Moderate comments on parent notices

3 steps 3 min Updated 4 November 2026

When a teacher sends a notice from teacher mode in the Smart Parents app, they can let parents comment on it — to ask a question about parents' evening, say. Everyone the notice reached sees the comments, with each parent's full name, and staff answer in the app.

You can look after those comments from ADAdmin too: see what parents have reported, hide a comment, and stop a parent commenting on your school's notices.

Notices sent from ADAdmin don't take comments.

Before you start

Admins can moderate comments on any notice at the school. Mentors can moderate comments on notices they sent.
You reply to a comment in teacher mode in the Smart Parents app, not here.

Steps

Step 1: Find comments that need a look

Admins — open Smart Parents → Notifications.
Mentors — select Add parent notice near the bottom of the sidebar. Mentors have no notices list, so reports on the notices they sent show at the top of that page.

If parents have reported a comment, a box at the top says "N comments reported by parents" and lists the notices they're on (up to five, with how many comments each, and how many are hidden until you look). Select a notice to open it.

Every notice that took comments also has a Comments section on its report page, below Who it was for. It shows how many comments there are and Parents can comment or Comments closed. A notice that never took comments has no Comments section.

Step 2: Hide a comment, or keep it showing

Each comment shows who wrote it, when, and — if parents reported it — who reported it ("Reported by …", with up to three names and "and N more"). Replies from staff are marked Staff.

Hide takes the comment away from parents straight away. It stays here, marked Hidden by and your name, in case you want to Show again.
It's fine, keep it leaves a reported comment showing.

Either way, the reports on that comment are marked as dealt with, and it drops off the box on the notices page.

Hidden after 3 reports? When three different parents report the same comment, it's hidden from parents automatically until someone at the school looks at it, and the comment is marked Hidden after 3 reports. Choose Keep hidden or Show again.

Step 3: Stop a parent commenting (if you need to)

Select Stop … commenting (it carries the parent's name) under one of their comments and confirm with Stop commenting. They can't comment on any of your school's notices after that, and their comments are marked Can't comment. Their existing comments stay as they are — hide any you need to.

To undo it, select Let … comment again under one of their comments, or open the list of parents who can't comment on the school's notices at the top of the same page as in Step 1 and select Let them comment again beside their name. Admins see everyone stopped at the school there; mentors see the parents they stopped.

If something doesn't work

"That comment isn't there any more." The parent deleted it, or it was removed, since you opened the page. Reload the notice.
"Comment removed by the parent who wrote it." A placeholder where a parent deleted a comment that has replies. There's nothing to moderate.
No Comments section on a notice. That notice took no comments: comments are only allowed on notices a teacher sent from teacher mode with Allow comments switched on. Notices sent from ADAdmin never take comments.
No "Stop … commenting" button. It isn't shown on a staff reply.

Result

Parents see only the comments you've left showing, and a parent you've stopped can't add more. The teacher who sent the notice gets a push notification in the Smart Parents app about the first report on a comment, and again if it's hidden after three reports. Realsmart is told about every report as well, as a backstop.

Did this work for you?

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