Opening the ‘Manage school members’ screen:

• Click the ‘School members and groups’ button in the tool bar to the left hand side of the screen.
• Click the ‘Manage school members’ button. The Manage School Members screen will be displayed:
  
  
  
  

Adding a school member:

• NB: Students, teachers and support staff should be added using the Import facility. This feature should only be used for adding school members that are not stored in your MIS.
• NB: Before adding a new member, check the text of the school member security letter.
• Click the ‘Add member’ button. This box will appear:
  
  
  
  
• Type in the school member’s forename.
• Type in the school member’s surname
• Click on the arrow to the right hand side of the ‘Role’ box. A drop down list will appear.
• Choose the required role and move your cursor over it. The role will become highlighted in dark blue.
• Click your left mouse button. The chosen role will appear in the ‘Role’ box.
• Type in the school member’s registration group and year if applicable (only available for students).
• If you click ‘Cancel’ you will lose any information you have entered about the new school member.
• Click ‘OK’ when you are happy with the new school member’s details and are ready to move on.
• You will see a print preview of the school member’s security details and introductory letter.
• Click on 'Page Setup' if you wish to remove the header or footer.
• Click 'Print'. This will print the school member’s security letter.
• When you have printed the security letter, click 'Close' or the cross in the top right hand corner.
• You will be returned to the main ‘School members and groups’ screen

Searching for a school member:

• Using your mouse left click inside the ‘Look for’ box. You will see the cursor flashing.
• Type in the name of the school member you are looking for, or a few letters from the name.
• Click the arrow to the right hand side of the ‘Search in’ box.
• A drop down list of possible school member roles will appear.
• Choose the appropriate role to search in. Move your cursor over it so that is highlighted in dark blue.
• Click your left mouse button. The chosen role will appear in the ‘Search in’ box. 
• Click ‘Find now’.
• The search results will be listed on screen. For each member you can see how many linked people are registered with Schoolcomms.
  
  
  
  
• Click ‘Clear’ to clear the ‘Look for’ box.
• The ‘Search in’ box will return to ‘-Not selected-’
• All school members will be listed on screen again.

Shortcut! You can type in a few letters from a name in the ‘Look for’ box and all members with those letter combinations will be listed.

Editing a school member’s details:

To edit a school member imported from your MIS, make the changes in SIMS or other MIS and rerun the member import. This feature is for members that have not been imported from your MIS.

• Open the 'Manage school members' screen.
• Find the required school member using the search tool.
• Click on the required school member. Their name, role and form will become highlighted in dark blue.
• Click the ‘Edit member’ button in the top tool bar. This box will appear:
  
  
  
  
• Make the required changes.
• Click ‘OK’ to save the details.
• If you click ‘Cancel’ you will lose any changes that you have made.
  

Shortcut! You can access the ‘Edit school member’ box by double clicking on the required school member’s name in the main ‘Manage school members’ screen.

Deleting a school member:

This should not be used for members imported from your MIS. Members will automatically be flagged as leavers when they are removed from roll in your MIS and the import is next run.

• Open the ‘Manage school members’ screen (see above).
• Find the required school member using the search tool (see above).
• Click on the required school member. Their name, role and form will become highlighted in dark blue.
• Click the ‘Delete member’ button in the top tool bar.
• This message box will appear:
  
  
  
  
• Click ‘Yes’ if you are sure you want to delete the named school member.
• Click ‘No’ if you do not want to delete the named school member.

Viewing a member’s linked people:

Video Tutorial: Managing linked people

• Find and highlight the member using the search tool as above.
• Click on the Linked people icon on the top toolbar.
• The box will show who is linked to that member, their communication preferences and their contact details. It also shows whether that person’s details have been web registered, imported from SIMS or created by the school using the Add link feature.
• A linked user can be deleted by clicking on the 'Delete selected person' button, unless the details were imported from SIMS.  If you wish to delete the link of a person imported from SIMS, you can opt them out using the ‘Opt person out’ button.  They will then be linked only for paper.  The link can only be deleted altogether by removing their association in SIMS.
  
