Frequently Asked

Please find direct links below to assist you with ordering text credits:

Order text credits via Desktop

Order text credits via Web

Dashboard > Management > Management Reports > Search Text Credits > Text Credit Purchase History.

For a member to receive an app message they must be logged into the app. If they aren’t logged into the app, they will receive a text message.

To send an app message:

• Go to Messaging.
• Click Send a Text.
• If Send by box shows App/Text – this will send an App message to those logged in and a Text to those who are not.
• If Send by box shows App – this will only send an App message to those logged in and those who are not will appear on your Paper list.

To check the Delivery/Dispatch status of a message sent through Schoolcomms, you will need to check your Sent items in Messaging. You are able to do this in Schoolcomms via the desktop version Delivery Status Desktop or via the web version Delivery Status Web.

Please note that you are only able to view the delivery/dispatch status details for messages sent in the past month.

Each time you click into Send Message, Schoolcomms will create two blank drafts (two blank drafts will always be displayed by default).

Please find a direct link below to assist you with managing your drafts:

Manage your Drafts

You can message both parents if they are being imported from SIMS (depending on their Priority number). You can check your import settings on the Desktop version of Schoolcomms: Import Settings.

• Go to Management.
• Click Edit Settings.

View the setting under the Student Family Contact area – if you want to import more contacts, click the change button and view the help page before processing the change.

Alternatively, if you want to import an additional contact (separate to your import settings above) for one child, you can do this in the Desktop version of Schoolcomms:

• Go to School Members and Group.
• In School Members, search for the child.
• Click Linked People at the top of the screen to view the contact currently being imported.
• Click New from SIMS at the bottom of the screen, this will show the additional contacts in SIMS.
• Select the new contact and click OK.

The new contact will come into Schoolcomms as a non-prime Parent, so when you are sending a message to include this contact, you will need to un-tick Send to Prime Parent or select Send to All Contacts.

There may be a few simple reasons a parent does not get an email please can you check the following:

• Go to Dashboard.
• Click Linked People and search for the parent.
• Do they have an email address? If not, add this into SIMS and run the import in Schoolcomms.
• If they have an email address, is it disabled? If so, this may be showing in your Data Issues, as emails may have bounced or gone into Spam. You can enable the email address on the right-hand side, but only do this once you have confirmed the details with the parent and advised them to add your Schoolcomms email address to their address book so it does not happen again.

If you sent the message to Prime Parents, make sure the parent is showing as a Prime Parent.

To view the dispatch status for the message less than a month old:

• Delivery Status Desktop
• Delivery Status Web version

If you have multiple prime parents for a child but there are certain messages that you only want one of the parents to receive, you are able to temporarily ‘opt out’ the parent who you do not want to receive the message.

This can be actioned via Dashboard > School Members > Search for child > Linked People > Highlight parent > Opt out

You can then send the message as normal, and the parent who is opted out will not receive the message.

Once you have sent the message, you can then opt the parent back in using the same instructions as above, to ensure they can receive future messages from you and access School Gateway again.

To schedule a message please go to:

• Click on Dashboard.
• Click on Messaging.
• Click on Compose a message.
• Select either Text or Email.
• Add the recipients and compose the message.
• Click on Send Later.
• Input the Date and Time required and click on Confirm.

To view Scheduled Messages (currently it is not possible to edit a Scheduled Message):

• View Scheduled Message

In the desktop version, the scheduled messages will always appear at the top, but the date range needs to cover the date it was created, instead of the day it’s scheduled to be sent.

Alternatively, in the web version, you have a separate scheduled folder which shows all scheduled messages and doesn’t require a date range to be entered.

Create and remove club sessions

Add a pupil/staff member to a club

Manage club booking choices

Book members onto club sessions

Remove a member from a club session

Once the school has enabled the facility for parents to cancel their own Club session by ticking the option in the Clubs Settings, parents will be able to cancel a session up to the cut-off point set by the school in the Club.

