Story Approval lets teachers submit learning stories for review before they are published. This article explains what happens when you submit a story, review a pending story, or receive feedback through the approval process.
Need to set up Story Approval?
Site Admins can enable Story Approval, choose reviewers and control reviewer access. See Set Up Story Approval.
Writing a story? Go to For teachers: Submit and update stories.
Reviewing stories? Go to For reviewers: Review pending stories.
How Story Approval works
When a teacher requires Story Approval:
The teacher creates a story and selects Submit for Approval.
The story becomes Pending.
If the teacher has assigned reviewers, those reviewers are notified according to their personal notification settings.
A reviewer opens the story from Pending Stories under Children.
The reviewer can:
Approve the story to publish it.
Return for Rework so the teacher can make changes.
Edit on Behalf to make changes directly.
If the story is returned for rework, it becomes a draft again. The teacher can make changes and resubmit it for approval.
Only one reviewer needs to approve a story. Once approved, it is published and removed from the pending list for any other reviewers.
For teachers: Submit and update stories
Submit a story for approval
If your stories require approval, you will see Submit for Approval instead of Publish when completing a story.
To submit your story:
Finish writing your story.
Add a private comment for your reviewer if needed.
Select Submit for Approval.
Your story becomes Pending and is available to reviewers who can review your stories.
Important: You cannot edit your story while it is pending. A reviewer must either Edit on Behalf or Return for Rework before you can make changes yourself.
Update and resubmit a story after rework
If a reviewer returns your story for rework, it becomes a draft again.
To update it:
Open the story from your drafts.
Review the rework comment at the top of the story.
Make your changes.
Select Submit for Approval again.
The story returns to Pending and is available to the appropriate reviewers again.
See Approval and rework comments below for more information about where you can find reviewer feedback.
For reviewers: Review pending stories
Pending story notifications
Reviewers only receive pending story notifications for teachers they are specifically assigned to review.
If you are assigned as a reviewer for a teacher, you can choose how often you receive notifications when they submit a story:
Immediate – Sends an email when a new story is submitted for your review. This is the default.
Digest – Sends one daily email for pending stories submitted for your review during the previous day. The time that daily Digest emails are sent is set for the whole site by a Site Admin.
Never – Does not send pending story notification emails.
Note: If you are marked as a reviewer but are not assigned to any teachers, you can still see all pending stories on Children > Pending Stories, but you will not receive notifications when those stories are submitted.
See Manage Your Personal Notification Settings for instructions on changing your preference.
Review a pending story
To review a story:
Go to Children > Pending Stories.
Select the story you want to review.
Review the story and any comment the teacher included when submitting it.
Choose what happens next:
Approve – Publishes the story immediately.
Return for Rework – Returns the story to the teacher as a draft so they can make changes.
Edit on Behalf – Opens the story so you can make changes directly.
You can also leave feedback when approving a story or returning it for rework.
Note: Only one reviewer needs to approve a story. Once approved, it is removed from the pending list for any other reviewers.
Can't see a story you expected to review? Your reviewer access may be limited to specific teachers. Ask someone with site admin access at your centre to check your Story Approval setup.
For teachers and reviewers: Approval and rework comments
Reviewer comments let teachers receive feedback as part of the approval process. What happens to the comment depends on whether the story is approved or returned for rework.
Approval comments
When approving a story, the reviewer can leave a comment and choose whether it is public.
Private approval comment – This is the default. The teacher who created the story receives the comment with their approval notification, but it does not appear on the published story.
Public approval comment – The comment is added to the published story and is visible to everyone who can access the story, including family.
Important: Only make an approval comment public if it is appropriate for families and everyone else with access to the story to read.
For stories you created, you can see the approval comment in:
Your notification email.
Your Educa Inbox.
You can also review approval comments for your stories later from your Teacher Profile by selecting Approval Comments.
Rework comments
When returning a story for rework, the reviewer can leave a comment explaining what needs to be changed.
For stories you created, you can see the rework comment:
In the notification email telling you the story was returned for rework.
In your Educa Inbox.
At the top of the story when you open the draft to edit it.
The story remains a draft until you make your changes and submit it for approval again.