SIMS data requirements for parents

To successfully import contact details, message contacts within Schoolcomms and for parents to access School Gateway, you will need the following data in SIMS:

Email addresses

In SIMS please check that:

• The email address is in section 5, Family and Home of the student's record, in the correct parent's record
• The location of the address needs to be Home or Work
• The parent needs to be priority 1 for that student, or match your import strategy if you've changed who is imported

If that all appears to be correct please check in Schoolcomms to see if the contact has been imported. To do this:

• Go to School members and groups
• Find the student in the list and single click on them to highlight them
• Click on the Linked people icon at the top of the page. This will open up a new window showing who is linked to the student
• If there is no Prime Parent, click on the New from SIMS button and select the correct parent when the window opens up. It may ask for your SIMS log in details
• If there is not an email address for a contact, highlight the correct parent and click on the SIMS update button. It will check the information in SIMS, hopefully bringing across the email address if it has not already imported it
• If there is an email address on the parent’s line, you need to check the parent has not been opted out. Select the parent’s name and the button underneath needs to say Opt out. If it says Opt in that means the parent has been opted out and you will need to confirm with them they want to receive your messages; if they do click Opt in
• If there is an email address, but the contact method does not include email, their email address may have become blocked. Please check your data issues for the parent’s name. You can find your data issues in Management | Import management, select View Data Issues from the top toolbar
• If the parent's email address is blocked, please confirm with the parent that they want to receive your messages. If they do, go back into the Linked people screen - as described above - select the parent and click Re-enable. This will unblock their email address and you will be able to send messages to them again.

Mobile numbers

In SIMS, please check that:

• The mobile number is in section 5, Family and Home of the student's record, in the correct parent's record
• The location of the mobile number is marked as Mobile
• The parent needs to be priority 1 for that student, or match your import strategy if you've changed who is imported

If all of that is correct, the next place to look is in Schoolcomms:

• Go to School members and groups
• Find the student in the list and single click on them to highlight them
• Click on the Linked people icon at the top of the page. This will open up a new window showing who is linked to the student
• If there is no Prime Parent, click on the New from SIMS button and select the correct parent when the window opens up. It may ask for your SIMS log in details
• If there is not a mobile number for a contact, highlight the correct parent and click on the SIMS update button. It will check the information in SIMS, hopefully bringing across the email address if it has not already imported it
• If there is a mobile number for the parent, you need to check the parent has not been opted out. Select the parent’s name and the button underneath needs to say Opt out. If it says Opt in that means the parent has been opted out and you will need to confirm with them they want to receive your messages; if they do click Opt in
• If there is a mobile number, but the contact method does not include text, their mobile number may have become blocked. Please check your data issues for the parent’s name. You can find your data issues in Management | Import management, select View Data Issues from the top toolbar
• If the parent's mobile number is blocked, please confirm with the parent that they want to receive your messages. If they do, go back into the Linked people screen - as described above - select the parent and click Re-enable. This will unblock their mobile number and you will be able to send messages to them again.

See here to review your Schoolcomms Import Settings.

Due to new industry regulations in the banking sector your parents may experience extra verification steps when paying via School Gateway. These extra verification steps may be triggered if the data you hold does not match up with the parent’s data. It is therefore important that address data is complete, up-to-date and stored in the correct area of SIMS.

Parental Responsibility also needs to be applied in SIMS (Section 5 of the pupil record) for parents to be able to give consent, view online reporting information, see balances and make bookings on School Gateway. To review and identify any gaps in data currently imported into your Schoolcomms account, check your registered users within the Management Report.

Accessing the Registered Users report

• Dashboard
• Management Reports
• Click on Registered Users
• Filter as required