Users will be able to cancel and make changes to their booking up until the booking cut off time. When a booking is cancelled, a credit will be applied to the balance to reverse the charge that was created when the booking was made. When a booking is changed, a credit will be applied to the balance to reverse the charge that was created when the booking was made and a new charge will be applied.

Please find a direct link below to assist you with your Club School Gateway settings:
School Gateway Settings

Please click here for a link to useful bitesize video to pass on to parents to assist them with cancelling/amending a club booking on School Gateway via the web/app.

The register is for reporting purposes only; it will not affect the member’s balance. The member would need to be removed from the club session to credit their School Gateway account. To refund the parent back to their payment method, you would action the refund in Online Transaction Refunds.

Club Reports

• The Club Balance report will display all the clubs and the balances for all club members. To access this, Click into Clubs > Club Reports > Club Balances. To view the transactions, click on the arrow the right of the amount to see the club transactions report for that club member.
• The Club Member Summary Report will display all the club members and the balances across all their clubs. To access this, click into Clubs > Club Member Summary Report. To view the bookings that have been made, click on the arrow to the left of the club member’s name.

Please note this report only reflects a child’s balance if they have a booking history against the club.

Please find some useful information below to assist you with removing a pupil from a payment request that they have previously paid and who will now be paying by Childcare Voucher.

• Add the pupil to the existing expired Childcare Voucher Payer payment request.

You will then need to transfer the payment made on the active request over to the expired voucher request via manual transactions:

• Click on Manual Transactions on the left-hand side of the screen.
• Search for and select the school member.
• At the top of the screen, select the Payer name.
• Find the payment request you wish to process the manual transaction for.
• Select the manual transaction type, e.g. manual adjustment. In the amount column, type the amount as a minus amount. Enter a comment if you wish.
• Then go to the request you wish to transfer the amount to; select the action type ‘Manual adjustment’. In the amount column, enter the amount. Enter a comment if you wish.
• Click on Apply Actions in the top right-hand corner under the heading Transaction Controls.
• You will see a Manual Transaction Summary. N.B if you haven’t selected a payer you will see a warning message at this point.
• If a payer has been selected, there will be a tick box on the bottom left of this screen asking if you wish to send a transaction receipt to payer.
• If you are happy with this transaction, please click Confirm.

You will then see a message in a green box at the top of the screen confirming that the transaction has been processed successfully.

Once the payment has been transferred across to the Childcare Voucher Payer request, you will then be able to remove the pupil from the active request.

To do this, please go to:

• Click on the active payment request you want to remove the pupil from.
• Click on edit.
• Scroll down to the members and locate the pupil and click on the X next to the pupil’s name.

The parent will now be able to book the club sessions and will not be made to pay.

If the Club is set to Pay Later, the parent can book and pay later.

If you want the parent to pay at the time of booking, you will need to amend the club settings to Pay Now in club settings.

If the Club Member is not included in an active Payment Request linked to the Club, they will be able to make a booking and it will not ask for payment. Please check the following.

• Go to payments and select the relevant Club Payment Request.
• Click Edit.
• Check that the Payment Request Type is Clubs flexible and can be made more than once.
• Check that the payment request is linked to the Club.
• Check that Visible from and to dates are correct and current.
• Check that the Club Member is included in the Payment Request.
• Also ensure they have no data issues against their email address.

If parents access the Payments area on School Gateway, they will be able to pay for a Club without making a booking. This means that if you have manually booked the parents in to the club, they can pay for it. Likewise, this facility allows parents to top-up their child’s club balance without necessarily making a booking.

We recommend you add a message into the Additional Information box of the Club Payment Request to make the parents aware that if they do not currently have a space booked, they need to book the club before making payment.

If the above is all correct, make sure the parents are not appearing in your Data Issues. If they are, please click here to resolve the data issue and re-enable the email address for the parent.

