Acceptable Use Policy

StoryJar is for children's learning moments

It is a place for a child's own work — drawings, photos of what they've made or done, and their words — kept for the class journal. It is not a general photo store or a place for personal or sensitive records. Where a school has switched them on, families and staff can also exchange short messages about a child, inside the school's office hours; the rules for those are below.

The teacher's role

Every moment passes through a teacher before it is kept. Teachers should approve only content that is appropriate, and send back or delete anything that is not. Please do not approve:

• Images or text that identify a child beyond their first name (e.g. surnames, addresses, dates of birth) or that show another child without the school's consent arrangements being met.
• Anything upsetting, unsafe, discriminatory, or unlawful.
• Personal or special-category information that isn't needed for the journal (e.g. medical or family details).
• Content that isn't the child's own learning work.

Not allowed

• Giving a child their own login, email or password (they don't need one).
• Sharing login details or letting unauthorised adults access children's work.
• Using StoryJar to contact children directly or outside the school's supervision.
• Attempting to access another class's or family's data, or to circumvent access controls.
• Uploading malware, or content that infringes others' rights.

Messages between families and staff

A school may switch on messages between a child's family and their class teacher. They are delivered only inside the office hours the school sets, in both directions, and they are about one child. For everyone using them:

• Not for emergencies. If a child is unwell, absent, or the school is needed now, phone the school office. Messages are not read outside school hours.
• About the child's learning and day. Please do not put medical details, information about other children or other families, or anything you would not want kept with the child's school record into a message.
• Courteous. Staff and families are entitled to the same respect in writing as in the playground. The school may close a conversation, and a teacher may hand a family's conversation to a colleague.
• Text only, and never to a child. There are no attachments, links are not clickable, and no child can see or send a message.
• Who can read it is always shown. A family sees the names of the staff who can see the conversation; the school sees who is in a conversation and whether anyone is waiting for a reply, but never the messages themselves.

If something's wrong

If inappropriate content is uploaded, a teacher should return or delete it and, if it raises a safeguarding concern, follow the school's procedures and inform the Designated Safeguarding Lead. See the Safeguarding page. We may suspend access where needed to protect children.