​In this guide, learn about:

A planning template is a plan type that is pre-populated with regularly used content, from which you can start a new plan. Templates are designed to save you time so you don't have to start from a blank slate every time you want to create a plan.

To create a new plan from a template, from the Open plans area, tap Create a plan.

A pop-up window will appear with a list of planning templates available at your centre – from here you can select the template you'd like to use to create your new plan.

The plan's share setting will be pre-selected to share with all educators by default. The plan can still be started privately if a shared plan isn't appropriate – simply tap Private plan, to be shared later to create a private plan.

If for example you have a fortnightly staff meeting at the beginning of each planning cycle, you can simply tap Create a plan and select Meeting minutes from the list of templates shown.

Next, you'll need to give your new plan a name – e.g. 'A Monthly Staff Meeting - July’ – to differentiate it from your other meeting minutes plans. When you finish your meeting, tap Create and share plan. Your new plan will be listed in your Open plans area.

Once you tap Create and share plan this will begin a new plan based on the template you selected, which you can begin filling out.

If ever you want to see all your meeting minutes, go to your Open plans or Archived plans and filter by your 'Meeting' category. You'll then only see those plans on the page. Learn more about ordering and filtering plans.

To find your service's master set of templates, go to the Planning tab on your service's profile page, and tap Templates.

You'll see two lists: Our templates (templates at your service that you can start plans from), and Planning template library (a set of example templates to start you off). Selecting a template shows a preview of the plan.

You can edit, delete and create plans from any templates that are listed under Our templates. This is a list that is shared by all teachers and rooms in your service. If any teacher from any room creates, edits or deletes a template, these changes will be reflected across all rooms and for all teachers – i.e. templates are not private to the educator who created them.

Children added to a template will be added to every plan made from it. To keep child tagging flexible, leave children off the template and add them to only plans when you create them.

When you first start using Planning, you'll see a list of Storypark's example templates.

In order to use any of the Storypark templates, you need to first add them to your templates. In most cases, when you first visit this page, these will already have been added – you can use, edit or delete these if you wish. Don't feel like you need to use any of these if they don't suit your needs – this list is to show you what's possible and to give you some inspiration for creating your own.

Some of the example templates are:

The Storypark templates section is split into two areas:

Tap the name of a Storypark template, then tap Copy to Our templates.

The template will now appear under Our templates and you'll be able to edit, delete and create plans from it.

Select one of the templates in the list, then tap Edit template. This will open the template in a new tab so you can edit or delete it.

You can change anything you like in a template, including the category and any headings, children and content within the plan. Once you tap Save and exit, those changes will be reflected in the updated template.

You'll see a blue panel above the plan that says Template Name: '___'. Tap the template name in the blue panel and enter a new name when prompted.

If you no longer need a template, open it and tap Delete.

You can duplicate any planning template you have permission to edit. This is useful when you want to create a variation of an existing template without changing the original – for example, duplicating a weekly template and linking it to a new focus area.

To duplicate a template:

Your planning area will become much more useful once you begin creating your own planning templates.

This will take a kind of snapshot of your plan and then it will be listed on your service's Templates page under Our templates.

Can I print or download a PDF copy of a template?

Yes. You'll need to start a plan from the template first and then tap Print/PDF.

Can templates be shared with parents?

Only plans with a child tagged in them can be shared with parents – templates can't.

Can templates be shared across services?

Single services can't share templates within Storypark.

However, admins that are part of a network on Storypark (multi-site organisations with more than one location) can share templates across all services from their network dashboard.

Please contact our team if you are a multi-site organisation that would like to explore the benefits of a network plan on Storypark further.

If you are a network admin, you can share templates via Multi-site Management.