Using Classlist Groups to support School Trips and Sports Matches

Guidance for Schools

Setup

For each trip or match, the school Ambassador or Staff Admin creates a new parent Interest Group. As described later, this Group and its contents can be deleted after the trip concludes. 

The group can be set up by:

• Staff Admins on the admin side

• Ambassadors. either by clicking the link to create a 'parent interest group' from the groups section on the admin side, or on the parent side in the app, by scrolling to the bottom of the home page below My Groups; selecting “Browse interest groups”, and selecting “Set up a group”. 

• The Group type should be set as Closed  / Requires Approval. This means that although all parents will be able to see that this group exists on Classlist, only parents invited, or approved by the person setting up the group can join. 

Groups Leaders

• Staff Admins will need to assign a parent member as a group lead. Ambassadors will become the group owner themselves, they can add extra owners and/or remove themself later.
• The School Trip Leader is invited (typically using their official school email) to join Classlist as Staff Admins using the “invite” button on the School Profile  page below. If the trip is led by several staff members they can all be invited as Staff Admins.

Adding Parents

• The Ambassador or Staff Admin adds relevant parent members to this group. Only parents who have joined Classlist can be included in a Classlist Group, or receive Group Announcements. Parents can be added individually, by class/year or by sending a link to the group for them to join.

• Parents will need to download the Classlist app to view the group and receive app notifications for new Announcements from staff.

Communicating via the Group

• All the Staff Admins on the trip (and indeed any other Staff Admin or Ambassador) can post Announcements to the Group by searching for the group name when they create an announcement.
• Staff Admins will not be part of the group and cannot be contacted directly by parents. 

• Having Staff Admin status will enable Trip Leaders to post Announcements to this Group. The name which they entered as they joined Classlist will be visible to parents as the person sending the Announcement. This can be changed at any time. Parents will not be able to contact the Trip Leader directly. 
• The Trip Leader can decide whether to lock comments by switching the ability for parents to comment 'on' or 'off' for each Announcement which they make. We generally recommend leaving comments switched on.
• Trip Leaders can view and respond to any parent comments on the Announcements they have sent by looking in the announcements section of the app. Staff Admin will not be notified of new comments to avoid distraction during the trip.
• Please note that Trip Leaders who have Staff Admin status will not be able to see or respond to other posts and comments from parents in the Group feed which are not connected to a specific Announcements. This has the benefit that parents cannot distract the Trip Leader with random comments, and parents will not hear back from staff if they post a question. Parents should be made aware of this through an initial Announcement to the group. A draft is set out below. 
• It is recommended that the Trip Leader download the Classlist app. This will enable them to send Announcements including photos in a few seconds from their mobile.

Live Trip Reporting  

• Announcements about the trip can be made at any time by the Trip Leader. Announcements appear in the group’s feed (see below) and in the parent’s Announcements tab on Classlist. Members of  the group will be notified of new announcements  as normal through in-app notifications. Parents should ensure that they have the app if they want to receive live updates.
  
  
   
• To set parent expectations and highlight that they cannot contact Trip Leaders through the Group, you may wish to send a first Announcement on the following lines:
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    • “Welcome to this new group for parents and guardians of pupils on the [Paris Trip]. Trip leaders will use this Classlist group to post regular announcements with trip updates. These may, where we have your permission, include pictures of pupils. Please note that trip leaders are fully occupied managing the trip. They cannot see parent chat in the group, and as such will not respond to individual queries, which must be directed as normal [through the school office].” 

Photos

• If the Trip Leader wishes to include photos within their announcement, which parents really appreciate, these can be selected from the Trip Leader’s photo library, or even better, taken within the app using the “Take Photo” button (see below). This latter option has the advantage that the photo image is not stored in the Trip Leader’s phone; the image is stored in the Classlist cloud servers directly. Schools that do not allow staff to store photos of pupils on their personal phone are keen on this feature, as it enables staff who do not have school phones to take and share photos of pupils, whilst observing the rule about not saving photos on personal phones.
  
   

Drafting & Scheduling Announcements

• Draft announcements can be saved, so if the trip leader wishes to take a few photos via the Classlist app throughout the day, they can save them in the draft.
• Announcements can also be scheduled to send - so the trip leader can prepare the announcement in the evening but send it the next day for instance.

Locking Comments

• Parents can comment on the Announcement, or comments can be “locked” after an Announcement has been sent - if no more comments are desired. Simply go to the announcement on the admin side and scroll down. We recommend leaving comments turned on, as experience suggests parents like to share positive feedback about how the trip is progressing, and the Trip Leader has the opportunity to respond back just to comments on this specific Announcement.  

Post Trip Arrangements

• Once the trip is completed we recommend deleting the Group at the end of the academic year. This will also delete any images which have been uploaded, and any comments.