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Communications Module

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The Communications module lets school staff send messages to students, caregivers, staff and pre-enrolled students by Email, Text Message or App Notification (a push notification to the edge mobile app), with templates, scheduling, mail merge, attachments and a full history of what was sent. It is opened from People > Community > Communications and also via the Comms button in the navigation bar. The module must be enabled for your school — contact support if you cannot see it. It is not available for ECE services, requires the View Curriculum Summary permission, and is not shown to teacher-only accounts.

The Communications module lets school staff send messages to students, caregivers, staff and pre-enrolled students by Email, Text Message or App Notification (a push notification to the edge mobile app), with templates, scheduling, mail merge, attachments and a full history of what was sent. It is opened from People > Community > Communications and also via the Comms button in the navigation bar. The module must be enabled for your school — contact support if you cannot see it. It is not available for ECE services, requires the View Curriculum Summary permission, and is not shown to teacher-only accounts.

Sending a message

  1. Open People > Community > Communications.
  2. Under Select Comm Method, choose the channel: Email (the default), Text Message or App Notification. Text Message only appears if text messaging is enabled for your school and you have the text-message permission.
  3. Tick the Include boxes for who the message can go to — Include Caregivers, Include Staff, Include Students, Include Main School Contacts, Include Pre-Enrolled Students, and for texts, Send to Emergency Contacts (Staff Only) and Send to Medical Contact. Which caregiver and student options you see depends on your school's settings (for example whether teachers may email students or caregivers).
  4. Under Select Recipients, pick a recipient source — Staff, Students, Year Levels, Classes or Groups — then move people or groups from the left list to the right (Selected) list. Groups include year levels, this year's and next year's classes, houses, custom and other groups, pre-enrolled students (all, in-zone, out-of-zone or by year) and Whole School.
  5. The page warns you about selected recipients who cannot receive the message on the chosen channel — for example no valid email address, no valid mobile number, or they have not signed into the app — with a Show List link to see who they are.
  6. Under Add Message, the To: box fills automatically. Enter a Subject, then write the message in the editor (texts use a plain 450-character message box instead). You can:
  • Click Use Template to start from a saved template.
  • Use Attach File(s) for emails (up to 5 files of 5 MB each — documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDFs, images, text and CSV).
  • Use the Mail Merge dropdown and Insert Tag to personalise the message per recipient.
  • Use Auto-Message to generate a draft from a pre-set scenario (for example a school closure alert or an overdue-fees reminder) and a tone, then click Generate Message and edit the result.
  1. Optionally tick Use [School] Name as Sender to send from the school rather than yourself.
  2. For emails you can schedule delivery: untick Send Immediately and set a Send After date and time (up to 3 months ahead). You can also Send Test Email to yourself first.
  3. Click Send Message.

Screenshot: Communications compose screen with channel selection, recipient dual list and message editor

Notes on text messages

  • Texts are one-way — replies are not received or processed.
  • The cost is shown before you send: 10 cents per recipient for up to 160 characters, plus 10 cents for each additional segment (up to 3 segments). Emoji and accented characters are removed.

Notes on app notifications

  • App notifications are delivered as push notifications to recipients who have signed into the edge mobile app; recipients without the app are listed before you send.

Who can select which recipients

Most staff see their own classes and groups. Principal's Nominee, Communications Officer, Group Leader and Assessment Coordinator roles can select all classes and groups (schools can also open this up to all teachers via a school setting). Viewing whole-school communication history is limited to Principal's Nominee-level roles — other staff see the messages they sent.

Templates

  1. After composing a message, click Save as Template and give it a Name.
  2. Options include Make Template Public (visible to other staff — otherwise only you see it), the send-to audiences (staff/caregivers/students/pre-enrols), and the recipient groups, which are remembered with the template and carried forward to the equivalent groups each year.
  3. Use as Email Signature saves the template as your email signature; Principal's Nominee and Communications Officer can also set an email signature for all users.
  4. Use Manage Templates to view, edit and delete saved templates.

Emergency templates and the emergency button

A template can be flagged as an Emergency Template, with one or more channels chosen under Select Emergency Message Type (App Notification, Email, Text). The red Send Emergency Notification button on the home page opens the Send An Emergency Message window listing your emergency templates, each with a one-click Send Message — so a pre-agreed emergency message (for example a lockdown or closure notice) can go out to its pre-set groups in seconds. A template must have recipient groups saved against it before it can be sent this way.

Screenshot: Send An Emergency Message window listing emergency templates and their channels

Communication history

  1. Click View History on the Communications tab to open the Communication History window.
  2. Each message shows when it was sent, Sent By, the Type (Email, Text or App Notification), the recipients (click to expand the list), the subject and the body, including links to any attachments.
  3. Filter by date range, or by student to see everything sent to that student or their caregivers. A per-student Comms History page is also available from the student's record.
  4. Scheduled emails that have not yet gone out show Update Time and Cancel Email controls — cancelling cannot be undone.

Screenshot: Communication History window showing sent messages with type and recipients

Mobile push notifications (automatic)

Separately from messages you compose, edge can send automatic push notifications to students and caregivers through the mobile apps when events are recorded against a student — attendance entries (such as absences), pastoral records (problem behaviours, positives/merits and supports) and certain assessment results. Depending on configuration, a notification is delivered to the app, by email, or to the recipient's dashboard, and app delivery can fall back to the dashboard if the push fails. Automatic push notifications must be enabled for your school — contact support to set them up.

Custom mobile app links

Schools can add their own links to the home page of the edge mobile app — for example the school website, newsletter or canteen ordering:

  1. Open Edit School Settings and find the Mobile app links section.
  2. Click add and enter the URL (up to 300 characters), a Title (up to 50 characters) and an optional Description (up to 250 characters).
  3. Choose who sees the link: All Users, Staff, Students, Caregivers, Students and Caregivers, Staff and Students or Staff and Caregivers.
  4. Add up to 10 links, reorder them with the move up/down controls, and remove any you no longer need, then save your school settings.

Custom mobile app links must be enabled for your school — contact support if you cannot see the section.

Screenshot: Mobile app links section in Edit School Settings