Using Storypark for Educators on an iPhone or iPad

The Storypark for Educators app is a companion to the website, and makes it easier and faster to do the things you do most frequently. It helps educators to:

Please note, some features are not available on the app at the moment. For example management tasks like adding new children and inviting users - and planning and family moments are view-only.

You can still access these features on your mobile device by logging into the Storypark website in your device’s browser (e.g. Chrome, Safari, Firefox.)

This guide is ordered by the tabs running horizontal at the bottom of the app:

See how to:
Children - view child profiles and their associated stories, moments, plans and notes
Community - view and create community posts and conversations
Create - make new stories, child notes, conversations, routines and community posts
Activity - view updates across your service
Me - check draft and pending stories, edit your profile, manage notifications and switch services

The Children section shows all the children in your current centre and their stories, moments, plans and notes.

Selecting ‘All children’ will show you all the children’s stories. Tapping on a specific child will show you all their stories. 

If your centre has different rooms, you can switch between viewing the whole centre and any rooms by tapping on the centre or room name. This filters the children shown in the list.

Viewing, editing and deleting stories
Tap on a story tile to view the full story. You can edit or delete it by tapping on the … icon in the top right.

Printing stories

To print a story, tap on the ... icon in the top right and select 'Export PDF'. Choose from the print layout options, which are the same as on the website, then select 'Export'. It will take a moment to create the PDF. Tap the 'share' icon in the top right, then choose 'Print'. From here you can deselect any pages that you don't wish to print

Responding to stories
To respond or comment on a published story, tap “Leave a response…” at the bottom of the screen. You can add images or videos from your photo library to your response by tapping on the camera icon. To take a photo, first open an album then select the camera.

In the responses section at the end of a story, you’ll see a count of views, loves and comments on a story. Tapping on the eye and heart icons will show you a list of who has viewed or loved it.

View plans, moments and child notes
Using the menu at the top of the app, you can also view plans and child notes at your current centre or on a specific child's profile.

To view family moments - select the stories tab - then select Family moments from the drop-down menu:

The Community section shows your Communities (for your centre and rooms) and existing Conversations that you are a participant in.

Any centre or room with new community posts will move to the top, and be shown in bold text. Community channels are marked with a small yellow icon. 

Tap on any community post to see previous community posts, ordered by recent activity.

Tap on a summary to see the full post, along with any images, attachments and responses. 

(We have a seperate help article for logging daily routines, including from the create button).

You can add new learning stories and observations from the create button:

Adding text, images, videos and learning tags to your story

The toolbar at the bottom lets you switch between what type of content you want to add. To add images or video, select from the recent images shown, open the camera from the top of the images panel, or access all of your images from the Album icon (shown when the image tool is selected). Choose as many images as you like, and they’ll be added in the order selected. By default the images will be laid out side by side. If selecting an odd number, the first image will be larger. 

Toolbar, left to right: 

Trim your videos

Any video you upload to a story can be trimmed for length. Tap the edit button:

Press and drag on the arrows to adjust the start and end position. To preview the edited video, tap the play button at the bottom:

Tap the use button when you are happy with the length of your video, this will add the trimmed video to your story.

Reorder your story content
Tap and hold on an image or text block to reposition it. A blue line will indicate where it will be placed. Position images side by side by dragging one image to the left or right of another one, or drag one above the other to make it bigger.

Saving, publishing or sending for approval
Your drafts will always be saved by default when you close your story. Depending on whether your stories can be published, need to be approved, or you’re approving someone else’s story, the top right action will Publish, Submit or Approve and publish the story.

Offline support
If you lose your internet connection while working on a story, your draft will be saved on the device so work won’t be lost. Once you’re back online and in the app, it’ll save and sync, and you’ll then see it on any other devices. Note that if you edit an older version of the story on the web, before the version from the app has synced, it may be overwritten when your phone or iPad reconnects.

Create a new Community post
Add new community posts from the Create button:

To make your post an urgent announcement, click the three dots to the right of your post and open ‘Notification settings’:

Then select 'Post as urgent announcement'.

Note that this feature may override someone’s notification settings, and is intended for critical information only. For example, unexpected centre closures.

Start a new conversation
Add new conversations from the Create button:

You can start a new conversation with other educators and/or family members by tapping the people icon. New conversations will then appear in your list on the left-hand side.

Note: if no family is listed, it may be that parent-teacher conversations are turned off at your service.

The Activity section includes updates about Stories, Community posts, Conversations, Planning, Child notes, Family moments, responses and invitations that relate to you. Tap on an update to view the full details. 

Currently, this does not include updates about your Teacher portfolio, so this needs to be accessed through the website. You may need to pull down to refresh and see new updates.

Draft and Pending stories
This is where you’ll find your draft and pending stories that you’ve created either on the web or in the app. To delete drafts, either tap the … icon on the story card to delete an individual story, or Edit in the top right to select multiple draft stories to delete. 

Manage notifications
Manage what you'd like to be notified about both by mobile and/or email by tapping on Notification settings. Toggle each of your preferences on or off at any time, clicking back saves your changes.

Note: If you have disabled notifications from your Apple Settings, this carries over to the Educators app. To change this, you'll need to go to the Apple Settings app > Notifications, select the Storypark for Educators app, and make sure that Allow Notifications is on.

Switch services
If you belong to multiple services or centres with one account under the same email address, you can switch between them.

To change what service you are viewing, tap on the Me tab then from the left-hand menu tap on the Switch services button. This will provide you with options to select the service you would like to view:

Note: this will filter what you see in the child tab, but currently not what you see in Community or Activity. 

Get Help
Access the help centre from within the app, or tap ‘Ask us a question’ to get in touch with the Storypark customer support team.