• Please check that the pupil is in the Club: Add a pupil/staff member to a club.
• Parental Responsibility is needed for parents to be able to see balances and make bookings on School Gateway.

Parental Responsibility needs to be applied in SIMS (Section 5 of the pupil record) and then an import will need to be run in Schoolcomms for this to update.

• Make sure there are active sessions for the Club.
• Click into Club Settings and make sure Online bookings are enabled.

• When you are ready to permanently remove the club from School Gateway, go into Clubs and select the Club. Ensure that the club you want to Deactivate is displayed in the middle of the screen and select Deactivate from the right-hand side.
• Read the warning message to check that you are deactivating the correct club and click Yes if you are happy. This action cannot be undone.
• Once Deactivated, the Club will show in the Inactive club area on Schoolcomms and will also show in the Club reports.

The dinner payment request requires a specific payment type for the payments made to update the pupil’s balance.

To check this:

• Go to Payments and select the relevant Dinners Payment Request.
• Click Edit.
• Check the Payment Type and make sure the payment type prefix has the following:
  • If you use Sims Dinner Money – Dinners:
  • If you use a Cashless Retailer – Catering:
  • If you use Schoolcomms Dinners – Schoolcomms Dinners:

If not, you will need to re-create your Payment Request with the correct type and manually transfer any payments across.

If the Payment Request is correct, and you use SIMS Dinner Money, ensure you have run an import (the SIMS user running this will need the Receipt Clerk permission group).

If you use a Cashless Retailer, we advise you to contact them to ensure they are successfully downloading payments from our system.

Add one-off menu option

Once your Dinner Plan has been created, and before you make it visible to your parents, you may wish to record opening balances if you have already been taking money outside of Schoolcomms for your Dinners.

Please click here for full details.

The Dinner Balance report will display all the Dinner balances for all members.

To access this:

• Click into Schoolcomms Dinners > Dinner Reports > Dinner Balances.

To view the transactions:

• Click on the arrow the right of the amount to see the club transactions report for that school member and adjust the date range as needed.

Within your Dinners system, you have a series of reports which will help you manage your Dinners and keep track of the balance. Click Here for the guide to assist you in accessing and using the reports.

• Go to Schoolcomms Dinners.
• Select the required Dinner Plan.
• Click into Edit under Actions on the right-hand side of the screen.
• Scroll to the Plan member area and select the new member from the list on the left and add them to the list on the right and save.
• If you have a Payment Request attached to the Dinner Plan, click edit Payment Request, select the relevant Payment Request, scroll to the bottom of the screen, and add the new member here too and

• Parental Responsibility is needed for parents to be able to see balances and make bookings on School Gateway.
• Parental Responsibility needs to be applied (SIMS Section 5 of the pupil record, Arbor “Emergency contact” drop-down, or ScholarPack “Contact Order”) to the parent’s record in the MIS and then an import will need to be run in Schoolcomms for this to update.
• For SIMS schools to run an import in Schoolcomms, you will need to be logged in to the desktop version of Schoolcomms: Click on Management > Click on Import management > Click on Run import (you may have to input your SIMS credentials).
• For Arbor and ScholarPack schools to run the import in Schoolcomms, you will need to log in to the web version of Schoolcomms: Dashboard > Import Management > Click on Rub import.

• Once your Dinner Plan is set up, you can enable meal item visibility and online booking via School Gateway.
• Please click here for full details.

Unable to register for School Gateway

• Go to Dashboard.
• Click to Management Reports.
• Click on School Gateway.
• Click on School Gateway Status report to view who has signed up and who is using the App.

View all children on School Gateway

If the parent has locked their account, you can unlock this by resetting the parent’s PIN number if they have an active School Gateway account. You will need access to the web version to do this:

• Click on Dashboard.
• Click on Linked People.
• Search and Select the Parent.
• If there is an Activation date under the School Gateway section at the bottom of the screen, click Reset Pin number from the right.

