Add a parent notice

5 steps 10 min Updated 4 November 2026

A parent notice is a message you send to parents and guardians through the Smart Parents app — a trip reminder, a closure, a letter home. Parents with the app on their phone get a push notification straight away, and can open the notice to read it in full, see its picture and download any attached files. Notices sent from ADAdmin don't take comments from parents.

It's separate from the notifications bell, which is about problems inside ADAdmin itself, not messages to parents.

Before you start

Both admins and mentors can write and send a notice. An admin needs the Manage Smart Parents permission (full-access admins have it). A mentor can use it only while Smart Parents is switched on, and can open only the notices they wrote themselves.
Mentors reach the pupils and groups in their own cohorts, and those pupils' parents. Admins can reach any pupil, group or parent at the school, or every parent at once.
Smart Parents must be switched on for your school. While it's off you can still write and save a draft, but Send notice and Schedule for later are greyed out, and a mentor can't open the page at all. An admin turns it on from Smart Parents → Settings (see Smart Parents settings).
A notice only reaches parents who have linked a pupil using that pupil's PIN. Every one of them finds it in their notices in the app. Their phone also gets a push notification if the app is installed on it and they haven't switched notifications off.

Steps

Step 1: Open a new notice

Admins — open Smart Parents → Notifications and select New notice. The page is called New parent notice.
Mentors — select Add parent notice near the bottom of the sidebar (it's there only while Smart Parents is on). Or, from My cohorts, use Send notice next to a group, or open a group's Members and use Send notice next to a learner — the notice opens with that group or learner already chosen.

Step 2: Write the message

Field	What it's for
Title	The headline, shown in bold on the notification and at the top of the notice. Up to 100 characters.
Short message	The text of the push notification itself — one or two sentences. Up to 100 characters, which is about what phones show on the lock screen.
Full notice	Optional. What parents read when they open the notice: headings, bold, italic, underline, lists, quotes, links and alignment. Leave it empty and parents read the short message.

You need a title and a short message to send or schedule; a draft can be saved with either blank (but not with everything blank).

The preview on the right updates as you type. Switch between Lock screen (the push notification) and In the app (the opened notice) to check both. It's an illustration, close enough to judge length and tone.

Step 3: Add a picture and files (optional)

Cover picture — a JPG, PNG or WebP up to 8 MB and at least 64 pixels across. Big phone photos are resized for you. Select Remove to take it off.
Attachments — up to 5 files, 10 MB each: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument, rich text, text or CSV files, or images (JPG, PNG, WebP or GIF). Each file appears as a download link at the end of the notice.

Files upload as soon as you drop them in. Remove one with the × beside it.

Step 4: Choose who it's for

Admins can switch on Every parent at the school for whole-school news.
Otherwise, search and add any mix of:
- Pupils — every parent linked to that pupil gets it.
- Groups — every parent linked to anyone in the group gets it.
- Parents — just that parent gets it.
Mentors see only their own reach in the search: their groups come first, then the active pupils in those groups, then the parents of those pupils. Type part of a class name, such as 10X, to find a group.

As you add people the page shows how many Pupils, Parents, parents who Have the app, and Phones it will reach. Have the app counts parents with a phone registered, including any who've switched notifications off in the app: they still get the notice in the app, just without a buzz. Select See who's included to check the list pupil by pupil (the first 60).

Added someone and they didn't appear? A warning says why, for example "{name} has no parents linked yet, so there's no one to send it to.", "{name} isn't in one of your groups, so they weren't added." (mentors), "{name} isn't a pupil. Only pupils have parents linked, so they weren't added." or "No one in {group} has parents linked yet, so it wasn't added." Select the × on the warning to dismiss it.

Step 5: Save a draft, send, or schedule

Save draft keeps everything so far. Admins find drafts in Smart Parents → Notifications; mentors see their own under Your recent notices on the notice page.
Send notice asks "Send this notice now?" and says how many parents it goes to. Select Send now. Large sends go out in batches of about 50 parents with a progress bar — keep the page open until it finishes. You can't unsend a notice, but you can correct its wording afterwards.
Schedule for later — choose a Date and Time (UK time; it suggests tomorrow at 08:00), at least a minute ahead and within the next year, then select Schedule notice. It goes out by itself within about a minute of that time; nobody needs to have the page open. A scheduled notice needs a title, a short message and someone to send to.
Delete draft removes a draft for good (you're asked to confirm first).

Send notice and Schedule for later are greyed out until you've chosen someone who has a parent linked, and while Smart Parents is off.

Change or cancel a scheduled notice

Scheduled notices show Scheduled in Smart Parents → Notifications, with the time they go out. Open one (Edit scheduled notice) to:

Save changes to the wording, picture, files or who it's for.
Change time (then Save new time).
Send now instead, without waiting.
Cancel schedule — it becomes a draft again and doesn't go out until you send it.
Delete notice — it won't go out and can't be recovered.

It goes to the parents linked to the chosen pupils and groups at the time it goes out, so a pupil who joins a group before then is included. It's sent as the person who scheduled it, and their access is checked again at that moment.

