diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3260a78..2a6e0e0 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,19 +1,24 @@
-# Data Track — Week 1 Assignment
+# Data Track — Week 1 Assignment (Template)
 
 The HackYourFuture Data Track Week 1 assignment: **The Data Cleaning Pipeline**.
 
-> Full instructions, learning context, and submission flow live in the
-> curriculum chapter:
+> 👩‍🎓 **Students:** you are in the wrong place. Do **not** fork or use this template.
+> Go to your cohort's assignment repo under
+> [`HackYourAssignment`](https://github.com/HackYourAssignment) (e.g. `c55-data-week1`,
+> `c56-data-week1`, …). Your teacher posts the exact link in your cohort channel.
+> Fork the cohort repo, branch, and open a PR back to it. Full instructions live in the
 > [Week 1 Assignment on Notion](https://www.notion.so/hackyourfuture/Week-1-Assignment-The-Data-Cleaning-Pipeline-3cc37d4bf482470cbc6667bd1d1bb605).
-> Read it first; this README is a quick reference.
 
-## How to start
+## For instructors / track maintainers
 
-1. Click **Use this template** → **Create a new repository** under your own GitHub account.
-2. Clone *your* copy locally.
-3. `git switch -c week1-attempt`
-4. Work through the three tasks below.
-5. Push and open a PR against your repo's `main`. The auto-grader runs on every push and posts a score comment.
+This repo is the **upstream template** for the Week 1 assignment. At the start of each
+cohort, generate a cohort-specific repo under the `HackYourAssignment` org from this
+template (GitHub: **Use this template → Create a new repository**, owner =
+`HackYourAssignment`, name = `c<NN>-data-week1`). Students then fork *that* cohort repo
+and open PRs back to it; the auto-grader runs on every push.
+
+Edits to the assignment, dataset, or grader belong here on the template, not on the
+cohort copies.
 
 ## Tasks at a glance
 
@@ -61,4 +66,6 @@ This prints a per-task breakdown and writes `score.json`. Iterate until
 
 ## Submission
 
-Open a PR against your fork's `main`. Share the PR URL with your teacher.
+Students submit on the cohort repo (`HackYourAssignment/c<NN>-data-week1`), not here:
+open a PR from the student's fork against the cohort repo's `main`, then share the PR
+URL with the teacher.