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Parent-teacher meetings and chat

Plan a parent-teacher meeting in slots and let parents book a time in the Campus app. Record who came, and share notes and follow-ups with the family. Between meetings, parents and teachers chat about one child, the school can read those chats, and staff chat with each other.
PLANSFrom Growth
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The problem it solves

  • Forty parents arrive at 9 o'clock for a meeting that runs until 1, and most of them wait an hour.
  • What the teacher and the parent agreed is forgotten by the next term.
  • Teachers give out their personal phone numbers and the school has no record of what was said.
  • A message to a whole class goes to a parents' group where every reply is seen by everyone.

How it works

  1. A coordinator opens Parent Meetings > Meetings and chooses the class, sections and teachers. They set the day or days, the time and the minutes per parent, then click Schedule.
  2. Slots are made for you. With Assigned by the institution each family gets a time. With Parents book a slot, families choose one on the portal or in the Campus app.
  3. Families are told when a slot is given or booking opens, and get a reminder about a day before.
  4. On the day the teacher marks Came or Did not come and writes the note: strengths, areas to improve, the parent's views and staff-only notes.
  5. Follow-ups agreed in the meeting get an owner and a due date and are tracked on the Follow-up Board until they are done.
  6. Between meetings, a parent opens Messages > Chat in the Campus app and writes to the class teacher or a subject teacher. The teacher answers on the web or in the app.

Everything it does

Planning a meeting

  • Whole class on one day, or spread over several days with Families per Day (5 to start with)
  • Days to skip: Sundays (the default), Saturdays and Sundays, or none; the term's holidays are skipped too
  • Time from 9:00 to 13:00 and 10 minutes per parent to start with
  • Scheduling: Assigned by the institution (the default) or Parents book a slot, with a last day and a Booking / Changes Until time
  • In person with a venue, or online with a meeting link; an agenda tab
  • Schedule warns when there are not enough slots for all families
  • Back to Draft while nothing is recorded; Cancel; Mark as Held

On the day

  • My Slots with the time, student, attending parent and the parent's topic; a Today filter
  • Came or Did not come on each slot
  • Discussion note: Strengths, Areas to Improve, Parent's Views, and Private Notes for staff only
  • Share with Parents on to start with; untick it to keep the whole note for staff
  • Coordinators work any teacher's slots from the Roster tab

Follow-ups and figures

  • Each follow-up has an action, an owner (teacher, parent or student), the responsible staff and a due date
  • Follow-up Board with Mine, Open and Overdue; Mark Done with the outcome, Cancel and Reopen
  • The roster shows Students, Booked, Attended and Attendance (%)
  • Meeting Attendance report: students invited and the share of families who came, by school and month
  • A ready-made Parent Meetings dashboard

Parent-teacher chat

  • One chat per student and staff member; both parents and the guardian are in the same chat
  • Families can write to the class teacher, each subject teacher and the contacts you set up, such as the Primary Coordinator
  • Staff can write only to families of their own sections and subject groups
  • Text, photos and files; Seen under a read message
  • Message a class: one message to many families, each in its own chat, so replies stay private
  • Principal Can Read Chats: the principal and administrators read every chat of the school. Both sides see the line The school can read this chat
  • No chat between parents and no class group chat

Staff chat

  • Chat in the back office's main menu, in place of Discuss
  • One-to-one and groups that staff make; photos and files; mute and leave
  • Families are not part of staff chat

Who uses it

CoordinatorPlans and schedules meetings, works any slot, closes the meeting and reads the attendance report.
TeacherRecords attendance and notes for their slots, owns follow-ups, and chats with the families of their classes.
ParentBooks a slot, reads the shared notes and follow-ups, and chats with the child's teachers.
PrincipalReads the parent chats of the school and messages a class from the web.
AdministratorSwitches chat and chat oversight on or off and sets up the chat contacts.

