SIMS: Is InTouch really this inflexible? (Divorced parents)

[JoeS]

I've recently started at a new school. We use InTouch to send out reports via SIMS.

 

I've been told that InTouch will only send out a report to the priority 1 contact in SIMS.

 

This causes a problem when parents are divorced as we need to send the reports to both the mother and father separately.

 

One parent (usually the mother) is the priority 1 contact and lives with the student. The other parent (usually the father) is the priority 2 contact and usually lives at a different address.

 

I have been told that we cannot change both the father and mother to priority 1 contact in SIMS, as the parent living with the child should always be down as priority 1 in case of emergency. I've been told the non-resident parent should not be priority 1.

 

So we have a large number of fathers (and sometimes mothers) who are happy to be contacted via InTouch, and have provided an email address, but who cannot be sent reports via InTouch as they are the priority 2 contact.

 

I've been told it is deemed too dangerous to temporarily change the fathers to priority 1 while sending out the reports, as it might be forgotten to change them back - plus an emergency might happen during the hour or so time it takes to get all the reports sent.

 

So we are in the odd situation of having to send out paper reports in envelopes to all the non-resident parents - which can sometimes number up to 30 or 40 per year group!

 

Do other schools do it like this? Or have you worked out a way to get around this problem? I can't believe this is the only way!

 

Many thanks.

Edited January 8, 2020 by JoeS

[coolhands]

"An email containing as an attachment a pupil/student's Individual Reportscan be sent to a pupil/student's email address, their parent/guardians aswell as the email address of other designated persons. The recipient(s) ofthe reports will be those defined in the Individual Assessment Reportpanel on the InTouch Defaults Setup page (please see Setting DefaultCommunication Methods on page 176) (via Tools | InTouch | DefaultsSetup)."

 

from the Managing Communications using InTouch capita handbook

 

edit that's not very clear but I think it goes to both if:

 

Parental Responsibility box - Ticked

InTouch Communication box - Ticked

Court Order box - Not ticked

The email address must be set to primary and of course be correct.

 

I don't think (but need to check) the priority is the defining factor

Edited January 8, 2020 by coolhands

[Cheesywolf]

If the contact already has the InTouch Communication box ticked you can set Individual Assessment Reports to go to all in touch communicatees as follows

 

Tools - InTouch - Message Types Defaults Setup

 

Search for Individual Assessment Report Message

 

Then, in Section 2, select All InTouch Communicatees from the dropdown

 

Hope that helps

[JoeS]

Thank you both very much, I'll give both of those approaches a try.

[JoeS]

If the contact already has the InTouch Communication box ticked you can set Individual Assessment Reports to go to all in touch communicatees as follows

 

Tools - InTouch - Message Types Defaults Setup

 

Search for Individual Assessment Report Message

 

Then, in Section 2, select All InTouch Communicatees from the dropdown

 

Hope that helps

Hmmm, SIMS crashes when I attempt to visit Tools - InTouch - Message Types Defaults Setup

 

Why might this be?

[JoeS]

"An email containing as an attachment a pupil/student's Individual Reportscan be sent to a pupil/student's email address, their parent/guardians aswell as the email address of other designated persons. The recipient(s) ofthe reports will be those defined in the Individual Assessment Reportpanel on the InTouch Defaults Setup page (please see Setting DefaultCommunication Methods on page 176) (via Tools | InTouch | DefaultsSetup)."

 

from the Managing Communications using InTouch capita handbook

 

edit that's not very clear but I think it goes to both if:

 

Parental Responsibility box - Ticked

InTouch Communication box - Ticked

Court Order box - Not ticked

The email address must be set to primary and of course be correct.

 

I don't think (but need to check) the priority is the defining factor

 

Thanks, but from what I can see on our system, most student's parents are set up like this - and the email only goes to the Priority 1 parent.