When you first set up your early learning service or at the start of each year, you can create multiple children's profiles quickly in one go.
In this guide, learn about:
The information you need to upload and create multiple child profiles in one go
The steps to upload and create multiple child profiles
Upload errors
The information you'll need
If you use a CCMS tool, you can export the children data and import it into Storypark - we have specific instructions for the following platforms Xplor, Infocare, QikKids.
You'll need to first names, last names, date of births and gender to upload the data to Storypark. Both room names and parent emails are optional - however if you chose to fill these out, please read our guidelines below to ensure they are filled in correctly.
The steps to upload and create multiple child profiles
1. Go to your early learning service's ‘Children' page.
2. Find the Add new child link and under this click or add multiple children:
3. Download and open the spreadsheet template provided:
4. Open the downloaded template, and begin adding your early learning service's children to the template from row 2 (underneath the headings), making sure to follow the format provided exactly.
Here is a brief explanation of how to fill out each column in the spreadsheet and what they mean (please read this first if you have not uploaded this spreadsheet before):
First name:
The child's first name as you'd like it to appear on Storypark.
Last name:
The child's last name as you'd like it to appear on Storypark.
Birthday:
Make sure the dates are entered in the format DD/MM/YYYY. If your format differs or the field is left blank, it will result in an error.
North American (YYYY/MM/DD) or Japanese users (MM/DD/YYYY) who have exported from another system will need to change the format of the Birthday column to UK or Australia.
In Excel, select the cells you want to format and press CTRL+1. On a Mac, press Control+1 or Command+1. In the Format Cells box, tap the Number tab then in the Category list, tap Date.
Gender:
This spreadsheet provides for three options - m/f/?.
If you don't want to mark a child's gender, either leave this box blank or put in a '?'. When their profile is added to Storypark, this section on their profile will read 'rather not say':
Room: (Optional)
If you don't have rooms set up at your service already, adding a child's room here will also setup a new room at your service.
Each room name must be exact, i.e. If one child's room is listed as 'Toddlers' and another 'toddlers', this will create two separate rooms at your service.
If you already have rooms set up at your service, you can add the name of an existing room at the service and the new child's profile will be added to it. Again you'll want to ensure the room name is exact, to avoid creating a new one.
Parent 1 and 2 email: (Optional)
❗Important: Adding emails here automatically sends the child's parents/guardians invitations to their child's profile as soon as you upload the spreadsheet.
If you haven't yet invited your teaching team or set up your service, you may want to wait before inviting parents/guardians. This field can be left blank if you do not want to send invites yet, and any Admin educator can invite them later.
If you are happy to invite parents as you add these profiles to Storypark, we recommend adding both emails at once. This is so that both parents get connected at the same time - if only one parent gets connected to the child's profile, they then need to invite all other family members from their login.
5. When you have finished filling in the information, click ‘Save’ to save the spreadsheet. It must be saved in the same format provided (a .CSV file).
6. Going back to the the Import multiple children page at your service's Storypark account (under Step 3), click the Choose file button and find the template you’ve just edited (check your computer’s Downloads folder if you can’t find it).
7. Click the Import button and wait for the children to be imported. You will be emailed (to the email you are logged in with) once the import is finished and child profiles are created. If there are any errors, you'll be notified in the email.
💡 Each time you add multiple children, make sure you download a new blank template rather than reusing an existing one with children already added, so you don’t create duplicates of any child profiles you already have.
Upload errors
Wrong formatting: if some of the information in your spreadsheet is not formatted correctly, you may run into an error. You'l notice that the associated rows in your spreadsheet with the error will not be uploaded to Storypark.
For example:
You will only need to fix the associated rows identified in the email and re-upload the amended ones. Please do not re-upload the data of any children that uploaded successfully in the spreadsheet, as this will create duplicate profiles.
Upload limit: multi-child import has an upload limit of 200 children at once. Make sure that you have less than 200 children in one spreadsheet, otherwise the upload will fail and no children will be added.
If you need to add more than 200 children, you can download the template again from Storypark (per Steps 1 to 3 above) and input children's details over multiple spreadsheets to keep each spreadsheet below the 200 limit. You will want to make sure that there are no duplicate child records across the spreadsheets, as this will create duplicate profiles.