It is unlikely that many people began working with children because they enjoyed paperwork. However, for many it seems to dominate their lives - wrestling with what to write down, when to write it down and just how much to write.
A vast amount of mental energy is used on getting the paperwork 'right', and in my view at least, this becomes a barrier to understanding what is useful, both for adults and children. Despite the fact that none of us are judged by the weight of our ring binders, many well-intentioned practitioners seem to take 'look, listen and note' (see Practice Guidance for the EYFS, pages 26-116) as an invitation to jot down almost everything that they see. This is inevitably counter-productive as we become blinkered by mental exhaustion to the significant achievements made by children. I once heard an exasperated practitioner describe record-keeping in her setting as 'death by Post-It notes'.
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