You already have a checked draft and a checklist for safety, consent, crediting and accuracy. Today is the day it either goes out or stays back.

Before anything goes public, three decisions sit with you, the publisher. Work them once as a class on this invented draft, then you will apply the same three to your own piece.

Invented draft: a short opinion piece called Why our town needs a youth bus late on Fridays. It includes a photo of three friends at the bus stop (one of them is not in this class), a screenshot of a private group chat moaning about missed last buses, and the writer's full school name and year group in the byline (the name line under the title). The planned audience is "anyone with the link".

Keep a three-line board prompt visible: Audience? Personal info? Consent? Talk through each question once, with one concrete answer each:

1. Who can see this? Is "anyone with the link" the right audience for a piece that names a school and shows real faces, or should it stay inside the class space?
2. What personal information is in it? Full name, year group, faces, a private chat: which of those needs cutting, blurring, or keeping?
3. Whose consent did this need? The writer, the two friends who posed, the friend who did not pose, and everyone in the private chat. Who has already said yes, and who has not?

Confirm your checked draft is open before you start writing. If it is not, recover it the class way now.

Before you publish anything, answer the three final questions for your piece. Write each answer in one or two plain sentences in your planning log (or on a note beside the draft).

1. Who can see this? Name the real audience you will publish to today (for example: this class only, the year group, a shared school folder, a public link). Say why that audience fits the piece.
2. What personal information is in it? List every bit of personal detail that is still visible: names, faces, school, locations, private messages, contact details, anything that points to a real person. For each one, decide: keep, remove, blur, or replace with something less identifying.
3. Whose consent did this need? List every person who appears, is quoted, or whose work or image you used. Mark each as: consent already clear for this audience, need to ask before publishing, or remove them from the piece.

Sentence starters if you need them:

• Audience: I will publish to… because…
• Personal info still visible: … I will keep / remove / blur…
• Consent: … clear for this audience / need to ask / remove from the piece

Now make the call and act on it.

If your piece is ready (three decisions done, checks passed, consent clear for this audience):

• publish it only to the place the class already agreed, unless your teacher confirms a different audience
• double-check the finished version opens for someone else
• add one line to your planning log: date, where it went, and the audience you chose
• save the final file and your log the class way so both are still there next session

If your piece is not ready (missing consent, a failed check you could not fix, file incomplete, or you are not happy it is safe):

• do not publish it
• write one honest line in your log naming what is blocking it and what you will do next
• save the draft and log the class way

Before you finish, check:

• either a live piece in the agreed place, or a clear written reason it is held
• final file and log saved the class way
• you can tell a partner in one sentence what you decided and why

Pull back together. Some of you went live, some of you held on purpose. Both are real outcomes.

Without naming which camp you are in, shout out one decision someone might have made: narrower audience, blur a face, cut a quote, or hold the whole piece.

Next time you will talk about what felt different once something was public, and what you would change next time.