You will need access to the web version to reset the PIN:

• Click on Dashboard.
• Click on Linked People.
• Search and Select the Parent.
• If there is an Activation date under the School Gateway section at the bottom of the screen, click Reset Pin number on the right.

Bank Transfer

When a pupil moves schools to ensure that the parent/carer can see the new school on their School Gateway account:

• Ensure that the email address and mobile number combination held at your school matches the details held at the previous school – this would mean that both your school and the previous school would appear in the same School Gateway account. The previous school would then be removed when the school delete the child as a leaver from their Schoolcomms account.

or:

• If the parent has provided your school with a different email, the parent can register for a new School Gateway account using the new email address along with their mobile number, which would then only be linked to your school.

It is possible for both parents to have a School Gateway account, providing they match your Import settings and have been imported into Schoolcomms with a valid email and mobile (they must have their own individual email address and mobile number).

You can check if the details have been imported by going to Dashboard > Linked People and search the parent.

Click here to access the support pages to assist you with checking your import setting:

To enable the parent/s to view balances, book clubs, give consent etc. the parent/s would need to have Parental Responsibility.

This is applied in SIMS section 5 of the pupils SIMS record.

When they log into School Gateway, they will see the child’s details, payment requests and balances etc. for the child.

They will not see each other’s details. If a payment request is set up as a Fixed amount only needs to be paid once (e.g., for a trip), both parents will see this, but once one parent has paid it, it will disappear from the other parent’s options to pay.

There are a few reasons that may stop a parent from being able to pay for a Payment Request within School Gateway. There are a few checks that can be done to resolve this problem:

• Within the Payments section of Schoolcomms, click on the required Payment request.
• Click edit.
• Scroll down to the Members section, displaying members to select on the left and selected members on the right. Does the student the parent is linked to appear in the right-hand column, Selected Members? If not, you will need to select the student from the left-hand menu and move them into the right-hand column. Please remember to save the changes
• Does the payment request require consent? This can be checked in section one of the open payment request. If the Require Consent box is ticked, then the parent must have Parental Responsibility ticked in SIMS to see this payment request on their School Gateway account.
• Is the parent showing in Data Issues as a blocked email address? If the parent appears on this list as either a Permanent Bounce or a SPAM report, their email address will need to be Re-enabled to be able to make a payment.

If the Club is set to Pay Later, the parent can book and pay later.

If the Club Member is not included in an active Payment Request linked to the Club, they will be able to make a booking and it will not ask for payment. Please check the following.

• Go to payments and select the relevant Club Payment Request.
• Click Edit.
• Check that the Payment Request Type is Clubs flexible and can be made more than once.
• Check that the payment request is linked to the Club.
• Check that Visible from and to dates are correct and current.
• Check that the Club Member is included in the Payment Request.
• Also ensure they have no data issues against their email address.

If parents access the Payments area on School Gateway, they will be able to pay for a Club without making a booking, this means if you have manually booked the parents in to the club, they can pay for it. Likewise, this facility allows parents to top-up their child’s club balance without necessarily making a booking.

We recommend you add a message into the Additional Information box of the Club Payment Request to make the parents aware that if they do not currently have a space booked, they need to book the club before making payment.

If the above is all correct, make sure the parents are not appearing in your Data Issues. If they are, please click here to resolve the data issue and re-enable the email address for the parent.

• Please check that the pupil is included in the Club: Add a pupil/staff member to a club.
• Parental Responsibility is needed for parents to be able to see balances and make bookings on School Gateway.

Parental Responsibility needs to be applied in SIMS (Section 5 of the pupil record) and then an import will need to be run in Schoolcomms for this to update.

• Make sure there are active sessions for the Club.
• Click into Club Settings and make sure Online bookings are enabled.

