For educational leaders and head teachers
You are the last reader before the family. You have a stack of stories, a room to run and no time to rewrite anybody's work, and you should not be rewriting it anyway. This is the short version: whose job it is, five questions to ask in order, and how to give an educator one piece of feedback they can use tomorrow.
Start with what actually happened: one action, quote, attempt, change, or question. A polished observation is never required.
StoryLoop drafts and checks. The educator reviews, edits, decides what is true, and chooses whether anything is shared.
Reviewed 12 November 2026 · Written by Leo, who builds StoryLoop, in Ōtautahi Christchurch
What StoryLoop does with a note
A real note an educator typed, and the start of the draft StoryLoop wrote from it, unedited, with the Te Whāriki links, learning and next steps to follow.
Aroha tried to put her shoes on before going outside. Velcro kept folding over. Asked 'help me' then pushed my hand away and did the second one herself. Stood up and stomped both feet.
Putting on her own shoes
Before going outside, Aroha tried to put her shoes on by herself. The Velcro kept folding over, making the job trickier. Aroha asked, "help me", letting us know clearly that she needed support.
When help was offered, Aroha pushed the adult hand away and did the second shoe herself. Once both shoes were on, she stood up and stomped both feet. This looked like Aroha checking that her shoes were on and feeling the result with her whole body.
Type what you saw today. StoryLoop writes the draft here, with Te Whāriki or EYLF V2.0 links, and shows you exactly what it is built on. Use first names only: demo notes are not saved to any account and are never used to train AI.
No signup for your first try. Use a first name or initial only.
Your draft appears here, with curriculum links that only claim what your note shows, usually in under a minute.
Tip: what the child did, one thing they said, and what happened next. Three lines is plenty.
Want to keep it? Start free: 3 stories a month, no card. You check every word before anything is shared.
In Australia, Element 7.2.2 of the National Quality Standard reads: "The educational leader is supported and leads the development and implementation of the educational program and assessment and planning cycle." Reading educators' documentation is one of the plainest ways to lead that cycle. In Aotearoa no rule names who checks a story. In practice it is the head teacher, a team leader or a mentor teacher.
One. Is it true to the note? Ask to see what the educator wrote down at the time. Anything in the story that is not in the note, a feeling, a reason, another child, should come out or be confirmed. Two. Are the child's words exactly theirs? A quote that has been tidied up is no longer a quote. Three. Does each curriculum link point at something that happened? If you cannot put your finger on the sentence it comes from, the link is decoration. Four. Is there a next step somebody could do next week? "Continue to support" is not one. Five. Would this family be glad to read it? Strengths first, no labels, no diagnosis words, and no other child's full name.
Most checking goes wrong because the leader sees only the finished story. A polished story with an invented detail reads better than a plain one that is true, and the only way to tell them apart is the note. If your educators do not keep their notes, that is the first thing to change.
Say one thing that is right, in the story's own words, and one thing to change. Do not rewrite it: a story rewritten by the leader teaches the educator that their writing is not wanted. If the same thing comes up in three people's stories, it is a team conversation, not three corrections.
If educators in your service draft with an AI tool, the checks do not change. They matter more. Questions one and two catch what a careless tool gets wrong: detail that was never observed, and speech the child never said. Ask to see the note every time, and have a written line in your policy about which tools are used and what must never go into them.
An educator taps Send to my leader on a finished story and sends you a private link. You see their note beside the story, with the child's first name and the educator's first name and nothing else about either of them. You tap Looks good, or Suggest a change and say what you would change, and you are done in about two minutes. You do not need an account. The link opens that one story, lasts 14 days, and the educator can cancel it.
Official references
These sources inform this guide. StoryLoop is independent and does not claim endorsement.
FAQ
There is no number in the National Quality Standard or in Te Whāriki. Checking every story does not scale, and it teaches people to write for you and not for the family. A few from each educator each month, and more for somebody new, is a sensible place to start.
No. Say what you would change and let the educator change it. The story goes out under their name, and they learn nothing from a version they did not write.
No. The educator sends a private link that opens one story with their note beside it. It lasts 14 days, it can be answered once, and nothing else of the educator's can be reached from it.
No. StoryLoop supports drafting and structure, while educators remain responsible for observation, interpretation, reflection, final editing, and sign-off.
Yes. Stories are editable after generation and saved in history, so educators can add context, adjust wording, copy, export, or regenerate from the original observation.
StoryLoop is designed to avoid generic, poetic AI wording. It asks for real observations, keeps claims evidence-based, and links curriculum only when the observation supports it.
The free plan includes 3 learning stories per month. Upgrade prompts are dismissible, and existing history remains available even if the free limit is reached.