Using ComplyChat through the school day

Start with the work people need to coordinate

A school runs through many short conversations: the office answers a parent’s question, the site team prepares a room, a club leader checks an arrangement, and a governor asks for a meeting paper. Give each exchange an appropriate audience and someone responsible for the next step.

1. Before the dayConfirm room arrangements, prepare an event and pass on routine operational changes to the relevant staff.
2. During the dayAnswer parent enquiries, coordinate support staff and turn practical requests into named actions.
3. Beyond lessonsArrange clubs and meetings, review unfinished actions and hand over to the next responsible person.

Start with a problem people recognise, such as office messages being passed through several colleagues or practical requests losing their owner. Agree what the channel is for, who checks it and what a useful reply looks like. A single staff channel may be enough for a first pilot; adding more channels is a choice about audiences and responsibilities.

Include the adults who do the work: office colleagues, teachers, teaching assistants, site and catering teams, and approved temporary staff. A person can join ComplyChat with a UK mobile number verified by SMS, without needing a Microsoft account. That verification establishes control of the number; the school still decides who the person is and what they may access.

For a wider buying comparison, read our school communication platform guide. The steps here focus on using ComplyChat once the school has decided where it fits.

Choose the right route for the message

Routine coordination, a formal pupil record and a safeguarding concern need different responses. The message’s subject determines what happens next, even if the conversation started with an ordinary question.

• Routine coordinationA meeting time, hall setup or question about a club can go to the appropriate ComplyChat conversation, with a named responder.
• School recordsAttendance, permissions, assessment, behaviour and other pupil records belong in the school’s designated systems and procedures. A chat message does not update them automatically.
• Safeguarding concernAct immediately through the school’s safeguarding procedure. Contact the designated safeguarding lead or deputy without delay and make the required record.
• Immediate dangerUse the school’s emergency procedure and contact emergency services when required. Do not wait for a chat reply, read tick or task reminder.

In England, the Department for Education’s Keeping children safe in education 2026 staff overview explains immediate action, escalation and record keeping. The overview complements the full guidance. Staff must follow their school’s policies and training; schools elsewhere in the UK should use the applicable national guidance.

If an ordinary parent exchange reveals a safeguarding concern, follow that procedure at once. Keeping the message in ComplyChat is not itself a referral or an entry in the school’s safeguarding system. Do not place a sensitive case in a general staff group simply because it is convenient.

A routine message about setting up a trip briefing is different from the trip’s permissions, risk assessment or emergency plan. Use chat to coordinate the practical work and keep those formal documents in their approved systems.

Give staff, families and governors the right audience

Use a group for adults who need a shared discussion and a private line for separate conversations with individuals. The following is an illustrative arrangement, not a requirement to use all three channels.

• Staff operations groupApproved staff who need the same practical discussionOffice ↔ teaching and support staffRoom arrangements, routine notices and operational follow-up. A smaller departmental group can have a narrower membership.
• Private parent lineApproved parents and carers, each in their own threadNadia ↔ authorised school staffElliot ↔ authorised school staffParents do not see one another’s conversations. Two approved adults linked to the same pupil still have separate threads.
• Governance groupThe clerk and the governors who need the discussionClerk ↔ approved governorsMeeting arrangements and routine actions, with formal minutes and decisions kept through the school’s governance process.

A private line counts as one channel however many individual conversations it contains. The current school plans include ten channels and unlimited people; each school has its own workspace. Decide how to allocate channels around actual responsibilities, and check the current school plans before planning a wider rollout.

Approve family contacts through the school’s own process. A phone number or a successful invitation does not establish an entitlement to every piece of pupil information. Use only the information needed for the purpose and check the recipient before sending. The DfE’s guidance on sharing personal data in schools explains the checks and when to involve the data protection officer.

Review access when a pupil moves, family circumstances change, a governor leaves or a temporary assignment ends. If two authorised carers need the same update, arrange that deliberately; their private threads do not automatically become a shared family conversation.

On a mapped private line, staff can answer through Microsoft Teams while the parent uses ComplyChat. Check the membership of the containing Team before mapping a line: those members can see its mapped conversations. Keep access appropriate to the purpose, including authorised administrator access in the client portal.

Make the first parent exchange simple

Choose a low-risk practical enquiry to practise joining and replying. Confirm the approved adult, invite them to the correct line and explain who responds, the staffed hours, the usual response target and the alternative contact route.

Sam can assign the entrance check to a colleague in the appropriate staff chat. The parent’s message does not automatically create a task, update the pupil’s record or change who may collect them. The responsible member of staff decides the next action.

Parents and carers can use the app or a browser without a Microsoft account. Help them verify their number by SMS, open the right conversation and read a reply. Explain the school’s recorded-communications notice and how to get help.

Keep an accessible alternative for families who cannot or do not want to use the app, including people who need language or communication support. Agree how staff will handle the same enquiry arriving through two routes. The person answering should know where the complete formal record belongs.

Choose a task, acknowledgement or announcement

These tools answer different questions: does someone need to do something, confirm an update, or receive a common message? Choose the tool that fits the work rather than treating every message as an action.

