Begin, Build, Boost
You're at Build, the second step in your school's journey to getting the most out of communications in Arbor!
This Build step is split into two parts. In the first part, we looked at setting up your communication areas. In this second part we'll see how to create communications and see what has been sent.
- You can find all three steps of your journey here: Getting started with Communications
- More information on these journeys: Making the most out of Arbor with Begin, Build, Boost
Now that you've got everything set up, your staff can start sending out communications.
How long will it take?
- Go to the comms area or select students - 1 minute
- Draft your message - 5 minutes
- Schedule your message - 1 minute
- Check communications have sent - 5 minutes
Sending communications
Where can communications be sent from?
- You can create what we call a 'mail merge' by going to School > Communications > select Communication Type > New Mail Merge.
- Also anywhere where there are tick boxes next to names in tables, you can send communications. Just select the people to send the communications for, click the Bulk action button and select the communication type!
Why not share this resource with your teachers, as it includes how to send communications from the Lesson Dashboard, the homepage or from student profiles: Send Communications as a Teacher
Drafting your communication
When drafting the new communication, you can:
- select templates to use or or write it out
- decide who to send from and to (as Bcc)
- choose how many messages should be sent to each household by combining
- add formatting and links
- save your draft or send it out now
The example below shows email, but it'll look similar for all communication types. Follow our guidance here for the different communication types:
Scheduling communications
You can save drafts to send out at a later date and time - whenever you choose! You can see how to schedule communications here: Schedule an email, SMS or in-app message to send later on
Seeing what communications have been sent
Every communication sent through Arbor is recorded in the Communication Log.
- You can see the communications you've sent yourself from My Items > My Communications.
- Every Student, Guardian and Staff member has a Communication Log on their profile, that has a log of any communications linked to them.
- You can also see an incoming and outgoing Communications Log for individual communication types.
- And a whole school Communications Log which shows everything.
Take a look here for further information on the Communications Log: Viewing sent, received and failed communications and sending follow-ups
You can also take follow-up actions: Actions in Communication logs
What's next?
So you've got to grips with sending communications and you're wondering what else you can do? Jump to the next part of your journey to Boost your school to the next level where you'll see how to:
- Bring data from reporting into your Merge fields with the Custom Report Writer
- Customise who you're able to send communications to
- Generate communications using our AI offering - Ask Arbor
- Use the MAT MIS to send emails at scale
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