External contact

|	Permissions required to access this module:
Section:
Contact management
Permission(s):
Access notices management screen
Manage and review external communications

The external contact page is used to send messages home to parents or pupils. It can also be used to record phone calls or the details of meetings with parents. You can also see a log of all communications between the school and the pupil's family at the bottom of the page.

You may need to configure SMS in PARS, as well as configuring your preferences to allow emails to be sent. This can usually be done by your network manager.

The External Contact page

The external contact page is shown below. The list of pupils being used by this page are shown on the left. You can click on a pupil to select them, which will update the rest of the page. The rest of the page will show you the pupil's own details i.e. the pupil's email address or the pupil's mobile number as well as their parents' details.

Sending letters, emails or SMS messages

The most common use for this page is sending messages home to parents. There are three steps to this process, which are described below.

Step 1 - choosing method for contact

First click the "Add batch contacts" button at the top left of the page. This will open a window that allows you to select the method you want to use to communicate with parents.

There are four sections: Email, SMS to mobile, SMS to landline and letter. Click on a section to see options that allow you to choose how your message will be sent:

Add student's own email address

Send an email directly to the student

Add highest priority contact with an email address

Send an email to the highest priority contact, out of those who have email addresses

Add all contacts with email addresses

Send an email to all contacts who have email addresses

Do not send emails

Messages will not be sent via email

Send SMS to highest priority contact

Send an SMS to the highest priority contact, out of those who have mobile numbers

Send SMS to all contacts

Send an email to all contacts who have mobile numbers

Do not send SMS to any mobile phone numbers

SMS messages will not be sent to mobile phones. It is still possible to send SMS messages to landlines.

SMS - landline Send SMS to main home number

Send an SMS to the main telephone number in the house that the student lives in

Send SMS to highest priority contact

Send an SMS to the highest priority contact's landline, out of those who have landline numbers

Send SMS to home number of all contacts

Send an SMS to all contacts who have landlines

Do not contact any home numbers

SMS messages will not be sent to landlines. It is still possible to send SMS messages to mobiles.

Produce letters for highest priority contacts

Letters will be generated for the highest priority contact

Produce letters for all contacts

A letter will be generated for every contact

Do not produce letters

No letters will be generated

Add highest priority contact...

Selecting this option means your message will be sent to the highest priority contact who has contact details that can be used (i.e. if you are sending an email, PARS will use the email address for the highest priority contact who has an email address in SIMS).

Please note if the priority 1 & 2 contacts do not have mobiles numbers and the priority 3 contact does, then the priority 3 contacts is the highest priority contact with a mobile number and therefore will be the recipient. You can use the additional options (see below) to prevent messages being sent to low priority contacts.

Add all contacts with email/SMS/home telephone numbers

All contacts who have details in SIMS will be added as recipients.

Fall back to ... when no ... is found

If this option is selected, only the contacts who can't be reached using the methods you have already selected can be contacted using the next section down.

For example, imagine you are sending emails to priority 1 contacts. If you select the option to fall back to SMS, then only the priority 1 parents who do not have email addresses will receive SMS messages.

Additional options
When emailing, only use addresses set as "Main" (only available when sending emails)

If the contact has multiple emails in SIMS then only the address marked as "Main" will be used.

Parental responsibility only

If this option is selected, then messages will only be sent to contacts who have parental responsibility.

Priority 1 only

If this option is selected, then messages will only be sent to contacts who are priority 1 in SIMS.

Step 2 - choosing the message

The next step is to choose the message that will be sent. Click on either "Edit SMS text" or "Edit email text" depending on what kind of message you are sending.

A text editor will open allowing you to compose a message. You can type free text into the editor, as well as inserting mail merge fields or importing messages from the message bank.

To insert a mail merge field, click the "Insert" button and then choose "Field" - you will see a list of the available merge fields. Click on one to use it in your message. You can also import messages from the message bank by clicking "Insert" then "Insert template". Click the drop-down at the top of the window to select different messages.

Step 3 - sending the message

Finally, click the "Generate batch" button to send your message!

Recording phone calls and meetings

The external contact page can also be used to record the details of phone calls or meetings with parents. To do this, first select the pupil whose parents you are dealing with by clicking on the pupil's name on the left of the page.

The right side of the page will now show the pupil's contacts' details. Click the drop-down menu to choose between different contacts. Once you have chosen the contact, the right side of the page will show their details, so that you can find a phone number to ring.

If you have made a phone call home to parents then click the "Call" button on the right of the page. This will open a window where you can type the details of the phone call.

There is a "Contact type" drop-down that allows you to input extra information about the phone call. PARS will automatically record who made the phone call, which pupil it was about, which parent was spoken to and what time it took place, so the only information you need to record is what was said.

If you have dealt with parents not by phone, you can click the "Adhoc" button, which allows you to record the details of other contacts e.g. meetings.