ARTICLE: Parent Mobile App User Guide

ARTICLE: Parent Mobile App User Guide

Parent Mobile App User Guide
The Reach Mobile App is designed for use as a transaction platform, it is free and available for use by all parents/guardians that have an existing user account. The Mobile App provides access to the majority of transaction elements, it is not a complete replication of all functionality available to users in the Reach web portal.



Access to the Reach Mobile App

The Reach mobile app is free and available for use once your school has created a profile for you via the Reach web portal.
Download the app;
  1. Via the Google Play store or iTunes store. 
  2. Search for Reach Student Life Management
KB ARTICLE:     How to Access and Use Reach on your Mobile Device

                       

Using the Mobile App as Web Service App

As an alternative to downloading and using the native mobile app from a web store, you can also use the browser on your mobile phone or tablet. 




Logging In

  1. Open the App, Click the Lets Go button, Search for your school name.
  2. Use simple terms, eg: To search for ‘St Andrews Delaware’, search for Andrews. 
  3. Reach will then search globally for your school, if you cannot see your school, scroll down.
  4. Click on your school and the login screen will appear.
  5. Use your username and password to login to your Reach account.
 

Login Credentials

During login, your School may use a Single-Sign-On option to increase their online security. If so, or if you encounter any login issues regarding Username or Password, please contact your school for assistance.

Essential Security information
Your Reach login provides you with access to important, private, and secure information about staff, students, and parents in your boarding community. It is vital that you access Reach from a secure portal and only with your login to meet data privacy regulations.
It is vital that you do not share your login details.
Sharing your Reach access login with unauthorised users may create a reportable breach-of-privacy incident for your school.

The two main menu areas are as follows;

 

Firstly, the home screen is sectioned into ‘cards’ for fast access to the main areas of Reach. 
Secondly, the central PLUS button at the bottom of the screen will pop up a list of quick access features, to  create  new items.





Metrics View  / Home Screen   

The Home Screen is your base Metrics View and launch point for the main functions of the mobile app portal.
 
You are welcomed to the app with a greeting, your school logo, the background image of your school.  Also in the top right corner is the Reach Now messaging icon. More information regarding this feature is detailed in the Communications section below.  




Activity Metrics   

This panel visualises the total number of active Leave items for associated students. 
 
Pending Leave – This shows how many leave requests are awaiting approval
Approved Leave – Showing the number of approved leave items in the system
 
Create Leave – This will take you through a simple page-by-page process to create a new leave event quickly and easily for one student.





Events   

Via the mobile app, this section is mostly an information-based area, however, the action of registering attendance can be done.  The  Events  section below details the functionality of this feature.
 
You will only see and be able to manage students that you are a parent or guardian to.
In this case, the three sections detailing information for those students are;
  1. Blue -  'can register’
  2. Green  - ‘are registered’
  3. Yellow -  ‘are waitlisted’ for events available to them




Communications    

The Communications card is your access to the Reach Now feature, with use of two methods;
  1. Direct Messaging (DM) Chat
  2. Noticeboards. 


To Do's    

This card is your access to the Reach Surveys and Lists features.

If a daily survey has been created for you to complete, a pop-up notification will appear once you login to the app.
Tap on the ‘Surveys’ button to access all surveys that have been created for you.   
Follow the simple layout to complete and submit.

Tap on the ‘Lists’ button to access the lists that have been created by your school.
Follow the simple layout to complete and submit as required.

The MORE section further details the functionality of Surveys And Lists within the mobile app.






Events
Reach Events was created to provide an efficient management tool to organise, share, and manage recreation activities, excursions, or events being held by your school. 

If your school has not added the Events extension module to your Reach portal  OR  the module is turned off, the configuration or viewing options will be disabled.
 
Via the mobile app, this section is mostly an information-based area, however, the actions of registering/managing attendance can be done here. It is designed to show the Events relevant to your associated students.

How to Navigate Events

Once you open the mobile app and log into your account, the home screen will present different ‘cards’ for you to access functions quickly.
If you can not see an Events card on your home screen, please contact your school. 
 
Once Events is open, you will be presented with tabs across the top.
In this example, we are presented with; Discover, Calendar, and Events.



Discover Tab

  1. The Parent in this example has management access for four students, as can be seen by their names at the top, currently the discover section is showing the events available for the student highlighted red
  2. Simply tap on another student to view their events
  3. The first card that can be seen is showing a blue dot at the title, indicating it is an open event and the student ‘Can Register’ 
  4. The current event shows the Reach logo by default as the event image
    1. When an event is created by the school staff, an image can be added
    2. Video files can also be loaded and viewable in the information section
  5. If you scroll down, more event detail can be seen on the current card
  6. If you tap on the event card it will open to reveal all available information as can be seen in the example image
    1. To return, tap the return arrow in the top left
  7. In the minimised or extended card view, the red buttons Decline & Register can be seen, simply tap as required
  8. To tap either button will instantly activate that action, showing a pop-up to confirm

Calendar Tab

This area displays the currently registered events, which can be viewed and updated if required.
 