• Task · do somethingPrepare 30 chairs for the parent workshopAssign Leah in the staff chat, with a due time if useful. Leah marks Done there after completing the work.
• Acknowledgement · confirm an updateThe staff briefing is in the library this weekAsk the relevant staff to acknowledge it. Follow up with anyone still outstanding.
• Announcement · send one updateNext week’s club timetable is readyAn authorised administrator can send the update from the client portal to selected existing conversations. On a private line, each person receives their own copy.

For a task or acknowledgement, open the relevant chat in the ComplyChat app and choose + → Task or + → Acknowledge. Task assignees must already be members of that chat. Make the action specific enough that the assignee knows what completion means, and use the task view to review work you have asked of others or they have asked of you.

Tasks and acknowledgements are completed in the app. A Teams reply is not the task’s Done action. There is no integration with Microsoft Planner, To Do, Shifts or the school’s helpdesk. If a premises job needs a formal maintenance ticket, create that through the normal process as well.

A read tick, acknowledgement or Done response provides different evidence. None proves understanding, competence or that a supervisor has checked the work. Use the school’s normal check where that matters.

Announcements are sent from the client portal to existing conversations, up to 500 conversations and 2,000 people per announcement. They do not request acknowledgements and are not mirrored into Teams. Check the selected audience and wording before sending, and do not use an announcement as proof that every family has read an urgent update. For a closure or other urgent event, follow the school’s established communication plan.

Keep the conversation and the school record clear

On a paid plan with a connected and verified archive, the conversation record is kept in the school’s own Microsoft 365 subscription under its retention arrangements. That archive serves a different purpose from the system where staff record attendance, safeguarding actions, permissions and other pupil information.

1. The conversation recordMessage or shared fileComplyChatThe school’s connected Microsoft 365 archive
2. The formal school recordEvent, decision or permissionResponsible staff member makes the required entryDesignated pupil, safeguarding or governance system

There is no automatic transfer between these routes. A parent’s absence message, for example, may need action under the attendance procedure and an entry in the attendance system. A governor’s chat about an agenda item is not a substitute for the formal minutes. Agree who makes the required entry and who checks that it happened.

ComplyChat can import an approved contact list from a CSV export on paid plans. The school prepares the list for the appropriate private line and previews the first import. This is a contact-list facility, not a direct MIS connector: it does not synchronise attendance, pupil notes or safeguarding records.

Before relying on the archive, check that a harmless test conversation reaches the correct school archive and can be retrieved by authorised people. Name the archive owner, agree access and retention with the appropriate school staff, and include the archive in the school’s process for finding relevant records. Read our guide to school records for the wider record-keeping picture.

Keep only the information the audience needs in routine conversations. A centrally retained message still needs an appropriate purpose, recipient and retention arrangement. A tool’s archive does not, on its own, establish compliance with the school’s duties.

Agree cover and pilot one school workflow

A channel needs someone to answer it. Agree the primary responder and backup, how unfinished work passes between them, and the response expectation the school can support. Include office and support staff in that discussion as well as teachers.

1. Choose one routine useStart with a staff workflow such as event preparation. Name its audience, owner, backup and formal-record boundary.
2. Test the complete pathPractise joining, a fictional exchange, a task, an acknowledgement and archive retrieval. Check access from the intended staff devices.
3. Introduce families deliberatelyApprove contacts, explain the private line, publish response hours and keep an alternative. Check who can see any Teams mapping.
4. Review before extendingLook at missed replies, unfinished actions, access changes and required record entries. Fix problems before adding another workflow or school.

Working hours can quiet ComplyChat push notifications, but they do not mute Microsoft Teams. Priority contacts can be exceptions, and calls can still ring while the app is open on screen. Agree expectations explicitly; a notification setting does not provide holiday cover or guarantee contact with an on-duty person.

For a trip, club or holiday period, decide in advance which adult monitors the channel, what needs immediate telephone contact and what happens if the app or network is unavailable. Do not rely on a task reminder as an emergency contact arrangement.

At a trust, keep each school’s workspace, contact approvals and responsibilities clear. A central policy can set the standard, while local staff own the daily response. Avoid putting pupil-specific information into a wider trust group simply to make it easier to find.

Questions schools ask

Is this for pupils to message one another?

No. This guide is about adult staff, parents, carers and governors using approved school communication routes. It does not propose pupil-to-pupil messaging or a classroom platform.

Can we try the apps before arranging the school archive?

Yes. Free lets adults aged 18 or over try personal conversations in the apps. It has three calendar months of recent history and no Microsoft 365 archive or Replay. Parent guests, Microsoft Teams and the school’s lasting archive belong to organisational paid plans. Keep a personal evaluation separate from a school rollout.

Will parents see other families’ messages or numbers?

On a private line, each parent or carer has a separate thread with authorised staff. Members do not see one another’s phone numbers in ComplyChat. Authorised administrators can see numbers in the client portal, and staff replying in Teams can see the number of someone outside the staff list.

Does ComplyChat replace our MIS or safeguarding software?

No. It supports conversations, routine tasks, acknowledgements and announcements. Staff still use the school’s designated systems for pupil records, safeguarding, attendance and permissions; a CSV contact import does not connect those records.

Can an acknowledgement prove someone completed training?

No. An acknowledgement records a confirmation of an update. It does not establish understanding, attendance at training or competence. Use the school’s normal training record and checks.