrap books. The children can be closely tracked and monitored and any areas of concern are easy to highlight for the Senior Leadership Team.

Early Essence has had such a positive effect at Cavendish and we would highly recommend it to other settings.