Primarysite: For Parents/Families using The School App

Welcome to our step by step guide for using TheSchoolApp.

In this guide we will cover:

This document will help you achieve all these things in an easy step by step process. If you have any questions, please get in touch.

Getting started

In order to use TheSchoolApp, you will firstly need to have this downloaded on your mobile or tablet device. Please ensure your devices are on their latest software versions for optimal use of TheSchoolApp.

How to install/update your school app

Should you have an Apple device you will need to visit the App Store and search for TheSchoolApp. You will see this appear as the below.

Select the blue ‘Get’ button which will appear next to the app in the store to start the download of the app onto your device.

If you have an Android device, you will need to visit the Google Play Store on your device and search for TheSchoolApp. You will see this appear as the below.

Tap the green ‘Install’ button to start the download of the app onto your device. Once downloaded the app will sit on the home screen of your device for use.

Should you already have TheSchoolApp installed on your device from previous use, you will need to update the app itself to the very latest version. To do this, you will need to go to either the App Store or Google Play Store on your device and check for any available updates for the app. This will be listed within the store itself. You may have your device set to automatically update your apps to the latest versions when your device is on charge, if so, you will not need to go and manually do this.

The process for Authentication

You will have the ability to view the app as a guest or as an authenticated user. Should you be an authenticated user of the app this means that you will receive private messages from the school should they wish to send any. Anyone viewing the app as a guest can receive public messages from the school, but these would only be whole school messages, not private messages relating to individual children or groups.

Note: Should you require the authentication process to be displayed in another language to help assist you through the process, you can click the Translate with Google icon in the top right corner. You can find out more information about translation towards the end of this document.

In order to receive private messages from the school, you will firstly need to be given access by the school. Once you are given app access you will receive an invite via a text message to start the authentication process.

The text itself will come from ‘TheSchoolApp’ and the wording will be as follows: ‘Your school have given you access to receive private app messages. To verify your phone number, please follow this link https://theschoolapp.page.link/install

Please note that the link given will need to be tapped on from your mobile device link will check which version (if any) of the app is installed and either open the app at said screen, update the app or download the app before taking you to the screen. You will then see the below ‘Accept your invitation’ screen.

To start you will need to type in your mobile number and tap the ‘Check my number’ button. If you have been granted access by the school, this will automatically generate a text message to be sent, with a unique access code, which you will need to enter on the next screen. ‘TheSchoolApp verification code: 123456. This code will expire in 10 minutes.’

If you happen to find that the school have not granted you access, a text message will not be sent, and you won’t be able to progress with the authentication flow.

If you have not actioned the code within the SMS in the 10 minutes it’s active for, you will need to follow these steps for TheSchoolApp to recognise you would like to receive individual messages for your child/children.

Open the app and tap the word ‘More’, click the school in question, which will now show you are a guest of, tap the ‘Verify’ button, and then tap the ‘I understand’ button.

The next screen, will ask for your mobile number to be filled in, complete this and a new access code will be sent through straight away. The access code will need to be tapped into the box and then tap ‘enter’. This should now allow you to complete the process as an authenticated user.

You can look up trouble-solving solutions by tapping on the “Not received an SMS?” link and are presented with a pop-up.

If you should be the nominated contact for your child within the school, please contact the school directly and they will be able to check this for you. The process will need to be started again, once rectified, please do remember that whilst you are waiting for issues to be resolved, you are still able to view the school app as a guest user.

Once the unique code has been received and entered correctly, you will then be asked to set a 4-digit pin. You will need to again confirm this once set.

A personal PIN provides extra security so that only you as the parent have access to read private messages.

Should your phone have the ability to recognise Face ID or Touch ID, you will be prompted and asked if you would like to use this instead of entering your PIN for the future.

If you have been sent a code but you don’t complete the authentication process, you will be asked to complete the PIN set up the first time you try and access a private message.

You will now see the school and pupil/s you are subscribed to by name. Next tap the ‘Done’ button.