Once the school has enabled the facility for parents to cancel their own Club session by ticking the option in the Clubs Settings, parents will be able to cancel a session up to the cut-off point set by the school in the Club. Users will be able to cancel and make changes to their booking up until the booking cut off time. When a booking is cancelled, a credit will be applied to the balance to reverse the charge that was created when the booking was made. When a booking is changed, a credit will be applied to the balance to reverse the charge that was created when the booking was made, and a new charge will be applied.

Please find a direct link below to assist you with your Club School Gateway settings: School Gateway Settings.

Please click here for a useful bitesize video to pass on to parents to assist them with cancelling/amending a club booking on School Gateway via the web/app.

• If the issue is only affecting one child, does the parent have Parental Responsibility in SIMS?
• Is the Timetable visibility checkbox ticked in OLR?

Is there a Data Issue for insufficient SIMS permissions for Timetables?

If so, the SIMS Permissions for the user running the import will need to be updated to include Third Party Reporter. Timetables will then be visible on School Gateway again after the next import.

Have the timetables been applied correctly in SIMS?

To check this, you can try to attach a child’s timetable via Timetables from SIMS when sending an email. From here, the timetable can be previewed without the message being sent to parents.

• If the issue is only affecting one child, does the parent have Parental Responsibility in SIMS?
• Has the import been run since the Behaviours/Achievements were entered in SIMS?
• Is there a Data Issue for insufficient SIMS permissions for Behaviours/Achievements?
  If so the SIMS Permissions for the user running the import will need to be updated to include Admissions Officer.
• Is the behaviour/achievement type which has been entered in SIMS ticked in your Online Reporting settings?

There may be a few simple reasons a parent does not get an email please can you check the following:

• Go to Dashboard.
• Click Linked People and search for the parent.
• Do they have an email address? If not, add this into section 5 of the pupils record in SIMS and run the import in Schoolcomms.
• If they have an email address, is it disabled? If so, this may be showing in your Data Issues as emails may have bounced or gone into Spam. You can re-enable the email address on the right-hand side, but only do this once you have confirmed the details with the parent and advised them to add your Schoolcomms email address to their address book, so it does not happen again.

If you sent the message to Prime Parents, make sure the parent is showing as a Prime Parent

To view the dispatch status for the message (if sent in the last month):

• Delivery Status Desktop
• Delivery Status Web version

• Parental Responsibility is needed for parents to be able to see balances and make bookings on School Gateway.
• Parental Responsibility needs to be applied to the parents record in the MIS and then an import will need to be run in Schoolcomms for this to update.
  • For SIMS: Section 5 of the pupil record.
  • For Arbor: “Emergency contact” drop-down.
  • For ScholarPack: “Contact Order”.
• For SIMS schools to run an import in Schoolcomms, you will need to be logged into the desktop version of Schoolcomms: Click on Management > Click on Import management > Click on Run import (you may have to input your SIMS credentials).
• For Arbor and ScholarPack schools to run the import in Schoolcomms, you will need to login to the web version of Schoolcomms: Dashboard > Import Management > Click on Run import. Wonde import data from Arbor and ScholarPack on an hourly basis so users will need to wait an hour before running an import to ensure the latest data is imported.

• Once your Dinner Plan is set up, you can enable meal item visibility and online booking via School Gateway.
• Please click here for full details.

If a parent wishes to receive push notifications for their School Gateway APP, they must ensure that push notifications are manually turned on for this app within their phone settings.

Please find below details of how to enable push notifications for School Gateway:

Every device will have other settings that can affect push notifications e.g. Battery optimisation which prevents some devices from receiving Push Notifications when the battery is below a certain percentage.

Please can the parent also check that they are on the latest version of the School Gateway APP.

They can check this in the APP store or log out of the APP and uninstall and re-install the APP.

The parent would need to refer to the help guide for their specific device or contact their provider if they are still not receiving the notifications and have followed the guidance below.

