Go to Absence Messages and select one of the following:
Unauth Absence/Late Today
Unauth Absence/Late Session
Search Absences/Lates
Continue to the relevant section below.
Note: Both Unauth Absence/Late Today and Unauth Absence/Late Session include a reminder about when your attendance last updated in Messenger.
Instructions – Unauth Absence/Late Today
In Select Absent Code, tick one or more of the codes provided by your MIS > Next Step.
In Select Year Groups, untick any year groups that you do not need to send the message for.
This will show you a list of students that match your criteria. Untick any student that you do not need to send the message for > Next Step.
Note: If there are no students who are absent or late then the system will give you the message below:
Tick one or more of the following:
Primary Parents: The message will send to the primary parental contact of the student i.e., the parent listed as the priority contact in the MIS.
All Parents: The message will send to all the parental contacts of the student, regardless of their priority.
Students: The message will send to the student themselves using their own contact details. You can select this option in addition to one of the above options for parents.
Click Next Step.
For Send via, tick one or more of the following options for sending the message:
Email: The message will be sent to the contact’s Home Email and/or Work Email.
SMS to Mobile: The message will be sent to the contact’s Mobile Telephone.
Voice to Mobile/Work/Home: The message will be sent to the contact’s Mobile Telephone/Work Telephone/Home Telephone.
Letter: The message will be copied into a PDF document to print out a paper copy.
Xpressions: The message will be sent to the contact’s registered device.
For Preference, select one of the following:
Once per Parent: For parents of siblings, this option means that they will only receive one message from the school regardless of the number of the children they have. Use this for general messages that are not personalised to any one sibling.
For each Student Parent combination: For parents of siblings, this option means that they will receive your message as many times as they have children. Use this for messages that are personalised for each student.
Click Next Step.
In Select Message from Library, tick Write a new message if you intend to compose the message yourself, or tick one of the message templates.
Note: The Absence Messages wizard includes some message templates that are not available with Quick Messages.
If you are sending an email and/or Xpression, tick Add attachment to message if required.
Click Next Step.
If you only ticked one of the message templates, skip to Step 19.
In Content, enter the body of the message in the text box.
Note: Use the character count to keep track of how long your message is. As a single SMS unit is 160 characters long, sending longer messages uses additional SMS units which increases the cost.
If you are sending an SMS, enter the SMS Header. This is the opening line of the message, usually used for the school name. Read our guide for further information: Messenger: Change the SMS Header.
If you are sending an email, enter the Email Subject. This is the title of the email that will appear in the recipient’s mailbox.
Use the Tokens menu to include merge fields in the message to help personalise it for the individual. Read our guide for further information: Messenger: Tokens (Merge Fields).
If you ticked Add attachment to message, click on the Add Files box to find and upload the file(s) you want to attach.
Tick Save Message to Library to save a copy of the message you created in the Message Library. Read our guide for further information: Messenger: Manage Message Templates.
Click Next Step.
On the Confirm message page, check all the details of the message being sent.
In Options, you can tick one or more of the following then click Apply:
Translate message using Google translate: If any of the contacts do not have English as their first language, they will receive a translated copy of the message in their chosen language instead.
Schedule this message to be sent later: Select a time and date for the message to be sent.
Click Send.
Instructions – Unauth Absence/Late Session
In Select Session, choose whether it is for the morning or afternoon session.
In Select Absent Code, tick one or more of the codes provided by your MIS > Next Step.
In Select Year Groups, untick any of the year groups that you do not need to send the message for.
This will show you a list of students that match your criteria. Untick any student that you do not need to send the message for > Next Step.
Note: If there are no students who are absent or late then the system will give you the message below:
Tick one or more of the following:
Primary Parents: The message will send to the primary parental contact of the student i.e., the parent listed as the priority contact in the MIS.
All Parents: The message will send to all the parental contacts of the student, regardless of their priority.
Students: The message will send to the student themselves using their own contact details. You can select this option in addition to one of the above options for parents.
Click Next Step.
For Send via, tick one or more of the following options for sending the message:
Email: The message will be sent to the contact’s Home Email and/or Work Email.
SMS to Mobile: The message will be sent to the contact’s Mobile Telephone.
Voice to Mobile/Work/Home: The message will be sent to the contact’s Mobile Telephone/Work Telephone/Home Telephone.
Letter: The message will be copied into a PDF document to print out a paper copy.
Xpressions: The message will be sent to the contact’s registered device.
For Preference, select one of the following:
Once per Parent: For parents of siblings, this option means that they will only receive one message from the school regardless of the number of the children they have. Use this for general messages that are not personalised to any one sibling.
For each Student Parent combination: For parents of siblings, this option means that they will receive your message as many times as they have children. Use this for messages that are personalised for each student.
Click Next Step.
