Journeys guide educators through a child’s full cycle of planning. This guide explains how to start a Journey in Mana on the web. Before you begin, make sure the child has a profile in Mana and check whether they already have an active Journey.
Optional AI writing and coaching features depend on your account’s access. You can enter your own goals and notes; review any AI suggestions before using them.
Start a new Journey
Use Add journey to begin a new Journey. To continue an existing one, open Journeys, find the child, open their three-dot menu and select Current journey. Select All journeys to review their other Journeys.
Open Journeys.
Select Add journey.
Under Who is this journey for?, select the child. Use search if the child is not shown.
If Mana shows “Active Journey Found”: select Go to Active Journey to review the existing Journey, or Select Different Child. Mana asks you to complete the existing Journey before starting another for the same child. Complete it when that planning period is finished.
See Find your way around Journeys for the child menu and search options.
Set the Journey dates
Review the Start Date and End Date. The start date is shown for you.
The suggested end date follows your service’s Journey duration setting. Select End Date if you need a different timeframe.
Review Journey Duration.
Select Next: Set goal.
Add learning goals
Enter the child’s Goal, a Short title and the Reason for this goal.
Where available, use Suggest for ideas or Enrich to develop the wording. Check that the result reflects what you know about the child.
Select Add Goal for other goals in this planning period. You can add up to three during setup.
Select Create Journey.
A Journey represents a period of learning and can contain multiple goals. You do not need a separate Journey for every goal. Choose meaningful goals with the child’s family and other educators, drawing on the child’s interests and learning.
Begin documenting the planning cycle
After the Journey is created, begin documenting in its stages. The stages follow your service’s setup; they may include Family Input, Observe & Assess, Plan & Implement and Evaluate & Reflect.
Select Create document in the appropriate stage, choose the document type and add your information. Documents stay grouped in the relevant stage so the planning cycle is visible in one place.
Using Mana AI when writing
Where available, you can type notes, record your voice or work with Coach Sue. Review AI-generated content before saving it, and edit the title, wording, outcomes, media and translations as needed. Educators remain responsible for the accuracy and appropriateness of every saved document.
What happens next?
To return to the Journey, open Journeys, find the child, open their three-dot menu and select Current journey. Creating a Journey is separate from choosing your key children. Key children reflect your responsibility for children’s learning; see Choose your key children.