What's new
We're pleased to announce the Release 85 cycle, introducing several enhancements as part of our main release. We've prioritised releasing these items as soon as possible, allowing you, your school, and your users to take advantage of these new features sooner.
Trip booking – Improvements to UX and UI.
Custom forms – Improvements to UX and UI on custom form filling.
Trip booking – Improvements to UX and UI
Booking school trips is about to get easier! We're refining the trip booking workflow to integrate custom form submission seamlessly, ensuring guardians can complete the necessary steps without any hassle.
Enhancements include
Revamped booking and form filling UI: A more user-friendly interface for a hassle-free booking experience.
Trip booking statuses: We've refreshed the interface with additional new statuses.
Form submission: Forms only mark as submitted after confirming payment, ensuring accuracy in the booking process.
Revamped booking and form filling UI
The booking process for trips now features a step-by-step guide with a breadcrumb trail, assisting you through each step. Each phase clearly indicates any mandatory fields that must be completed before progressing to the subsequent step.
Statuses
For a given student, a trip can now have the following statuses:
Selected to Book.
Not Booked.
Opted-Out.
Booked.
Reserved.
Ready To Checkout.
📌Note: If payment isn't complete, users return to the status Ready to Checkout to prevent any confusion.
Reserved signifies that the reservation is pending completion in the basket.
Enhanced opt-out procedure
We've refined the opt-out process for greater clarity, ensuring you're aware when a student is opted out from a trip.
Custom forms – Improvements to UX and UI on custom form filling
We're excited to announce upcoming updates to our custom forms, designed to make the form filling experience more intuitive and efficient for guardians. Our goal is to minimise the time schools spend on form chasing and to streamline the filling in of custom forms.
What's new
Updated form pack UI: Introducing tabs for all forms, not submitted and submitted forms, and a new share help area.
New table view: Easily track form pack names, the number of forms filled, status, and submission dates.
Improved button functionality: Enhanced view, edit, and submit or resubmit buttons for better navigation.
Simplified form viewing: Direct access to the first form in the pack for quicker filling in.
Revamped form UI: New view and edit UI and a Submit this form pack popup for a smoother submission process.
These updates are tailored to benefit guardians, admin users, and students, ensuring that everyone involved in the form filling process has a positive experience.
Form pack UI enhancements
Submission sharing guidance: In the top-right, users can find a newly added help text icon. A simple click reveals comprehensive instructions on sharing your submissions.
Dedicated page content section: Each page's content now has its own distinct area for clarity and focus.
Search and filter capability: You'll be able to zero in on specific form packs with ease, thanks to our new search functionality and filtering options.
Status-specific tabs: Users can navigate through form packs effortlessly, with tabs that categorise them as Not Submitted or Submitted. Note: the default view is the Not Submitted tab to highlight forms that still need completing.
Streamlined table design: We've decluttered the table view, focusing on the essentials to help users complete and submit form packs.
Form UI enhancements
Content area: A dedicated space for content to ensure clarity and focus. This includes page content, form pack multiple submissions text, and information on completed packs by shared users.
Enhanced form pack header: Adorned in our signature blue, the header features details of the selected student, the form pack, the number of forms in the pack, and the title of the current form.
Save & Close button: A new button allows users to save their progress on a form and conveniently return to the main form packs page. If the user has filled in all required questions for all forms in the pack, clicking this button displays a popup asking if they wish to submit the form pack.
Next button: This button validates the responses and advances users to the subsequent form. Users must now complete each form in a pack sequentially, which helps track progress and highlights the importance of the submission step.
Back button: Users can easily navigate to the previous form with this button.
Submit button: On the last form in a pack, the Next button is replaced by the Submit button, which completes and sends the form pack information directly to the school.
Enhancements to the multiple submissions feature per individual student
We've made improvements to the feature within each form pack that manages multiple submissions for a single student. The Handling Multiple Submissions For A Student setting, when active, displays a notice regarding multiple submissions at the top of each form in the pack.
