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Learning Stories in your own words.

Say what you noticed. Surfaced drafts the story, a kaiako checks it, then whānau see it.

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Now inviting pilot centres. Kaiako use it on iPhone.

Said on Pania’s phone, 9:14 am

Ihaia

Ihaia was at the water trough most of the morning. He kept pouring the big jug into the skinny bottle and it went everywhere, and he said “too much, it’s all spilling”. Then he went and got the funnel off the shelf, put it in the bottle and tried again. “Ka pai, it goes in the hole now.” After kai he went straight back and did it five more times, checking the bottle every time. Might put more funnels out tomorrow.

To the AI
Pania’s words, Ihaia’s first name and age band, and what your centre has recorded.
Never
The recording of her voice, or any photo.

Learning story

Approved by Pania. Now with Ihaia’s whānau.

The funnel fixes it

Ihaia, this morning at the water trough you poured from the big jug into the skinny bottle, and the water went everywhere. “Too much, it’s all spilling,” you said. So you fetched the funnel from the shelf, set it in the bottle and tried again. “Ka pai, it goes in the hole now.”

After kai you went straight back and did it five more times, checking the bottle every time. You found a problem, chose a tool to fix it, then tested it again and again.

Tomorrow I’ll put out more funnels, so you can keep finding out how they work.

AI-assisted · reviewed by a kaiako

  1. Pania says what she noticed and taps Ihaia’s name.
  2. Surfaced drafts a Learning Story from her words.
  3. Pania approves it, and Ihaia’s whānau see it.

A sample. Ihaia and Pania are made up.

Two kinds of moment, two paths.

A named photo goes to whānau as the kaiako wrote it, with no AI draft. A note becomes a draft, and a kaiako checks it first.

A photo or video

  1. CaptureIn the kaiako app, with words if you like.
  2. Name who it is forTap the tamariki in it, or choose a room.
  3. No AI, no draft
  4. Whānau see itWith your words exactly as you wrote them. A video arrives as a still.

Your centre can choose to have named photos wait for a head teacher.

A note

  1. Say what you noticedDictated on the phone, with te reo kept as te reo.
  2. Name who it is forA tamaiti, a room or the whole centre.
  3. Surfaced draftsA note or a Learning Story, in your voice.
  4. A kaiako checksEdit it, rewrite it or approve it.
  5. Whānau see itMarked AI-assisted and reviewed by a kaiako.

What the kaiako app does

Your note, written to the child.

A Learning Story speaks to the child, in the kaiako’s voice. Drafts follow your centre’s philosophy and up to two of your own earlier stories, and te reo stays te reo.

How Surfaced drafts a Learning Story

Pania said
After kai he went straight back and did it five more times.
The draft
After kai you went straight back and did it five more times.

The AI that drafts never sees a photo.

Surfaced drafts with Claude, an AI from Anthropic.

  • It works from words alone.

    The kaiako’s words, the child’s first name and age band, and what your centre has recorded. Never a photo, a video or a recording.

  • It drafts only with whānau consent.

    If any tamaiti in a note has no yes to ‘Claude helping to write the story’, nothing is sent to it.

  • It never decides who is in a photo.

    A kaiako names who it is for. Face matching on your centre’s phones only ever suggests tamariki whose whānau said yes. Face templates, and the small face samples that refresh them, are kept by Surfaced only encrypted, under a key only your centre’s approved phones hold. The samples are deleted when consent is withdrawn.

  • No draft publishes itself.

    A kaiako checks every AI draft before whānau see it, and the published story says so.

Your centre’s data is stored in Sydney, Australia. Anthropic may process drafts outside New Zealand.

How Surfaced handles photos, faces and AI

What the AI received for Ihaia’s story

Pania’s words
Her note, as she dictated it
Who it is about
Ihaia, by first name, as Pania tapped it
Age band
3 to 4 years
Languages
English and te reo Māori
Iwi or hapū
Not recorded
From his whānau
Nothing recorded
His record
His recent entries
Learning being followed
None open
Pania’s style
Two of her approved stories
The setting
Pania, Kōtare room, Thursday morning
The centre
Its name, philosophy and te reo glossary
Never sent
  • The recording of her voice
  • Any photo or video
  • His surname
  • His date of birth

A sample of what one draft request carries, filled from your centre’s records. Everything a draft can draw on

Every draft waits for a kaiako.

Read it beside the words it came from, edit it or ask for a rewrite, confirm its Te Whāriki links, then approve. No AI draft reaches whānau before that.

The console’s review page with Ihaia’s draft open. The story sits inside the AI’s hairline, marked Draft, and beside it are the three Te Whāriki links Claude suggested, two ticked and one unticked.

The same draft on the review page, before Pania approved it. She unticked one of the three links Claude suggested.

Te Whāriki links a kaiako confirms

Claude suggests up to four, each with its reason. Only the links a kaiako leaves ticked are kept.

Run from one place

Managers can require approval for new phones, sign out any phone, import the roster from a CSV, export a child’s record and see who did what in the audit log.

What Surfaced gives a centre

Surfaced WhānauFor families at a Surfaced centre

Whānau see the day, and reply.

Photos, notes and Learning Stories arrive for each family, filed by when they happened. Each family’s comments are seen only by that family and the centre.

  • Your centre sets up each family’s account. Whānau sign in with a code sent to their email.
  • A centre can mark a child as protected, and photos with that child in them then go only to that child’s whānau.
  • Face matching is a separate choice, and only ever suggests tamariki whose whānau said yes.

What whānau see

The Surfaced Whānau app on a phone, showing Ihaia’s day with the approved story, one like and a comment from Tipene.

The approved story as Ihaia’s whānau see it, filed at 9:14 am, when it happened. The Surfaced Whānau iPhone app is in testing, and whānau sign in on the web today.

Questions centres ask.

Does the AI decide who is in a photo?
No. A kaiako names who it is for. Face matching on your centre’s phones can suggest a name, and tick one it is sure of, but only for tamariki whose whānau said yes. Nothing is sent until a kaiako presses Send, and any name can be unticked. The AI that drafts is given first names as text and never sees the photo.
Does Surfaced keep face data?
Face templates, and the small face samples that refresh them, are kept by Surfaced only encrypted, under a key only your centre’s approved phones hold. The samples are deleted when consent is withdrawn. Templates are deleted from every phone when consent is withdrawn, and from a phone when it is removed, as each phone next checks in with Surfaced. Surfaced also keeps where the phone found faces in a photo, which child it suggested and how close the match was, and which child a kaiako confirmed. Photos themselves are stored so whānau can see them, with location data removed.
Does a kaiako check everything before whānau see it?
Every AI draft, yes. A named photo or video is sent with the kaiako’s words exactly as written, and the AI never sees it. Your centre can choose to have named photos wait for a head teacher too.
Where is our data stored?
In Sydney, Australia. Drafts are made with Anthropic’s Claude, which may process them outside New Zealand. Privacy & AI sets out where everything goes.
Can we bring our Storypark records?
Not yet. Today you can bring your children, rooms and whānau email addresses from a CSV file, with a preview before anything changes. You can also read how Surfaced and Storypark compare.

Pilot Surfaced at your centre.

Surfaced is in pilot, with the kaiako app on iPhone. Tell us about your centre and how you document learning today.

Talk to us

Or email hello@surfaced.co.nz