Sending SMSes from InTouch

Staffroom allows sending of SMSes to staff, parents or students via third party SMS providers like BulkSMS, SMSPortal and SMSWeb.  It is easy to send SMSes to your classes, grades and groups since Staffroom knows which staff, parents and students are in each.

Note that there are two places that you can send SMSes from within Staffroom:

1.  InTouch – SMSes can be sent to anyone from the InTouch module compose screen
2.  Assess Home – SMSes can be sent to any assessment groups that the staff member has access to.

This page describes how to send from the InTouch module (1 above).

Composing SMSes in InTouch

The InTouch compose screen can be accessed via InTouch > SMS > Compose:

The compose screen allows you to create SMSes as you would in many other email programs.  The following options are available when composing emails:

• Send to parents  / students – this selects whether the SMSes will be sent to parents or students in the selected groups.
• Send to Parents & Students – selects that you send to both the parent and student at the same time. 
• Send To – allows the selection of classes, grades, groups as well as individuals and any combination of these.
• Batch Groups – allow selection of useful groups such as latecomers and absentees for the day.
• Recent – shows recently used groups.
• Message – message body of the SMS to send.   Note that SMSes must be shorter than 160 characters.

Once you have selected recipients and entered your message you can click send to send the SMSes.

Some Points to Note

• SMSes are always sent by your third party provider and they will charge you per message sent.  For this reason you should carefully consider which school staff have access to the InTouch and Assess screens for sending SMSes.

• Your SMS credit balance may be displayed at the top of the compose screen (depending on the SMS provider).

• Once you click send your SMSes will be queued for sending.  It may take a few minutes for the SMSes to be sent by your SMS provider.  You can check on the status of outgoing email using the Outbox and Sent items pages.

• SMSes and Emails sent from the InTouch and Assess modules are also visible in the student profile under the correspondence tab.

• You should carefully consider which staff need access to the SMS compose screen as it allows sending of SMSes to anyone without restriction.  The assess home screen SMS feature exists to allow teachers to communicate with only the classes they teach.