Families and communication
ADAM keeps your school's contact with families in one place. Parents see their children's progress, and your school reaches them by email, SMS and push notification.
The family database
ADAM reflects the real shape of each pupil's family. A pupil can have several sets of parents, sponsors and other relatives, with any number of relationships between the pupil and different family groups. A family with several children has one record, so you update a changed phone number once.
When you merge two family records, ADAM keeps the history. It keeps the record of the staying parent and carries the document links across.
A portal where parents see their children's progress
Parents sign in to see archived reports, academic progress graphs, term marks, their children's teachers, leave arrangements, school documents and school links.
The portal supports transparent assessment: parents and pupils see how the school assesses. Portal web addresses are readable, so parents can share links.
Pupils have an optional portal of their own. It shows marks and progress as teachers release them. Parent and pupil logins are separate from staff logins, and they have read-only access to a few features, scoped to their own family.
| Subject | Term mark | Teacher |
|---|---|---|
| Mathematics | 62% | Mr Dlamini |
| English Home Language | 71% | Ms Fourie |
| Life Sciences | 68% | Mrs Naidoo |
Useful links for the right people
Aim a link at staff, families, pupils or any combination. A school calendar, a uniform shop or a policy document then appears in front of exactly the right people. An optional birthday widget shows upcoming birthdays, and you choose whose birthdays appear.
Details that stay current
Asking parents to keep contact details current is a challenge. In ADAM, staff can request an update manually, ADAM can request it on a schedule you set (for example, every twelve months), and parents can update their details themselves.
Each detail-update profile has its own settings: which families it applies to, whether it is the default, and how often ADAM requests it again. Parents see a banner while their update awaits review, and another once staff approve it.
Online agreements
Publish a document, such as a code of conduct, a consent form or an indemnity. ADAM requires families to acknowledge it before they continue to use the portal.
Leave
Families request weekend and other leave through the portal. Staff approve it and add notes. Approved leave can send a push notification to the family. Leave Option Lists show the named pupils who chose a particular meal or transport option, which makes a bus list easy to build.
One Messaging Centre for email, SMS and push notifications
The Messaging Centre sends email, SMS and push notifications to parents, pupils and staff.
- Target groups of parents by academic class or sporting activity, so parents receive fewer messages that do not concern them.
- Personalise each message with mail merge.
- Rely on communication preferences held for each email address. Unsubscribe footers reach the right recipient, and ADAM honours opt-outs.
- Run the Communication Coverage report to find pupils with no email contact for a communication type that your school expects to reach them. You find the gap before a report or an emergency notice fails to arrive.
ADAM connects to a number of SMS providers. You choose a provider from our list of current partners and form an agreement with them. After a once-off configuration, you use ADAM as your messaging centre.
| Group | Parents of the Under-14 A cricket team |
| Message | Saturday's match is moved to 10:00. |
| Sent by | Email SMS and push notification |
Parent-teacher meetings
Parents book their own meetings with teachers through Sign-Up. Each booking belongs to the family that made it.
Find the families who never logged in
Two reports list families who have never logged in. One is limited to currently enrolled pupils whose family has never logged in, so the list contains only families you can act on.