Resetting and changing your PIN

Should you have forgotten your PIN, you can reset your it by selecting the Forgotten your PIN link on the Enter PIN screen that appears when trying to open a private message or by selecting the More menu and then Change PIN.

You will need to click the ‘Forgotten your PIN’ link, to start the process to reset this.

The link will take you back through the authentication process, where we once again need to verify your phone number and send you your unique SMS code. You can then set a new PIN.

Once completed, you will be taken back into the app with your previous selected school(s) set up for you just as before.

If you know your PIN but would like to change it or enable/disable TouchID or FaceID at a later stage, you can do this by tapping Change PIN under the More menu.

To ensure that it is you who wants to make this change, the app will ask you for your current PIN.

Once your PIN has been accepted, you will be asked to Enter a new PIN code and confirm this. Depending on your phone, you can also Enable TouchID or FaceID at the same time, using the toggle button and then click the Done button.

Should your PIN code not match once entered, you will see an error message pop up to say they mismatch, and you will need to do this again.

Once TheSchoolApp has recognised your PIN change, you will then see a message bar appear to let you know you have been successful.

GUEST USER ACCESS

If you have not been given app access by your school and have not been through the authentication process, you can still view TheSchoolApp as a guest user.

Once you have tapped into the app through your device you will be asked if you have received an SMS invitation from the school. Tap ‘No’.

You will then be asked to enter the school’s name or alternatively you are able to look up schools near yourself.

As you type in the school’s name you will start to see options appear for you to select from the drop down. Select the school in question and then tap the ‘Done’ button.

You will then see the school’s logo and name and postcode of the school.

How to navigate the app

The home screen of the app will always display the School’s Calendar, Latest News items and Newsletters, should the school have these features incorporated into their website.

You will also notice that there are 5 tabs along the bottom of the screen. ‘Home’, ‘Calendar’, ‘School’, ‘Messages’ and ‘More’.

Calendar Tab

The calendar can show the singular events which are pulled directly from what is put on the school website calendar, but also multiple events added from different schools, if you subscribe to more than one school, to be read in a calendar format and in more detail when clicked. The calendar button will also say if there are no events for that day. There is also the ability to save to your phone calendar. You can also scroll through each calendar month to see what events are upcoming.

School Tab

This allows you to navigate the pages within the school website, manage your subscription to the school and call or email the school directly from the app.

In the below image, you can see that you have been authenticated for messages to be received for a child/children individually, and how this would look should you not be authenticated by the school but able to view with guest access.

You can see the call and email icons on this tab.

Messages

Any messages sent out from the school will populate in this Messages area.

The first thing to note, is that any unread messages will be shown by a red badge with the number of messages contained over the Message icon. Your Messages area will always show the latest message first in date order. Any unread messages will appear with a blue dot next to the notification bell as below.

1. 2.

1. This shows your messages, if you are subscribed to multiple schools to receive messages and you can see the change in logo for each school along with the bell icon

2. This screen shows messages and they would look like this if just one school is followed as a guest or as single school subscription for messages to be received with the bell icon

When opening a message, should this be a private message, you will be asked for your PIN, Face or Touch ID. If you set up Face or Touch ID during authentication, you can open private messages with Face or Touch ID. You can also decide to not use Face or Touch ID and enter your PIN instead.

Once identification has been successful and you then remain active using the app, it will not ask for your PIN again should another message come through. If you do come out of the app, you a have a grace period of 2 minutes in which you will not be asked to re-enter your PIN; should this be an hour for example, you will be asked for the PIN again.

Should identification fail because your Touch or Face ID did not match, the app will ask you to try again or enter your PIN. You have 3 attempts; if all fail, your access is blocked for 5 minutes.

You will also notice an ‘Edit’ button in the top right corner of your message area, tapping this allows you to select all or individual messages, which can be marked as read/unread or deleted individually or in bulk.

Once in the message itself, you will see that you again have the option to delete the message or mark this as unread. This will be the case for whole school messages and private messages that you may have been sent.