  
  
  
  

Adding linked people:

• NB: If you are using web registration, it is recommended that everyone who has internet access should enter their own details through the web page. This ensures that they can modify their details for themselves when necessary, and that they have positively opted in. If you have imported contact details from SIMS, you will only need to add links for extra contacts that do not have internet access or do not wish to register for themselves through the web site.
• Open the ‘Manage school members’ screen (see above).
• Find the required school member using the search tool (see above). Click on the required school member. Their name, role and form will become highlighted in dark blue.
• Click the ‘Linked people’ icon on the top toolbar. You will see the people currently linked to this School member.
• To add a new linked person, click on the ‘Link new person’ button.
  
  
• Fill in the details for the new linked person and their relationship to the school member. If they do not have an email address, untick the email box.
• Tick the Non Resident check box if the parent is not resident at the same address as the student. This will ensure that the parent is flagged in the Paper Distribution List as needing an alternative address or phone number.
• Choose whether to send confirmation messages to the new linked person by ticking or unticking the check boxes. The confirmation message notifies the person that the email address or mobile number are now linked and explains how they can opt out if they wish.



• Click OK or to abandon click Cancel.
• A dialog box will appear telling you if a confirmation email and or text message will be sent to the newly linked person confirming their status. If you are satisfied with the details click Yes, or to go back and check your entries click No.
  
  
• The newly linked person will be shown with their mobile number and a note that the link was created by the school.
• If a linked person added by the school subsequently wishes to manage their own details and preferences, then the link created by the school must be deleted and new security details issued to the member or parents so that they can register through the web site.

Useful Tip!   If a non resident parent does not wish to register for email or text message, but would like to have paper copies sent by post, the school can link them to Schoolcomms for paper only and tick the non resident check box. The parent will then be flagged in the paper list as requiring a separate copy.

Editing linked people:

• NB: To edit the details of a person whose contact details have been imported from SIMS, you must alter the details in SIMS and re-run the contact import.
• Select the school member.
• Click on Linked People.
• Select the linked person that needs to be edited.
• The dialog box will display the details stored by Schoolcomms for the linked person.
  
  
• Edit the details as necessary.
• Enter the details carefully to ensure that the mobile number and email address are correct.
• Tick the non resident check box if required.
• Choose whether to send a message to confirm any changes by ticking or unticking the check boxes.
• When you are ready, click OK.
• A parent who has registered their details through the web site will still be able to log in and amend their details and preferences.
• If you chose to send confirmations, an email and/or text message will be sent to the linked person to confirm the changes and explain how to opt out.

Flagging a member or parent as 'opt out'

To flag a person as opted out who is not currently linked to the student:

• Open ‘School Members and Groups’, ‘Manage School Members’.
• Select the member concerned and click on ‘Linked People’.
• Click ‘Add new opt out contact’.
• Enter your SIMS log in credentials if required.
  
  
• Select the contact to opt out, from the drop down list read from SIMS.
• Click OK.
• The contact will be shown as linked to the school member for paper communication only. Their contact details will not be imported from SIMS. They will always be included on the paper distribution list.

To opt out a parent who is currently linked to a student and has been imported from SIMS:

• Open ‘School Members and Groups’, ‘Manage School Members’.
• Select the member concerned and click on ‘Linked People’.
  
  
  
• Select the person who wishes to opt out from the list of linked people.
• Click ‘Opt person out’.
• They will be flagged as linked for paper.
  

Resetting a member's security details:

Use ‘Reset Security’ when a school member or parent has lost or mislaid their original security letter. Remember the original security details will then be rendered invalid, though existing registered links will be unaltered.

• NB: Before resetting a member’s security details, check the text of the student or  school member security letter.
• Open the ‘Manage school members’ screen (see above).
• Find the required school member using the search tool (see above).
• Click on the required school member. Their name, role and form will become highlighted in dark blue.
• Click the ‘Reset security’ button in the top toolbar.
• This message box will appear:
  
  
  
  
  
• Click ‘Yes’ if you want to delete the existing Security details and reset new Security details for the named school member.
• When the existing Security details are deleted, no one can use those Security details to link to the school member. The new Security details will be needed to create a new link to the school member (existing links with the school member will remain).
• Click ‘No’ if you do not wish to delete the existing Security details for the named school member.
• Click 'Page setup' to alter the header, footer or margins for this print out. If you change your mind, click on 'Restore default settings'.
• Print the new security letter for the member.