Detailed launch strategy: Part One - Set up

These detailed launch pages are aimed at Ambassadors who want to know everything: the advice comes from thriving Classlist schools about how they set about launching their sites. For a less in-depth overview read the Quick Guide here.

One common factor in getting your site up and running quickly is having a committed team of helpers to spread the word and encourage take up from the parent body. Congratulations to you and your team: you are going to be Classlist gurus and school superstars!  

Below we will cover the essentials such as how to:

1. Build your Classlist school groups structure.  
2. Invite some friends to join you
3. Add a profile picture of your school
4. Download the app
5. Assign some friends to an Admin status 

At this point you are simply laying down some foundations and you can undo or change things at any point. Even if you put all your friends into one class you can always delete it or move them later.   

1. Build/confirm your school groups structure with years and classes

Ultimately you need your structure on Classlist to mirror the arrangement of classes and year groups in your school. If you've already done this, just double check everything is correct. This is because during the registration process parents will assign their child to a class/year group: if the groups on classlist do not match real life it is much harder to unscramble the children and assign them to the correct groups later! (NB If you are only doing a trial with one or two classes, don't worry you can ignore this advice.)

Do this task on a desktop as a mobile screen is too small to allow you to view all the columns. 

• Click the Manage School link included in the 'your account has been upgraded' welcome email, or just navigate to the green Admin Mode by clicking 'switch to admin' within the site - you may need to enter your password to login the first time if you are coming from the email. Go to the School Structure page (find it in the navigation side bar on the left hand side of your desktop screen).
• Set up/check your Year and Class structure. The School Structure should reflect how the years and classes are arranged at your school. The Years column in the structure is pre-populated but you can change the names to fit your school. To edit or delete any you do not need, tap the pencil icon next to the Year you want to change and select edit or delete. If you want to add a new Year group, start writing the name of the Year where it says 'Type Year name' above the Years column, then tap Add. The Add button remains greyed out until you have typed in some text. Do the same to add Classes to the Class column. You can also edit your Year and Class names later. 
• You don't have to complete your whole school structure now if you'd rather just have a trial with one or two year groups, but it does make it easier for parents joining your site, and saves time later if you decide to go ahead for the whole school. If you only decide to use a few Year groups we'd recommend deleting all the unused ones, to prevent parents putting their child in the wrong ones by accident! More detailed information on the school structure is available here.   

2. Invite some friends to join you

Communities need people to work, so let's invite some friends. It's a good idea to warn them first so they can look out for your invitation.

• There are lots of ways to invite people. Go to the Invite Parents page in the menu.
  If you have any email addresses select 'invite by email', enter a few friends' email addresses and click send. They can click through from the email invitation and sign up in minutes.  You can pre-assign them with admin status here too.  That will help them see all the handy admin features.
  If you don't have their email addresses handy you can invite them via Facebook and WhatsApp, or ask them to register directly at classlist.com or via the app.
  
  
• Everyone you give admin status to will automatically be in a group called 'Ambassadors and Reps'.   Use this group to try things out.  Alternatively all your invitees could join the same class to test a group together.  

3. Add a school profile picture and some welcome text

Take a photo of your school: don't include children in the picture, but you could focus on a nice feature such as a tree or a distinctive part of the building if you can't get the whole thing in. Ask the school for a jpg or png of the school logo. 

• Navigate to the school profile page and click the camera icon Browse your device to find the photo of the school you took and upload. It will add a personal touch and helps reassure other parents they are joining the right school. 
• Do the same by clicking on the camera icon on the space for the school logo.
• Write some text under the images: click the pencil icon to edit. You can simply say "Welcome to xxx school Classlist site" and add more later if you are not sure what to put.

4. Download the App.

Once your site is set up, most people will probably use their mobile to interact with it, so get ahead and download the app!

Android users should click here, while iPhone users should click here. 

5. Assign some approved parents to an Admin status.

Once the parents you invited have joined up you can assign them Ambassador or Admin status so that they can take a look at both the Admin Mode and the Parent Mode of Classlist. You can also invite school staff to be administrators.  You can do all this from the 'School & admin profile' page in the side navigation. 

• Click the pink + symbol in the appropriate section to add an admin user. This will open a dialogue box; just enter the name of the parent you wish to promote. They will receive an email letting them know they have been 'promoted'.

Congratulations! You have now set up your Classlist site, let's go and take a look!

You can swap between Parent Mode and Admin Mode at any time. When you are in Parent Mode you view the site exactly as other parents will see it, and you have the same rights as any other parent. You will soon get used to the idea that to access the additional Admin functions you need to be in the green Admin Mode. Notice that on desktop in both the green admin side and the blue parent side, the page you are currently using is highlighted in a darker colour in the sidebar navigation, so you can always see which page you are on.

We have added some pre-fabricated event content based around an 'Outdoor Movie Night' so you can see how it looks. Feel free to add your own welcome messages and events: you can cancel or edit them later and you can put 'test' the title if you like so you can have a play around with the features without worrying about confusing other parents when they join. 

Important: The school staff feature is best used to add a school secretary or other administrative user.  School staff do not have access to the parent areas of Classlist or parent content.  For more information on adding school staff, please click here.

Ready for Part Two - Get going?