A scheduled notice that couldn't go out comes back as a draft marked Didn't go out, with "This notice didn't go out as scheduled" and the reason at the top when you open it. Fix it, then send it or schedule it again. The reasons are:

"Smart Parents was switched off for the school." Turn Smart Parents on first.

"The person who scheduled it can no longer send notices at this school." An admin with Manage Smart Parents can open the notice and send or schedule it again.

"Nobody to send to — none of the chosen pupils have parents linked." Change who it's for.

Notices a teacher writes or schedules in teacher mode in the Smart Parents app stay in the app until they're sent; they appear here once they have gone.

After sending

You land on the notice's report. It shows a Sent, Sending or Stopped part way badge, who wrote it and when, then:

Parents reached (of how many it was for), Read (how many have read it), Phones notified, In the app only (parents who have it but weren't pushed), and Delivery (the share of push notifications that were successfully sent).
Who it was for, and a Comments box if parents can comment (see Moderate comments on parent notices).
Tabs, with Search parents:
- Not read yet (the one you land on) and Read — one line per parent, with how it reached them (Push and in the app or In the app only) and when they read it. Read means they opened it in the app or marked all their notices read; the app can't tell the two apart.
- All phones, Notified and Failed — one line per phone it went to, showing iPhone or Android and Notified or Failed.
- Didn't get a push — parents it was for whose phone wasn't notified: they have notifications switched off, haven't installed the app, or the push failed. Those with the app can still read it in their notices. It's worked out from today's links, so it can differ slightly from the day it was sent. Admins can select Export to download the list and contact those families another way.

From the report you can also:

Correct the wording — fix the title, message, picture or files, then Save changes. Parents see the new version when they open it; the push notification already on their phones doesn't change, and who it went to is fixed.
Duplicate as a new notice — open a new notice with the same content and audience (the title starts "Copy of"). Nothing is saved until you save a draft, send or schedule it.
Delete notice (admins) — you're asked to confirm; the notice and its delivery records go for good and parents no longer see it.

If a send stops part way

If the page is closed or loses its connection mid-send and nothing moves for about three minutes, the report shows Stopped part way and "This notice stopped sending part way through". Admins also see a warning at the top of Smart Parents → Notifications. Open the notice and select Resume sending — everyone who already has it is skipped, so nobody gets it twice. A scheduled notice that stops is picked up again automatically a few times; after that, use Resume sending.

If something doesn't work

What you see	What it means	What to do
"You do not have permission to send parent notices."	You aren't an admin with Manage Smart Parents or a mentor, or you're a mentor and Smart Parents is off	Ask an admin who can manage Smart Parents
A Smart Parents is switched off box ("Parents can't receive notices until it's on.")	Smart Parents is Disabled	An admin sets it to Enabled under Smart Parents → Settings, then you can send
Send notice is greyed out	Nobody is chosen, none of the chosen pupils have a parent linked ("None of these pupils have parents linked yet, so there's nobody to send to."), or Smart Parents is off	Choose different pupils or groups, or hand out PINs first
"Give the notice a title — it's the first thing parents see." / "Add a short message — it's the text of the push notification."	Both are needed to send or schedule	Fill them in
"Keep the title under 100 characters so phones can show it." / "The short message can be up to 100 characters."	Too long	Shorten it
"Add a title or some content before saving a draft."	Nothing to save	Write something first
"Choose who this notice is for first."	No audience yet	Add pupils, groups or parents (admins: Every parent at the school)
"Pick an image under 8 MB." / "That file isn't an image." / "Use a JPG, PNG or WebP image." / "That image is too small — use one at least 64 pixels across." / "The image couldn't be saved. Try again in a moment."	The cover picture was refused	Use a bigger or smaller JPG, PNG or WebP, or try again
"A notice can carry up to 5 attachments. Remove one to add another." / "Not attached — {file}: larger than 10 MB" / "that type of file can't be attached" / "couldn't be saved, try again"	An attachment was refused	Remove one, shrink the file, or use PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint or an image
"Choose a date and a time to send it." / "Choose a time in the future." / "Choose a time within the next year."	The schedule time isn't allowed	Pick a time at least a minute ahead and within a year
"Smart Parents is switched off for this school, so parents can't receive notices. Turn it on in Smart Parents → Settings first."	You tried to schedule while it's off	Turn it on first
"This notice has just gone out, so your changes weren't saved. Open it to correct the wording."	The scheduled time came while you were editing	Open the notice's report and use Correct the wording
"Sending stopped part way through. Everyone already sent to has it — open the notice and choose Resume sending to finish."	The page lost its connection mid-send	Open the notice and select Resume sending
"This notice is already being sent." / "This notice has already been sent." / "This send was taken over from another window."	Someone else (or another tab) sent or resumed it	Open the report to see where it stands

Result

Every notice — drafts, sent notices and any that stopped part way — is listed in Smart Parents → Notifications, with how many parents each reached and how well it was delivered. See Parent notices list and delivery numbers.

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