Messages Overview

Created by Lindsay Hodges, Modified on Tue, 16 Jun at 12:38 PM by Louis Cooksley

Messages lets you send a communication directly to parents and carers for individual pupils, a class, a year group, or the whole school. Parents receive the message in the GroupEd parent app and can reply — their replies appear in your Messages inbox.

## Step 1 — Open the Messages page
1. Go to **Communications → Messages** (`/#/messages`).

2. Tap **+ New Message** in the top right of the page. The compose screen opens.

Tip: To load a saved message template into the compose screen, tap the **document icon** next to the message title field.

## Step 2 — Write your message

### Message title
Enter a title for your message. This is required and is what parents see as the subject line.

### Message body
Use the rich text editor to compose your message. The toolbar gives you full formatting control:
Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Font name, Font size, Font colour, Background colour, Paragraph format, Alignment, Numbered list, Bullet list, Insert link, HTML source view, Undo, Redo, Insert image

### Using placeholders
The **Placeholders** panel beneath the editor lets you insert variables that are automatically replaced with each pupil's data when the message is sent. Click a placeholder to insert it at your cursor position:

Placeholder	Replaced With
[[Student Full Name]]	Pupil's full name
[[Student Forename]]	Pupil's first name
[[Student Surname]]	Pupil's last name
[[Student Registration Class]]	Pupil's registration class
[[Student Registration Year]]	Pupil's year group

Tip: Tap **Preview Message** before sending to see how the placeholders look with real pupil data filled in.

### Attachments
Use the file uploader beneath the editor to attach documents, images, or PDFs to your message. Images and PDFs are previewed in the compose screen.

## Step 3 — Select recipients
The recipients panel on the right side of the compose screen has three tabs:
**Students** — search for and select individual pupils (message goes to their contacts) 

**Groups** — select a class or year group (all parents/carers for that group)

**Staff** — select staff members for internal communications

Use the **Send to** dropdown below to control which contacts receive the message (e.g. main priority contacts only, or main and secondary).

Selected pupils and groups are listed under their respective headings in the **Recipients** area. Remove any by tapping the × on a chip.

### Enable contact replies
Below the recipients panel, an **Enable contact replies** toggle controls whether parents can reply to this message. Turn it on if you want a two-way conversation; turn it off for one-way announcements.

## Step 4 — Send or schedule
 **Preview Message** – Opens a read-only preview with placeholders replaced by real pupil data

**Send Message** – Sends the message immediately to all recipients

**↓ (dropdown arrow)** – Opens the schedule menu — see below 

### Scheduling a send
Tap the **arrow** next to the Send button to schedule the message:
**Tomorrow at 9:00 AM** — sends the next morning at 9am- 

**Monday at 9:00 AM** — sends the following Monday at 9am (useful on a Friday)

**Custom time** — pick any date and time

Scheduled messages appear in the **Scheduled** category in your Messages inbox. You can open a scheduled message to edit or cancel it before it sends.