Communications, Messaging & Notifications

Goal: Send announcements, reminders, and direct messages to parents and staff without using external WhatsApp groups. Stay informed of important events through real-time notifications.

1. Your Notification Bell

Every portal has a bell icon (🔔) in the top navigation bar. The number on it tells you how many unread notifications you have.

• Click the bell to open your full notification inbox.
• Notifications include payment confirmations, system alerts, and messages — all in one place.

2. Notification Popups

When something important happens, a popup appears in the center of your screen automatically. You have two choices:

• Read — Shows you the full message. Marks it as read and removes it from your badge count.
• Later — Dismisses the popup without marking it as read. The badge count stays so you can come back to it.

Some notifications also include an action button (e.g., "View Invoice") that takes you directly to the relevant page.

3. School-Wide Announcements

Principals can broadcast messages to the entire school community.

1. 1
   Navigate to Communications → Announcements. Open /dashboard/communications
2. 2
   Click New Announcement.
3. 3
   Write your message (e.g., "School closes early on Friday due to sports day").
4. 4
   Select the audience: All Parents, All Staff, or Everyone.
5. 5
   Click Send.

The announcement appears at the top of the recipients' dashboards the next time they log in. You can also delete your own announcements if you made a mistake.

[SCREENSHOT: /dashboard/communications/new — the announcement compose window]

4. Direct Messaging (In-App Chat)

If you need to discuss a specific student's performance with their parent, you can use direct messages.

1. 1
   Go to the Messages section in the sidebar. Contacts with unread messages will have a cyan badge with the number of unread messages and appear at the top of the directory.
2. 2
   Browse the directory by category (Teaching Staff, Parents, etc.) or search for a name.
3. 3
   Click a contact to open the conversation.

WhatsApp-Style Features:

• Real-time Status: See if the person is ● Online or ● Offline.
• Typing Indicators: See when the other person is actively typing a reply.
• Message Ticks:
• One tick (✓): Message sent.
• Two ticks (✓✓): Message delivered.
• Two cyan ticks (✓✓): Message read.
• Red triangle (⚠): Message failed to send.

Clear Chat:

You can clear a conversation history from your view by clicking the three dots (⋮) in the top right corner of the chat window and selecting Clear Chat. A confirmation dialog will appear before anything is deleted. This only hides the messages for you — the recipient keeps their full copy. The cleared state is remembered even if you close and reopen the page.

Typing Indicators:

The "typing..." status disappears as soon as the other person stops typing. If a connection is lost mid-session, the indicator automatically clears within a few seconds rather than remaining stuck.

5. Class Group Chats

Class group chats are automatically created for every class in your school. You do not need to set them up.

• Class Teachers are automatically added to their class's group.
• Parents are automatically added when their child is enrolled in a class.
• If a student changes class, the parent is added to the new class group.

To access group chats:

1. 1
   Go to Messages in the sidebar.
2. 2
   Click the Class Groups tab (shown when you have at least one group).
3. 3
   Select a group to open the conversation.

All messages in a group are visible to every participant. Sender names are shown for all non-self messages.

[SCREENSHOT: /messages?tab=groups — the class groups list and chat view]

6. Messaging Policies (School Admin Only)

Principals and administrators can configure who is allowed to initiate conversations with whom.

1. 1
   Navigate to Settings → Messaging Policies.
2. 2
   Toggle the rules for your school:
3. Parents can message Class Teachers — enabled by default.
4. Parents can message School Admin — enabled by default.
5. Parents can message other Parents — disabled by default (privacy).
6. Subject Teachers can message Parents — enabled by default.
7. 3
   Click Save Policies.

[SCREENSHOT: /dashboard/settings/messaging — the messaging policies toggles]

7. Bulk SMS for Fee Reminders

Bursars can trigger automated SMS reminders to parents who have overdue fee balances.

1. 1
   Navigate to Finances → Invoices.
2. 2
   Filter the list to show Overdue invoices.
3. 3
   Click Send Reminders (top right).
4. 4
   Review the template and click confirm.

Open /dashboard