For Apple devices:

• On your phone go to Settings
• In here scroll down to the “Notifications Centre”
• Select School Gateway
• In here ensure that under the heading “Notification Centre” it is switched on
• Close the screen; you will now receive notifications when new app messages come through

For Android devices:

• On your phone go to Settings > Applications Manager
• Scroll down your list of apps until you find School Gateway and select it
• In here there will be a tick box that says “Show notifications” ensure this is selected
• Close the screen; you will now receive notifications when new app messages come through

For Samsung devices:

• Tap the Apps icon on your home screen
• Tap Settings
• Tap Apps or App Manager
• Scroll down and tap School Gateway
• Tap Notifications
• Confirm Block all is toggled OFF (Samsung/other devices, Toggle Allow Notifications ON)
• Restart your device.

For Huawei devices:

• On your phone go to Settings > Notification and Status Bar > Notifications Centre
• Scroll down your list of apps until you find School Gateway and select it
• Activate ‘allow notifications’ and ‘priority display’
• Restart your device
• You will now receive notifications when new app messages come through

Back to top

When you change from SIMS to a different MIS, we need to create a new Schoolcomms account for you.

This means:

• You will have new log-in details for Schoolcomms.
• You will have a new inbound number which will need to be communicated to parents.
• You will need to recreate Payment Requests, Clubs, and Schoolcomms Dinners (depending on your licence) in the new Schoolcomms account and manually move any existing payments from the old account to the new one.

How do I import school members in to Schoolcomms?

All School Members (pupils and staff) will need to be entered into a CSV file and imported in to Schoolcomms.

Part 1:

Complete the following information on the spreadsheet we have sent you:

1. The field types are as follows:
   
2. The role types are as follows:
   
3. Remove the column headers (the top line) from the spreadsheet:
   
4. Save the Excel sheet with the following file type: ‘CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv)’

Part 2:

1. Log in to Schoolcomms and go to the Management tab.
   
2. Click on Browse and select the CSV file you saved earlier.
3. When the file name is showing, click on Run Import to bring the data into Schoolcomms.
   

If you need to make any changes to the details for a School Member (such as their registration group), or you need to add or remove a member, you will need to update your CSV file and re-import it in to Schoolcomms.

Once you have updated your spreadsheet re-import the new data.

If you have removed a member, you can now delete them from Schoolcomms.

You will need to individually add each parent along with their email address and mobile manually into Schoolcomms, following the steps below.

1. Click on School Gateway from the bottom of the left-hand menu.
2. Select the School Members Tab; you may need to press the 3 lines in the top left for this to appear.
3. Select the child you want to add the contact for, click on Add Linked Person to add the contact details for the first parent.
   
4. Complete the personal details for the parent.
   
5. Select the Relationship you want for the parent.
6. Tick if the parent has Parental Responsibility.
7. Add the contact details and choose if you want to send a confirmation email or text to the parents. Click Save.
8. If you want to add an additional contact, click Add Linked Person from the right-hand side menu and repeat steps 5-8 above.
9. Any changes to these linked people will also need to be done here by clicking edit from the right-hand side menu.

You will need to individually add the email addresses and mobile numbers manually into Schoolcomms, following the steps below.

1. Click on School Gateway from the left-hand menu.
2. Select the Management Tab.
3. Click on School members.
4. Select the member of staff, click on Add Linked Person to add the contact details for this member.
5. Add the email address and mobile number.
   
6. Choose if you want to send a confirmation email or text.
7. Click Save.

At the end of the academic year/beginning of the new academic year, you will need to update and re-import your spreadsheet (CSV file). You will need to remove any leavers and add any new members. All the registration groups and year groups of existing school members will need to be updated to reflect the new academic year.  Once the spreadsheet is updated, you will need to re-import this into Schoolcomms.

You can then delete any leavers when you no longer wish to have any further contact with them.

If you have removed a member from the re-imported CSV file, they will show in the task list area and you will see the following message.

Click on the Icon and select the members you want to remove by clicking on the name on the left. Click Add in the middle so the name appears in the right. Click OK at the bottom of the screen to permanently remove them from Schoolcomms.