When the Handling Multiple Submissions For A Student setting is enabled, guardian users will be affected in the following ways:
When a different user submits the pack for a particular student, the form pack's status changes to Submitted.
If the form submissions are shared with the guardian, they will have access to details of completion, such as the submission date and the identity of the submitter, along with their responses. If not shared, they will only see the submission date and a note indicating Submitted by Another User. In all cases, guardians retain the option to fill out and submit the forms themselves.
When the setting is not enabled, guardian users will be affected in the following ways:
The form pack's status won't change to Submitted even if another user submits it for a particular student.
Guardians will not have visibility of any Last Submitted or Submitted By details on the form pack summary. However, if submissions are shared with them, they will have access to completion details, including the submission date and the submitter's responses. Guardians always have the option to complete and submit the forms on their own.
This feature is designed to give schools the flexibility to manage form submissions more effectively. By enabling or disabling the multiple submissions option, schools can:
Streamline communication by ensuring guardians are informed about the submission status and details, promoting transparency.
Maintain control over the submission process, allowing for a clear understanding of who has submitted information and when.
Reduce confusion among guardians by providing clear indicators of a form's submission status, preventing duplicate submissions.
Enhance collaboration between different users who may need to submit information for the same student.
Updates released during the R85 mini-update
The following updates are live and were released during the R85 mini-update earlier in the term:
Staff SMS Feature – Enhancing communication for schools.
Communications – New defaults.
Dashboard widgets – Custom content widget.
Dashboard widgets – My Children widget layout improvement.
Dashboard widgets – Editable titles for all widgets.
Dashboard widgets – Latest Events widget displays more than two events.
Admin tools – Close popup or modal update.
Enhanced performance and strengthened security measures.
Captcha control update on public forms.
Staff SMS feature – Enhancing communication for schools
The Staff SMS feature empowers schools to send important messages, updates, and announcements directly to staff members via text messages. By syncing mobile phone numbers from various Management Information Systems (MIS), communication is made more efficient and targeted.
Targeting options — administrators have powerful targeting options when sending SMS messages:
Admin groups – Target specific groups of staff members based on their roles or responsibilities.
Event bookings – Send SMS messages to staff associated with specific events or bookings.
Parents evenings – Reach out to staff members related to parents evenings.
Specific users – Handpick individual staff members for personalised messages.
Direct staff selection – Choose recipients directly from the staff list.
User interface updates:
The View Recipients screen now includes staff members, making recipient selection seamless.
The Save & Send popup allows administrators to include staff recipients effortlessly.
Default country codes have been updated to include staff, ensuring accurate SMS delivery.
The front end displays SMS messages sent specifically to staff.
Users linked to more than one staff member or guardian with the same phone number will only receive one SMS. However, the recipient statistics may display multiple names associated with that number.
Integration with Twilio and Gov Notify: To ensure reliable SMS delivery, we're updating the send functionality to use industry-standard services including Twilio and Gov Notify. Staff phone numbers are also displayed within the staff admin tool for easy reference.
Communications – New defaults
New default settings for our communication tools are designed to streamline the process and reduce manual adjustments. These new options can be located by clicking on the Set Communication Defaults button in the messages admin tool.
Email communication updates:
Display message content in email – This option is off by default. Users will be directed to the portal through an email link, enhancing both convenience and security.
Save to mailing list manager – This option is also off by default. When needed, you can save mailing lists to the mailing list manager for future use.
School logo in email header – The default school logo will now be included in the email header by default, providing a consistent and professional look to your communications.
SMS communication adjustments:
Save to mailing list manager – This option is off by default for SMS messages, with saved lists managed within the mailing list manager.
Dashboard widgets – Custom content widget
A new Custom Content widget is now available in the dashboard admin tool. This empowers you to add custom content directly into a widget on your homepage dashboards using a user-friendly WYSIWYG editor.
Why you'll love the new content widget:
Customisation at your fingertips – Personalise your homepage dashboards with content that matters most to your school community.
Easy to use – Simply click Add Widget in the dashboard manager and select Custom Content to start crafting your message.
