In this guide learn about:

Note: If you are part of a network or multi-site organisation, please see this article for help with story types at your head office.

Story types are stories that are pre-populated with reflective prompts, from which a new story can be started. These prompts can contain all the elements expected from high-quality documentation and can provide ideas or scaffolding.

You may wish to create your own specific templates so that all educators at your service are documenting in a consistent way or to embed best practices. These might include story types for a learning story, observation or documentation, an anecdote, magic moment, extension of learning, critical reflection or pedagogical narration.

The types that Admins at your service create and activate from the story types tab will be available for educators to start new stories from.

To start you off, there are Storypark exemplars created in collaboration with our expert advisors that you can copy to your own service and use as-is, or adapt to suit your needs.

To create and/or edit your service's story types go to your service's 'Stories' page, and click on 'Story types' beneath that.
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​Note: Only Storypark Admins at your service can create and manage story types.

Click the +New button next to Our story types. You'll be taken to the story type editor which looks and works in exactly the same way as the story editor:

Add your prompts, as well as any formatting you'd like to include. Then on the right-hand side, give your story type a name, for example Pedagogical narration.

Note: Learning tags and child profiles cannot be added to story types.
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When you click Save and exit, you'll be taken back to your Story types page where you'll see the name and snapshot of your new story type. New story types you create will be inactive by default.
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When you are ready you can activate a story type, so educators at your service can start using it:

Similarly, if you ever need to temporarily turn off a story type you can deactivate it, to remove it from use. Deactivating a type will not affect any published stories, rather that the type will no longer be available to start a story from:

Scroll down to the Story type library box, select one you'd like to use and tap the Copy to our story types button in the top right-hand corner:

You can use it as-is, or adapt it by editing it. This story type is now available at your service and will be shown in the Our story types box.

Now whenever educators at your service click on the Create a story button, they'll be asked to select a story type:

They have the option to use one of your story types, or to simply create a story from scratch (Blank) as they have always done:

Clicking on a story type will take them to the story editor, pre-populated with your prompts: