Sending an announcement

Announcements is how you tell a group of people something at once — a closure, a recital date, a change to your policy. It is the counterpart to Messages, which is a conversation with one family.

Nothing goes out until you publish

An announcement starts as a draft. You can write it, leave it, come back, change the audience, and none of that reaches anyone. Publishing is the moment it becomes real, and it is a separate, deliberate step.

Choosing who it reaches

• All families — every family with a child on the books. The widest audience you have.

• One teacher's families — only the families whose children study with that teacher. Right for "Mr Ellis is away next week".

• By enrollment status — leads, trials, or enrolled families. Useful when the message only makes sense to one of those groups.

• Teachers only — your staff, not your clients.

Check before you publish

Press Check recipients and the composer tells you how many people the audience you picked actually resolves to, worked out from your current roster rather than from a number you typed. It is worth reading: "all families" and "the families you think of as current" are rarely the same set, and the count is the cheapest way to catch a mistake before it is public.

Where it lands

A published announcement appears in the recipients' portal, and they are emailed about it according to your notification settings. Families see unread notices marked in their portal until they open them, so a notice published while somebody was away is still waiting when they get back. Each announcement's page shows who has opened it.

Pinning and archiving

• Pin to the top to hold an announcement above newer ones in every family's list — the term dates, the recital, the thing you are tired of repeating. Families see it marked as pinned.

• Archive one when it has served its purpose. It leaves the active list without being deleted.

• Hide after (optional) takes it off the family portal at the end of the day you pick, your time — handy for a notice that stops mattering on a date.

Announcement or message?

If the answer would be different for each family, it is a message. If it is the same words for everyone, it is an announcement — and it will not fill your inbox with replies you have to close one at a time.