Flexibility – Adjust the height of your widget to fit your content perfectly.
Dynamic display – Your custom content widget is similar to the Bulletin Board widget, but without the need to edit via the page manager and with support for multiple custom content widgets.
How it works for admins:
In the Content – Dashboards section, when you edit a dashboard and add a widget, you'll now see the Custom Content option.
Set your title and content using the editor to add styling, links, images, and videos.
You can preview content within the dashboard editor — the admin tool may hide some content due to height restrictions, but on the front end the widget displays all content as intended.
For users
We’re able to see the new widget on the front end.
Dashboard widgets – My Children widget layout improvement
A small layout update to the My Children widget on your dashboards. The selector line no longer appears on the My Children widget, allowing for a cleaner and less confusing display.
If you're accessing a section with the type Student Dashboard, the selected student is still clearly indicated as before.
Dashboard widgets – Editable titles for all widgets
You now have the ability to set specific titles for each widget, making them more descriptive and user-friendly.
Personalised titles – Set specific titles for each widget, making them more descriptive and user-friendly.
Mandatory title option – When adding a new widget, a mandatory Title field ensures each widget is properly labelled.
Easy editing – Existing widgets can be updated with a new title, defaulting to the current widget's name if none is provided.
Widgets that benefit from editable titles: Bulletin Board, Events, Latest Messages, My Students, and Planet eStream.
📌Note:The My Students widget currently uses the label overwrite feature.
How it works
For admins, in the Content – Dashboards section, when you edit a dashboard, you'll find the Title option for both new and existing widgets. Titles set by admins are displayed on the dashboard widgets for end users.
Dashboard widgets – Latest Events widget displays more than two events
As a My School Portal admin, you now have more control over the display of events, ensuring a better user experience for your final users.
Event limit option
As a My School Portal admin, you can now set the maximum number of events displayed in the widget.
When editing a dashboard, navigate to Content – Dashboards, and add or edit an event widget. You’ll find a new Limit option.
The available options for the widget are: Show up to 2 events, Show up to 3 events, Show up to 4 events, and Show up to 5 events.
The default options is set to two events, ensuring compatibility with existing dashboards.
User experience improvement
Users with access to the dashboard will see the selected number of events within the events widget.
Admin tools – Close popup/modal update
Clicking outside an open modal will no longer close it, preventing unintended closures and preserving your work. Modals can now only be closed using the X button or other designated buttons. This change applies consistently to all modals within the admin tools.
Modals affected by this change:
Adding documents (for example, documents, student documents, guardian documents).
Message previews.
Recipient lists.
Merge fields warning.
Exporting homework.
Content item warnings (for example, form packs requiring at least one student)
Changing user details (for example, email address or password).
Showing and hiding exam results with guardians.
Linking documents to a document category.
Enhanced performance and strengthened security measures
As part of our ongoing commitment to advancing our technology, we continue to elevate our systems through improvements to our codebase, database systems, and overall infrastructure — contributing to quicker response times and smoother user experiences.
Security remains of the utmost importance. By consistently updating our technology stack, we continuously leverage the latest security patches and protocols, safeguarding our users' data and providing a secure environment for their interactions.
📌Note: Our latest update went live on 29 May. These ongoing projects reflect our commitment to delivering the best user experience.
Captcha control update on public forms
We've enhanced the Captcha Control functionality on public forms, specifically focusing on the Forgot Password and Contact School sections within the Help section on the login page. These improvements aim to reduce spam, ensuring a smoother experience for schools.
Improved Captcha Control – We've upgraded our Captcha Control mechanism to help prevent automated spam submissions on public forms.
Reduced spam – Schools can expect a decrease in spam submissions across the publicly available Forgot Password and Contact School forms.
No action is required from schools or end-users. For schools not currently utilising the Contact School feature on the Help section of the login page, please reach out to our support team for assistance in enabling this functionality.
How this version will be made available
This update automatically applies to all schools on 10 July 2024 at approximately 12pm GMT.