Where you use it

  • Web: Parent Meetings (Meetings, My Slots, Discussion Notes, Follow-up Board, Reporting) and Master Configuration > Parent Chats
  • Web: Chat in the back office's main menu for teachers and staff, and the Family Chat button on the student
  • The Campus app for parents: Teacher meetings to book, cancel and read notes. Also Messages > Chat (built and in testing, not in the app stores yet)
  • The Campus app, staff view: Parent meetings with slots, attendance, notes and follow-ups; chat with families and Message a class
  • Parent portal: meeting slots, booking, shared notes and follow-ups
  • Not on the portal: chat is in the app only for parents
  • Not built: limits on the hours when parents may write

What you control

Settings

  • Parent-Teacher Chat: on for each school to start with
  • Principal Can Read Chats: on to start with
  • Chat contacts: titles, staff, and limits by class, section or department
  • Parent-Teacher Meetings page for families: on, with a switch on the Entity's Parent & Student Portal tab
  • Per meeting: days, time, minutes per parent, scheduling, booking deadline, venue or link

Notifications

  • Meeting Slot Assigned and Meeting Booking Open: to the parents, in the app, by push, WhatsApp, SMS and email
  • Meeting Booked: to the parents, on the same channels
  • Meeting Reminder: to the parents about a day before the slot, on the same channels
  • Follow-up for Parents: to the parents, on the same channels
  • New Chat Message: to the other members of the chat, by push
  • All go out at once; a person can switch off a channel such as SMS, and in-app notices always arrive

Works with

SmartMy VMSParents booked on an in-person slot get a gate pass, and the slot shows when they came in.
SmartMy FacilityThe meeting's venue is picked from bookable rooms and reserved.

Questions

Can parents choose their own time?

Yes, if you choose Parents book a slot. Open slots are made for each teacher, and parents pick one on the portal or in the Campus app until the booking deadline you set.

Do parents see everything the teacher writes?

No. Strengths, areas to improve and the parent's views are shared when Share with Parents is ticked. Private Notes are for staff only and never shown.

Can the principal see what teachers write to parents?

Yes, when Principal Can Read Chats is on. The principal reads every parent chat of the school without being added to it, and both sides see that the school can read the chat.

Can parents chat with each other?

No. Each chat is between one family and one staff member about one child. A message to a class reaches each family in its own chat.

What if a parent has no login yet?

There is nobody to message, and the system says so. When the parent gets a login, they join their child's chats by themselves.

Can staff chat among themselves?

Yes. Chat in the back office covers one-to-one and group chats between staff. Families are not part of it.

Related features

APPS AND PORTALCampus app for parents and studentsOne app on Android and iPhone for parents and students: attendance, timetable, homework, results, notices, leave, meetings, fees and chat with teachers. A parent signs in once and switches between all their children, even in different schools of your group.APPS AND PORTALTeachers' appThe staff view of the Campus app puts a teacher's day on the phone. Today's periods and registers, homework, leave requests, parent meetings and chat with families are there, and each teacher sees only the pages their role allows.TIMETABLE, HOMEWORK, NOTICESCirculars and noticesWrite a circular once, choose who it is for (parents, students, staff, chosen classes or sections) and how they are told. It is approved before it goes out, and families read it with its attachments on the portal and in the Campus app.ATTENDANCE AND LEAVEClass attendance, and attendance for parentsTeachers mark each period's register on the web or on their phone, starting from all present. Parents see the percentage, every absence and the figures by subject, and are told the same day when their child is absent.ACROSS SMARTMY SCHOOLNotificationsSmartMy School tells parents, students and staff when something needs them: an absence, homework, a fee due, a result, a child leaving the gate. Every message also lands in one inbox in the Campus app and the portal. Each parent chooses their channels and their informational messages.ACTIVITIES AND DISCIPLINEDiscipline and conductRecord an incident and open a case for each student responsible. Hear it, decide it with actions proposed by your action ladder, and let parents appeal online. Suspensions, fines and exam debarments take effect across attendance, fees and hall tickets by themselves.

See your own school year run in it.

Tell us how many students you have, which classes you run and how you collect fees today. We will show you SmartMy School set up that way.
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