Using Willowfolio: finding your way around

Not sure where to start in Willowfolio?

Use the section headings below to find the guide that answers your question.

If you have just landed here, you are probably trying to do something specific in Willowfolio and it is not obvious how. That is what this page is for. Each heading below is a question we hear often, answered in a sentence, with a link to the full guide underneath.

If your question is not about the app itself, you might be looking for one of the other guides. Home education in the UK covers the law and your rights. Record-keeping covers what to keep and why — whether you call it homeschool, home ed, or EHE. This page covers how Willowfolio works, step by step.

What is Willowfolio, in one paragraph?

Willowfolio is a home education companion app built for UK parents. It helps you log what your child is doing, keep a reading record, track which areas of learning you have covered, and write your Local Authority report (called the Council Report in Willowfolio, because most parents say "council" rather than "Local Authority"). It is Montessori-informed (built around observation and child-led learning, not lesson plans), private by default, and built for phones first.

Willowfolio is a parent tool. There are no child-facing screens, no gamification, and no features that require your child to interact with a device. You observe, you note what happened, you move on.

Where do I start if I have just signed up?

Add a child, log one activity, and look at the Your week page. That is the first day done.

The first-week guide walks through each step with screenshots and explains what to skip. If you have not signed up yet and want to know what Willowfolio actually is before committing, the try-demo page is the better place to begin.

You do not need to set up everything on day one. The schedule, the reading log, and the Coverage map all become more useful once you have a week or two of activity logs behind you. There is nothing urgent.

How do I record what we did today?

Open the activity log, fill in four fields (what you did, when, how it went, and an optional photo), and save. That is one entry.

The logging your first activity guide explains each field in detail: what "mood and engagement" means, why photos are optional, and how to use Quick Observe (a short-form log for days when you have thirty seconds, not thirty minutes). If you are working from your phone, this is designed to take under a minute.

If you want the app to suggest activities based on what you have already logged, the activity suggestions guide explains how suggestions work, how to browse them, and when to ignore them entirely.

How does the app write my Local Authority report?

It does not write it for you. It drafts a starting point.

The Local Authority report feature pulls from your activity logs, your reading log, and any photos you have attached. It groups them by subject area and time period, and produces a draft that you then review, edit, rewrite, and send. The final document is yours.

Two guides cover this in detail. How the app writes your Local Authority report explains what happens behind the scenes: what the app pulls in, what it leaves out, and what it cannot know. Writing your Local Authority report end to end is the step-by-step walkthrough, from opening the report builder to exporting the finished document.

If you have never written a Local Authority report before and want to see what one looks like, the council report example in the record-keeping section has a worked sample.

How does the Coverage map work, and how do I read it?

The Coverage map (a colour-coded grid showing which areas of learning your activity logs have touched) is a check, not a verdict. It shows you where you have logged activity and where you have not. Gaps are normal.

A blank square does not mean your child has missed something important. It means you have not logged anything in that area recently. You might be doing brilliant work in that subject and simply not recording it. The map tells you what your logs say, not what your child knows.

The Coverage map guide explains how to read the colours, what the subject areas mean, and how to use the map as a gentle prompt rather than a source of anxiety.

What about my data: who sees it, and can I get it out?

Only the adults in your family account can see your data. Willowfolio does not share logs, photos, or reports with schools, local authorities, other families, or anyone else.

You can export everything at any time: activity logs as CSV, reports as PDF, photos as a download. You can also request a full data export or account deletion under data protection law (GDPR). The data and privacy guide explains exactly who sees what, and the backups and exports guide walks through the export and deletion process step by step.

What else can Willowfolio do?

Here are the guides for every other feature, grouped by what you are trying to do.

Setup and first steps. The first-time setup walkthrough takes you through the 15-minute initial walkthrough end to end. The adding a child guide explains the developmental-plane question the app asks and how to choose. The home ed on your phone guide covers what works one-handed when you are logging from the sofa or the park.

Day-to-day features. The schedule guide covers week and month views, classes, recurring events, and term dates. The reading log guide covers adding books, tracking what your child is currently reading, and sharing with other families. The dashboard guide explains the Your week page: what the numbers mean and what to cheerfully ignore. If you are reshaping your approach mid-year, the switching approaches guide covers how to change tack without losing your records.

Materials and the shelf. The suggested materials guide explains how to browse Montessori materials by developmental plane and add them to your library. The materials shelf tracking guide covers tracking what is out, stored and retired as you rotate the shelf.

Records and reports. The portfolio guide covers starring work, auto-suggestions, and what to keep for your records. The budget tracker guide covers tracking home education spending and exporting costs as CSV. The printables and templates guide collects the free downloads (planners, term-date sheets, report templates) you can pair with the app. If you are wondering what a Local Authority reviewer actually does with a Montessori report, the for LA reviewers guide walks through how the report reads from their side of the desk.

Settings and account. The themes and accessibility guide covers dark mode, colour themes, and accessibility options. The account security guide covers two-factor authentication, signing in with Google, and connected accounts. If you need to restart the onboarding wizard, the onboarding restart guide has you covered.

Reading around the app. The Montessori reading list is the books we recommend if you want to go deeper than the app guides. The day in the life guide shows three real UK families hour by hour, so you can see what an ordinary Montessori home ed day looks like.

When things go wrong. The deleted items guide explains what happens when you delete an activity, a photo, or a report, and how to recover it. The feedback guide explains how to leave feedback (public by default, with an opt-out for private), and the when to contact us guide explains when to email us and when to call Education Otherwise instead. The what happens if we remove your family guide explains the rare account-removal process and your data rights if it ever happens.

Where can I find every Willowfolio help article?

The full list of help articles, grouped by topic, is below. If you did not find what you needed above, it is probably here.

What if I cannot find what I need here?

Email [email protected]. A real person reads every message. There is no ticket queue, no chatbot, and no automated reply that asks you to "check the FAQ first."

If your question is about the law, your rights, or dealing with your local authority, we are not the right people to ask. Education Otherwise is the organisation that can help with that, and our when to contact us guide explains the difference.

If your question is about Willowfolio and you would rather not email, the guides on this page cover the most common questions. Start with the section headings above, or use your browser's search (Ctrl+F on a computer, or the "Find in page" option on your phone) to look for a keyword.

We built Willowfolio for parents who are busy, often tired, and not always sure what they are doing. If something in the app is confusing, that is our problem, not yours. Tell us, and we will fix it.

If you cannot find what you need on this page or in the guides below, email [email protected]. A real person reads every message.