In the More section of the app you will have the ability to ‘Manage Subscriptions’, ‘Translate with Google’, ‘FAQ’s’, ‘Send App Feedback’, view our ‘Privacy Policy’ and ‘Disconnect’ from the app should you wish too.

The ‘Manage Subscriptions’ area will list the school/s that you are currently subscribed to in the app as either a guest user or an authenticated user. Clicking on a school you are subscribed to with guest access, you will see the option to verify your number if you have received an invitation from the school or alternatively you can unsubscribe from the school.

Should you wish to follow multiple schools, you will see the option to add a further school to your subscriptions within the app. Please see our multi school user section further on in this guide.

If you wish to provide any feedback on the app, please do so by tapping the ‘Send App Feedback’ button, this will populate a new email message for your feedback which will be received by our app team.

Lastly, should you be an authenticated user of the app and no longer wish to receive any private messages in the future, you can do so by tapping the ‘Disconnect’ button. If you are an authenticated user of the app and no longer wish to receive any private messages, before you do this, you should contact the school directly so they can revoke your access.

Clicking ‘Disconnect’ will unlink the app from all schools and you will no longer receive any messages. You can reconnect at any time, but you will have to complete the authentication process again to receive private messages.

Should you disconnect as a guest, all guest messages are lost. If an authenticated user disconnects, we also remember their guest messages.

An example of this might be; you might be following a school as a guest, receive messages and then hit the disconnect button. When you select the school again, it won't remember the public messages you have previously received.

If you are authenticated and follow a guest school as well, when you re-authenticate, the app automatically loads all the schools you had previously subscribed to as a guest and with that any public messages you have received.

The only time you may need to use this, by way of an example is, if your child is due to leave the school or has left. Your child may be a year 6 pupil and you no longer need to use the school app.

Subscription to multiple schools

Should you have children at different schools, that both use TheSchoolApp, the ability to see both schools within the app is possible. When in the ‘Home’ area of the app, you will be able to differentiate between the schools by their logo which will sit to the left side of any entries on the ‘Home’ screen as shown below.

To view a calendar entry, if there is an event for that particular date that has been populated by the school, you will see it shown with a dot below it, once you click that particular date, it will show which school this is for, by their school logo.

If you are an authenticated user for both schools, you will again receive direct messages from the schools along with general school messages that the school send out. These will be laid out in the ‘Messages’ area in date order with the relevant school logo next to the message so that you can see which school the message is in relation to.

Translate with Google

You can translate all app content by enabling the Google translate plugin. This can be done from the first screen when you open the app for the first time or later on from the More menu.

Should you require the authentication process to be displayed in another language to help assist you through the process, you can click the Translate with Google icon in the top right corner.

You will then be asked to select the language that is needed.

You will see a data warning message display to inform you about the data usage needed. You will need to select Okay from this pop-up. This will download the language pack. Should you not be connected to a WiFi network at this time, your mobile network will deduct this data allowance from your data pack.

Once the data pack has downloaded, it will then download the language pack you have selected. You will need to toggle the Enable Translation switch to keep the language selected.

The Translate function can also be found when you navigate to the More menu. Selecting the Translate with Google option. The data pack will need to be enabled and the Enable Translation toggle switch will need to be on.

You will then be able to navigate through the app with your language selected and translated for you to read.

Accessibility Through the App

Accessibility settings will differ between using iOS and Android phones. If you need to have accessibility features turned on, it will also be device specific.

You will be able to have enlarged text, contrast checking and the menu for the pages will enlarge. Images will not be able to be made any bigger.

For Android, it is advised to search for the word ‘font’ in the search settings, you can do this in the settings part of your phone.

You will need to use the slider to select the font size. For an Android phone there are only four font size options are available. Small, Default, Large and Largest.

For users of iOS, to change the text size, you will need to access your Settings. You will need to open this up and click Accessibility ---> Display & Text Size ---> Larger Text

To Enable/Disable Larger Accessibility Sizes, you will need to use the toggle button to slide this on/off and using the sliding bar at the bottom will determine how large the text will appear.

Updated 21 November 2024 11:20