In Select Message from Library, tick Write a new message if you intend to compose the message yourself, or tick one of the message templates.
Note: The Absence Messages wizard includes some message templates that are not available with Quick Messages.
If you are sending an email and/or Xpression, tick Add attachment to message if required.
Click Next Step.
If you only ticked one of the message templates, skip to Step 18.
In Content, enter the body of the message in the text box.
Note: Use the character count to keep track of how long your message is. As a single SMS unit is 160 characters long, sending longer messages uses additional SMS units which increases the cost.
If you are sending an SMS, enter the SMS Header. This is the opening line of the message, usually used for the school name. Read our guide for further information: Messenger: Change the SMS Header.
If you are sending an email, enter the Email Subject. This is the title of the email that will appear in the recipient’s mailbox.
Use the Tokens menu to include merge fields in the message to help personalise it for the individual. Read our guide for further information: Messenger: Tokens (Merge Fields).
If you ticked Add attachment to message, click on the Add Files box to find and upload the file(s) you want to attach.
Tick Save Message to Library to save a copy of the message you created in the Message Library. Read our guide for further information: Messenger: Manage Message Templates.
Click NextStep.
On the Confirm message page, check all the details of the message being sent.
In Options, you can tick one or more of the following then click Apply:
Translate message using Google translate: If any of the contacts do not have English as their first language, they will receive a translated copy of the message in their chosen language instead.
Schedule this message to be sent later: Select a time and date for the message to be sent.
Click Send.
Instructions – Search Absences/Lates
In Select Absent Type, tick the relevant absence option as below:
In Select Metric Type, choose one of the following:
Percentage – Searches for the percentage of absences/lateness.
Occurrences (Count) – Searches for the number of absences/lateness.
By default, Return All Occurrences is unticked. If you keep this unticked, enter the Lower Threshold and Upper Threshold so that your search will only return students with absences/lateness between the entered values.
Example: For Percentage, if the Lower Threshold is 25 and the Upper Threshold is 75, the system will only find the students that have been absent or late 25-75% of the time. Students with a lower or higher percentage will be excluded.
Click Next Step.
Enter the Start Date and End Date to choose a date range for the search > Next Step.
In Select Year Groups, untick any of the year groups that you do not need to send the message for.
This will show you a list of students that match your criteria, including the percentage or occurrence count for their absence/lateness. Untick any student that you do not need to send the message for > Next Step.
Note: If there are no students who are absent or late then the system will give you the message below:
Tick one or more of the following:
Primary Parents: The message will send to the primary parental contact of the student i.e., the parent listed as the priority contact in the MIS.
All Parents: The message will send to all the parental contacts of the student, regardless of their priority.
Students: The message will send to the student themselves using their own contact details. You can select this option in addition to one of the above options for parents.
Click Next Step.
For Send via, tick one of the following:
Email only: The message will be sent to the contact’s Home Email and/or Work Email.
Email with notification: The message will be sent as above but they will also be sent an SMS message to the contact’s Mobile Telephone.
For Preference, select one of the following:
Once per Parent: For parents of siblings, this option means that they will only receive one message from the school regardless of the number of the children they have. Use this for general messages that are not personalised to any one sibling.
For each Student Parent combination: For parents of siblings, this option means that they will receive your message as many times as they have children. Use this for messages that are personalised for each student. We recommend this option when using this wizard.
For Select Message from Library, tick one of the following message templates:
Persistent Absence: $studentforename$ had $absencepercent$ '$absencetype$' occurrences ($absencecount$ sessions) during the period $absencestartdate$ to $absenceenddate$. Please contact the school to discuss.
Searched Absence: $studentforename$ has been marked with the attendance type '$absencetype$' one or more times on/between the following date(s): $unresolvedattendance$. Please contact the school to provide reason(s).
Note: Both message templates use built-in Tokens to personalise the information for each recipient. Read our guide for further information: Messenger: Tokens (Merge Fields).
Tick Add attachment to message if required.
Click Next Step.
If you ticked Email only and did not Add attachment to message, skip to Step 19.
If you ticked Email with notification, enter the SMS Header. This is the opening line of the message, usually used for the school name. Read our guide for further information: Messenger: Change the SMS Header.
If you ticked Add attachment to message, click on the Add Files box to find and upload the file(s) you want to attach.
Tick Save Message to Library to save a copy of the message you created in the Message Library. Read our guide for further information: Messenger: Manage Message Templates.
Note: This option is included by default in the Quick Message/Absence Messages wizards but as you are only using pre-existing message templates here, you would not need to use this feature.
Click Next Step.
On the Confirm message page, check all the details of the message being sent.
In Options, you can tick one or more of the following then click Apply:
Translate message using Google translate: If any of the contacts do not have English as their first language, they will receive a translated copy of the message in their chosen language instead.
Schedule this message to be sent later: Select a time and date for the message to be sent.
