You can quickly and easily send out SMS text messages to a groups of recipients corresponding to your MIS Data using our Text Message Add-on.

Accessing the Text Messaging Add-on

• Select the Add-ons Tab from the Admin Toolbar to access the Add-ons Dashboard
  
  
• Select the Text Messaging tile from the options available

Buying more Credits

Before you can send text messages, you must ensure that you have added credits to your account.

To review your credits

• Click the Bundles tab on the left-hand menu.
  
  
• To purchased additional credits, select the Bundle you would like to purchase - your credits will be allocated immediately, and we will invoice you for the purchase.
  
  
• You can also see your purchase history at the bottom of the page

Creating a New Text Message

• Click on the 'Create' tab on the left-hand side of your Dashboard.
  
  
• Once you have opened the message, enter a Message Subject, this will not be visible to recipients, as there is no title in a text message.

Adding Recipients

You can add recipients from multiple groups

Finding groups

• To add recipients, click the Add button
   
• In the recipient dialog, select the type of recipients you want to send to.  For example Contacts or Staff.
   
• Then, select the type of group from the options on the left. For example, registration group or year group.
   
• Next you can select to view either All, or individual groups.

Selecting Recipients from a Group

• In the right-hand panel, you will be presented with a list of pupils in your chosen group.  
  • Any names that are greyed out indicate that your MIS data does not contain a mobile number or email address or phone number for that person, depending on which add-on you are using.
  • You can use the select all option to send to all available contacts in the group. 
  • You can select, or deselect individual pupils by clicking on the tick at the right hand side of each row.
  • If a person has multiple contacts set for them, you can click on the small Envelope icon to select which person receives the text.
  • To send to Primary Contacts only, click on the drop-down icon beside the Done button and select the option presented.
  • Selecting only primary contacts will reduce the number of credits you use when sending text messages

Writing your Text Message

You can now enter the content of your Text Message, tailoring the message to be personalised and professional.

• Type the message that you would like to send into the box.
  
  
• Personalise the message using the Insert Placeholder option.  This will allow you to tailor the message to include parent and pupil details for each person it is sent to.   
  
  
• If you use the Pupil Placeholders and the group contains more than one child belonging to the same parent, the message will be sent multiple times.
  
  
• Just above the message area, you will see a character count, and message count.  This will help you assess how many messages, and therefore credits you will use.  
  
  
• You can use the Emoji option to insert an emoji into your message.  Please note that using these may take up more characters than a single letter, so may increase the length of your message.
• Emojis can also be used to reduce characters when used to replaced longer words.  For example the word 'football' uses 8 characters, but the football emoji is only 3.

Saving & Sending your Text Message

You can preview your text message, save it as a draft or template, or send it straight away.

• Preview: This will allow you to view your text from a parent's perspective on a mobile device, this can help you decide whether your text needs changing before being sent out.
  
  
• Save Draft: If you're not quite ready to send this text out or you're awaiting further details, save the text as a draft and send it at a later date under the Drafts tab on the left.
  
  
• Save Template: Save time by not having to rewrite texts, by saving them as template, to reuse as many times as you'd like.  Once created, select Templates from the menu on the left to use them to create a new message.
  
  
• Send Now: Use the 'Send Now' button to directly send your text out to all of the decided recipients.

Checking for Errors

After sending text messages out you be alerted in the Mail Queue if any of your texts have failed to go through.  Only the messages indicated on the error will have failed, and the message will have been sent successfully to all other numbers in the groups you selected.

• Click View Contacts to check which recipients failed to receive the message, as well as the reason for the failure.
  
  
• You may need to resolve any issues with phone numbers in your MIS, and wait for the data to synchronise, before trying to send again by clicking Continue Sending.
  
  
• If you'd like to try resending all of the messages stuck in your Mail Queue, you can use the Continue Sending All button below the list.
  
  
  
  
• To cancel the unsent messages, click the Clear All button to remove the unsent messages.

Updated 07 March 2025 14:11