Communications is where you send announcements: emails to all guardians, to the guardians of one class or to all staff, and text messages (SMS) to guardians. You can schedule an email for later, save messages you send often as templates, and see everything that has gone out.
- Where System → Communications
- Who can use it Anyone whose role includes Communications.
- Set up first Outgoing email in Settings; an active SMS Gateway in Integrations for SMS; guardians with email addresses and phone numbers in Guardians.
Delivery setup
The Delivery setup card at the top shows whether Email and SMS are Ready or Not set up, with a link to set each up and buttons to send yourself a Test email or Test SMS. New staff and parent logins get their password links through these too. See Email & SMS setup.
Send an email announcement
- In Compose Message, choose who it goes to under Send To: All Guardians, All Staff or Guardians of a Class. For a class, pick it under Class, for example JHS 2.
- Type a Subject, for example Term Reopening Notice, and your Message.
- Click Send Message. A message tells you how many people it reached, for example Sent to 118 of 120 recipient(s).
Each person gets their own copy, so nobody sees anyone else’s address. Staff emails go to the address on each staff record in Staff.
Schedule it for later
Pick a date and time under Schedule For Later (optional) before you click Send Message. The message is saved as Scheduled and sent by the Scheduled message dispatch automation, which runs once a day.
Because that job runs daily, a scheduled message can go out up to 24 hours after the time you chose. Leave the box blank to send straight away.
Templates
To reuse a message, such as a fees reminder you send every term, write it and click Save as Template. Give it a name and click Save Template.
Next time, choose it under Load From Template (optional). The subject and message fill in for you; change anything you need before sending. Delete old templates with the bin button in the Templates list.
Send an SMS
- In Send SMS, choose All Guardians or Guardians of a Class (and the class).
- Type your Message. Keep it short: the box stops at 459 characters, and long texts are charged as several messages by your SMS provider.
- Click Send SMS. You’ll see how many numbers it was sent to.
Phone numbers are tidied into the Ghana format and duplicates are removed, so a parent with two children in the class gets one text.
Important: SMS is sent straight away and costs credit on your SMS account. It can’t be scheduled or recalled.
Guardians who opt out
If a guardian asks not to receive messages, open them in Guardians and tick Opted out of SMS messages, Opted out of email messages, or both.
From then on they are left out automatically: email announcements skip anyone opted out of email, and texts (including automatic reminders such as overdue fees) skip anyone opted out of SMS. Untick the box to include them again.
There is no opt-out for staff announcements.
Sent History
The Sent History list shows each email and SMS with its date, who it went to, the subject, its status (Sent, or Scheduled for a time) and how many were delivered. The counters at the top add these up.
Good to know
- Guardians without an email address (or phone number, for SMS) are skipped. If very few people are reached, check their contact details in Guardians.
- All Guardians means every guardian on your school’s list, not only guardians of current students.
- If emails don’t arrive, send a test from Settings first. Most delivery problems come from the email set-up, not from this screen.
- Templates saved here are for email. SMS messages are typed fresh each time.