You can send email and SMS messages to students and their parents directly from SIMS. If the message is opened from a student specific screen, some of the message information will be automatically pre-filled.

Installing the Schoolcomms licence key:

Before Schoolcomms is used from SIMS in your school, a licence key must be installed. This informs SIMS that Schoolcomms has been purchased. Click here for instructions on installing this licence key.

Opening Schoolcomms from SIMS:

• Open SIMS and login using your SIMS user details. The SIMS home screen looks like this:
  
  
  
• Open the SIMS Focus menu and select Schoolcomms.
• Assuming Schoolcomms is fully installed on the workstation, a login box will be shown. Follow the 'Logging into Schoolcomms from SIMS' instructions below to open Schoolcomms.
• If Schoolcomms is not fully installed, the Schoolcomms splash screen will be displayed. Follow the on screen instructions to complete the installation.

Logging into Schoolcomms from SIMS:

• If this is the first time you have opened Schoolcomms in this SIMS session, you will be prompted to enter your Schoolcomms login credentials.
  
  

• Enter your Schoolcomms 'User Name', 'Memorable data' and 'Password' and click 'OK' to login.

Creating a message from a SIMS screen:

Currently this is only possible from the Student screens. This example demonstrates how to create a message from the SIMS 'Student details' screen.

• Drop down the 'Focus' menu and select 'Student' followed by 'Student Details' in SIMS.
  
  
• Use the 'Find Student' tool in SIMS to locate a student.
  
  
• Double click on the student to open up their details up on screen.
• Drop down the 'Send Message' list and select 'Send Email'. If you want to send an SMS message, then select 'Send SMS'.
  
  
  
• If you have not already logged into Schoolcomms in this SIMS session, the Schoolcomms login box will appear. Follow the 'Logging into Schoolcomms from SIMS' instructions for assistance.
• If you have already logged into Schoolcomms in this SIMS session, you will not need to enter your login credentials again unless you have changed your memorable data or password.

Selecting the recipients:

• Schoolcomms needs to know who the message should be sent to. Once you have clicked the 'Send Email' or 'Send SMS' options in SIMS, you will be prompted to choose who should receive the message.
  
  
• Tick the boxes to indicate who should receive the message. The number in brackets following the recipient type indicates the number of recipients registered to receive the messages by email or SMS. In this example, a parent of Kevin O'Dell is registered but Kevin O'Dell has not registered himself.
• Click the 'OK' button to complete the message in Schoolcomms.
• Clicking 'Cancel' will abandon the message creation.
• If Schoolcomms is already open on the computer, you will be instructed to bring it to the foreground and open the draft message as follows:
  
  
• If Schoolcomms is closed, it will be opened automatically and the new draft message will be displayed.
• Once Schoolcomms has opened and is displaying the draft message, you can compose the message body and edit the recipients list. For assistance with these tasks, use these links:
  • Compose an email message.
  • Compose an SMS message.