Parent Reports - Emailing to parents (pre release feature guide)

This guide is for a new feature, currently being trialled. See our parent report guides for the current functionality.

This guide details how to use Insight to email parent reports directly to parents/carers. It assumes your reports are all complete and ready to share. See our other parent report guides if you need support preparing and writing your reports.

Setting the email text for recipients

To review the email text parents will receive, open Admin > Parent Reports.

Email settings are on the bottom left.

A basic email is provided by default, but can be amended to suit.

Some basic placeholders are provided to allow you to automatically insert certain details in each email. The placeholders work in the Subject and in the Body text.

It is also possible to include hyperlinks. For example, you may want to link to an external form for parents to confirm receipt or add feedback. To do this, use the following format:

[the text you want to display as a link](the link itself)

There is only one email template which will be used for all parent reports.

You can, of course, write an email template, send the emails then alter the template for any other reports if you wish.

You must also stipulate a Reply-To email address. This is where any emails will be sent if parents reply to the email with the parent report, and may be a useful way to funnel feedback.

Reports cannot be emailed if there is no Reply-To set. Clicking Email in Reports > Parent Reports will display a prompt to add a Reply-To email before you can proceed further.

Parents should not email Insight, and we are unable to forward any emails should they do so.

Click Save to record your changes.

Reset will return the email template to the basic, Insight provided, one.

Managing recipient email addresses

Before you can send any emails you should make sure the email addresses are in place.

If you have MIS sync set up for your school, any emails should automatically sync to Insight. This is the recommended, and simplest, way to maintain emails.

To ensure email addresses are set to sync, check the setting by following:

Admin > Manage Pupils > Update Pupils > Wonde > Sync Settings

Make sure Sync pupil contacts is ticked. Contacts will then be populated on the next sync run.

You can also check if all your required permissions are in place by clicking Permissions.

Check your permissions in your Wonde portal if the contacts are not populated after a sync. The required Wonde permissions are in the Contact details read and Contacts read sections.

Emails will also import from a CTF.

Insight uses the standard DfE defined categories for email addresses. They are:

Mother, Father, Foster Mother, Foster Father, Step Mother, Step Father, Carer, Other Family Member, Other Relative, Other Contact

By default, Insight will select all address types that are not Other to receive emails.

Only Admin users are permitted to see email addresses.

To view and edit emails associated with a pupil, click Pupils in the main menu bar. Then choose the pupil you want to look at from the list on the left and make sure the Profile tab is open.

Click Edit Profile to see the complete pupil details, including emails.

You can use this section to select which emails will receive reports, delete, edit or add new email addresses.

By default, Insight will mark emails with the following relationships to receive parent report emails: Father, Mother, Foster Father, Foster Mother, Step Father, Step Mother.

Reviewing email addresses before sending

To see all the email addresses that are set to receive a report email, open Parent Reports from the Reports menu.

Choose the correct pupils, term and template. The Status filter gives you a number of options to limit the display. For example you may just want to see all the reports that have been approved, ahead of sending.

In the Recipients column will be all the email addresses set to receive parent reports. Any pupil with no recipient email addresses will be indicated as Pupil has no contacts.

If an email has already been sent, for the report you're viewing, this will be indicated along with the date and time.

Final checks

Once you're satisfied that your email text is correct, all the recipient emails are in place and all the parent reports you want to email are complete and approved, click Email to summarise.

Applicable information will be shown at the top of the form.

If your filtered pupils included any with reports that were not approved, this will be stated. You may need to cancel, then use the Status filter to show Comments Incomplete. This will only show reports that have incomplete comments and have not been approved, enabling you to review what needs to be done to complete and approve them.

The number of emails ready to send will be shown.

If any emails have already been sent, this will also be indicated. Another email will not be sent to these recipients.

The email template is also shown here, to remind you precisely what parents will receive. If you want to make changes to it, an Edit link is provided.

If you'd like a final check, then the Send Test Email button will send a parent report to the currently logged-in user. You can change this to another email address if you wish, but ensure any email address is secure and under your control, as the email will include a genuine pupil report link.

Sending parent report emails

Click Send Emails to begin the sending process. This may take a while to complete. Queued will be displayed in the email column for all pending emails.

Once sent, the date and time sent is shown.

If you click the Email button once emails are sent, you see a summary for the filtered pupils and selected report template.

If you add new recipients for pupils, simply Send Emails again.

When viewing pupils with at least one sent email, the percentage sent will be shown. This is designed to help you spot where any additional work may be required. It is a percentage of reports sent for all recipients. Any pupils with no contacts are not included, the assumption being that you are not intending to email those reports, so they should not be included in the calculation.

It is possible that you send some report emails and subsequently remove the contact email address. In this case Insight will still indicate that the email was sent, and the report will still be accessible to the recipient. The relationship will no longer be shown with the email address, as it is no longer recorded.

Resending emails

Occasionally, you may need to resend a report email. Simply click Resend next to any sent individual recipients or via the Email button to bulk resend.

What do the parents receive?

Once sent, the recipients will get an email with the text you defined.

The report link is a hyperlink to a page which requires the pupil date of birth to be entered.

Once correctly entered, the report will download as a PDF. This may then be printed or shared as the recipient requires.

The link will work for a period of six weeks after the email is sent.

It is important to recognise that the report link is a link to the report in its current, approved, state. If you send an email, unapprove the report, make changes to the report (including any comments or template changes) then re-approve the report the link will download the report as it is now. The link is not a locked link to the report as it was when the email was first sent.

I sent the emails but need to recall them

It is not possible to recall an email. However, if you unapprove a report, it will prevent any further report downloads.

Reports may be unapproved individually, from the Pupils > Parent Reports view or report preview in Reports > Parent Reports, or in bulk using the Approve menu.

A warning will inform you if reports have already been emailed.

You will still be able to see which reports were sent, but the item will also inform you that the report has been unapproved and, therefore, is not accessible to the recipient.

If a recipient follows the report link after the report has been unapproved, a simple message will inform them that the school has removed the report.

If you subsequently re-approve the report, the link will become live again.

Support for recipients

Insight are unable to provide support directly to parents receiving reports by email. If you believe there is a technical issue, please contact us in the usual way.

See our email troubleshooting guide for details on the information Insight provides if emails fail to be delivered.

Removing or changing email addresses

Occasionally, it may be necessary to change or remove an email address after report emails have been sent. In both cases, the report will still be downloadable by the recipient, but it will not be possible to resend emails to those addresses as you've indicated these are no longer required, either as single or bulk resends.

If an email address is changed after an email is sent, you will still be able to see that the email was sent in Reports > Parent Reports. The relationship will be removed and added to a new recipient in the list. The Resend link will not be available on the original sent email, and the new one will show as Unsent.

If an email address is removed after an email is sent, it will be displayed as sent with the original relationship. Again, Resend will be unavailable.