How messaging works in School Vault
The Messages module provides an internal written channel between school staff and parents (or other staff). You compose a message, select one or more individual recipients, and send. Messages create a conversation thread; recipients can reply from their portal and replies appear in your Conversations view.
For automated event-triggered notifications (attendance alerts, daily report published, fee payment confirmation), see article 4.6. The Messages module is for manually composed communications.
Sending a message to a parent
- Go to Messages from the sidebar. The Compose tab opens by default.
- In the Recipients field, open the dropdown and select the parent(s) you want to message. You can add multiple recipients from the list of parents and staff.
- Enter a Subject — use a specific subject line (e.g. "Fee payment reminder — Nursery 1 — Term 2 deadline is Friday") so the parent knows what to expect before opening.
- Type your Message in the body field.
- Click Send Message. The recipient receives an in-app notification that a new message is waiting.
Use Messages for communications that need a written record. For urgent real-time alerts (emergency pickup, school closure), use SMS or WhatsApp via the notification settings (article 4.6). Messages is best for written, on-record communication: fee reminders, incident follow-ups, replies to parent queries.
Reading and replying to conversations
- Go to Messages from the sidebar → click the Conversations tab.
- The Conversations view lists all message threads sorted by most recent activity.
- Click a thread to read all messages in chronological order.
- Type in the reply field at the bottom and click Send to reply.
Parents cannot initiate messages to random staff. Parents can reply to conversations started by school staff. This keeps the inbox manageable and prevents the messaging system from becoming an unmoderated inbox.