How to save your child's Famly learning journey

To save your child's Famly learning journey, open their profile on a laptop or desktop, go to the Journey tab, click Print, then Print all, and choose Save as PDF. That keeps the written observations and assessments. To keep the photos from those observations as proper, full-size image files, NurseryDownloader saves them from your child's profile in one click.

The journey is often the part of Famly parents most want to keep: the key person's notes on a first word, a new friendship, the painting that took all morning. Here's what Famly gives you, what it leaves out, and how to keep the whole thing.

What's in the learning journey

The Journey tab on your child's profile is Famly's record of their learning and development. According to Famly's help centre, it holds:

• Observations written by staff, which can include written notes, photos and videos
• Assessments, longer summaries of your child's development, usually written by their key person
• Your own observations, if you've added any from home

Saving the journey as a PDF (Famly's own option)

Famly has a built-in way to keep the journey, and it's the right tool for the written side. You'll need a laptop or desktop, because Famly says downloading the journey isn't available in the phone app.

1. Open your child's profile and go to the Journey tab.
2. Click Print, then Print all.
3. Choose the date range, and any extra information you want included.
4. Click Print. In the print preview, set the destination to Save as PDF.

You can print or save a single observation the same way.

Two things worth knowing. First, Famly says some settings may not allow parents to download the journey directly. If you can't see Print, ask the nursery: Famly says they can send you a copy. Second, a PDF is a document rather than a photo album. It's a good home for the observations, but the pictures inside it aren't separate files you can back up, sort, or send to a photo book printer.

What happens to the journey when your child leaves

Less than many parents fear. Famly says your account isn't closed automatically when your child leaves. Their profile moves to Graduated children in your profile menu, and from there you can still see their learning journey, including observations and assessments, and the photos they were tagged in.

What you lose is the newsfeed and your messages with the nursery. And your login stays only as long as the nursery keeps it: Famly says the nursery can remove it, so it's worth checking their usual approach. The journey doesn't vanish the day your child leaves, then, but the only copy you control is the one on your own computer.

Saving the journey photos in one click

NurseryDownloader is a Chrome extension that saves your child's Famly photos to your computer at full size. On your child's profile it collects their tagged photos and the photos from their learning journey observations together, so the journey photos land in the same dated folders as everything else.

1. On a laptop or desktop, add NurseryDownloader to Chrome or Edge.
2. Sign in to Famly at app.famly.co as you normally would.
3. In the NurseryDownloader panel, click Go to [your child]'s Tagged Images, or open their profile and the Activity tab.
4. When the counter has finished, click Download Tagged Images.

Journey photos are filed under the date of the observation, with the date at the start of each filename, so they sort into the right order on any computer. Observations you added from home are included. Run it again later and it only fetches what's new.

The best time to do this is while your child is still at the nursery, when everything is easy to reach.

Your first 20 downloads are free, so you can check the quality before you buy a licence. Your photos go straight from Famly to your computer and never pass through our servers, and NurseryDownloader never asks for your Famly password: it works in your own browser, where you're already signed in.

What it doesn't save

To be straight about it:

• The written observations and assessments. Use Famly's Print all and Save as PDF for those. Together, the PDF and the photo folders give you the whole journey: the words in one, the pictures as real files in the other.
• Videos and other files in observations, and anything attached to an assessment. The journey step collects the photos from observations.
• Comments and likes.

Questions

Can I download my child's Famly learning journey on my phone?

No. Famly says the journey can only be downloaded on a laptop or desktop computer. NurseryDownloader is the same: it runs in Chrome or Edge on a computer, using the Famly account you already have on your phone.

I can't see the Print option. What now?

Famly says some settings don't let parents download the journey directly. Ask your nursery for a copy; Famly's help says they can send you one.

Will I lose the learning journey when my child leaves nursery?

Not automatically. Famly keeps your graduated child's profile, journey included, visible to you unless the nursery removes your login. Saving a copy now means you don't have to rely on that.

Does it work for more than one child?

Yes. Run it from each child's profile, and each child's photos go into their own folder.

Read the full guide to downloading all your Famly photos and videos.