How we choose and protect stories

The family’s experience comes first.

Submissions come from parents or legal guardians. We ask exactly three questions: “What made you choose?”, “What changed for your child?”, and “What was hard?” A story is one family’s experience; it does not represent all families or prove a school’s quality.

Editorial selection should consider differing counties, grade bands, reasons for choosing, and challenges. This is an aim, not a claim that the current collection is representative. Payment or sponsorship does not set a school’s ranking.

Editing is separate from publication approval.

Raw answers remain private. Independent editing shapes an 80–200-word story and preserves the tradeoffs. The family must approve the edited public text. A publication status by itself is insufficient: active consent, final text approval, a valid publication date, and no revocation are also required.

The initial form gathers guardian consent. For a featured young person aged 13 or older, it also requires assent: their own agreement to having their experience shared. The transient age question is not retained. First names are optional for children; please do not submit identifying surnames in your answers.

Separate choices for photos and social sharing.

Photo and social permissions are separate, optional, and unchecked by default. We show a supplied portrait only with linked photo permission and useful alternative text. This first release does not collect photos. Missing photo permission means no portrait is shown.

Disclosures stay visible.

A school-shared story is labeled “Shared by” with the actual school name. A sponsored story is labeled “Sponsored by” with the actual school name. If a required disclosure cannot be established, the story stays out of public pages. Stories and school pages have no affiliate blocks.

Withdrawal takes effect without an editorial vote.

Every detail page links to Remove my story. When the supplied email matches the original linked submission, we hide the story first, revoke consent, and record the request for editorial follow-up. Approval of that follow-up is not required to remove public access. Story eligibility is checked fresh for each public request.

ChoiceIQ can stop serving a story, but copies already made by other people or external sharing services may remain outside our control.