Navigating the Calendar 
  1. When opening the Calendar, the current month will always show, with a blue dot on the current date
  2. Tap the Calendar icon to open the current day view, tap it again to show the month view
  3. Tap the left/right arrows to move per month
    1. When in the day view, this will move per day 
  4. Registered events will show as a small black dot on the associated date
    1. As can be seen in the example below, this is July 7th, 10th & 16th.
  5. July 10th has been tapped
    1. This opens the day view, where one event can be seen
  6. Hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains has been tapped
    1. This will open to reveal all available details for that event 
  7. Tap the Register button to register the student to attend the event 
    1. You will receive confirmation as to whether they were successfully registered or if they were placed on the waitlist if the event is full


Events Tab

This area is similar to the Discover tab, however, now an arrow will appear on a card beside the title to show there are more cards registered to that student. Swipe left/right to view.
In the example below;
  1. A red arrow is pointing to the student names on the left, these are the current students accessible by this parent.
    1. Tap on a student name to open their events
  2. Scroll down to view the events 
    1. Here we can see by the red arrow on the left, this registered event is indicated by the green dot, other events may show as still being waitlisted indicated by a yellow dot.
  3. The red arrow on the top right highlights a black arrow to the side of the title on the card, this indicates that there are more registered events to view
    1. Therefore, you can slide the card left/right to view other events
    2. If the black arrow is not visible, there are no more events to view
  4. The red arrow at the bottom right is showing the unregistered button
  5. Tap this to withdraw from the event.

                

Communications

The Communications card is your access to the Reach Now feature, with ease of use to; Direct Messaging Chat, and Noticeboards. 



Reach Now is a versatile tool designed to help you manage and improve communications within your school community. The system provides a secure, authenticated platform.
This is an extension module that must be enabled for your school's Reach portal and Infinity Permissions must be enabled per user. 

Direct Messaging 

This feature allows you to have one-on-one conversations in real-time with certain contacts in your Reach portal. 
 
Important features:
  1. Live chat is restricted to staff type users connecting with other contacts in your Reach community
  2. Parent-to-parent, student-to-student, parent-to-student for example, are not possible
  3. There are no silent conversations, as all conversations are logged within Reach



Noticeboards  

This feature provides a platform for one-way announcements to your community.
 
Important features:
  1. You can be included in an unlimited number of Noticeboards
  2. Noticeboards can be open to all user types within your school community
  3. The audience cannot reply to items that are published in Noticeboards
  4. Subscribers receive notification alerts when information is published

Manage Leave

Parents are able to submit, edit and approve/decline leave requests for their student(s) through the Reach Student Life Management app. 
 

Viewing Existing Leaves

The Activity Metrics card on the home screen displays the associated students’ current Pending and Approved leave items, as well as their next upcoming leave.  Selecting Leave from the bottom menu bar will bring up the Manage Leave screen, providing an array of filter and sorting options to view current and past leave items. 

Quick filtering for Approved , Pending , On Leave, and Rejected leave items can be accomplished by selecting one of the 4 corresponding color rectangles at the top of the Manage Leave section. Along the top right of the screen, you have the ability to search, filter, and sort by additional details.  
Easily see an at-a-glance view of where each leave request is in its approval process with the leave actor icons displaying orange for pending, green for approved, red for rejected, and blue for approval by another, and purple for an override. 
Clicking on a leave request will display a variety of options to view, including the main details of the leave request, if any special meals accommodations were scheduled due to the leave timing, notes entered regarding the leave, and the complete audit trail of the leave items approval process.




Creating a New Leave Request

To create a new leave request, select the PLUS button on the bottom home screen and choose New Leave Request.  Follow the series of prompted screens to input the details required. Parents have the ability to select multiple legs of transportation for their student's departure and return.  For recurring leave items, select the frequency and duration that the leave plans will repeat. Review the details you have created, adjust as required, then submit.

Edit / Approve / Reject  - a Leave Request

Reach app allows you the ability to view current and historical leave items, including their status as either; pending, approved, and rejected.  To edit, access the Manage Leave section via the Activity Metrics card on the home screen widget or by selecting Leave from the bottom menu bar. 



Tap either approve or reject a leave item, select it and tap the action required. You will be prompted with a confirmation of that action, followed by logging of your approval and a timestamp of when your approval occurred. On the Manage Leave screen, your actor icon will update based on the approval/rejection of the leave request.
To edit an existing leave request, tap to open the specific leave item to edit, then select the note and pen icon in the top right corner of the Leave Details screen. You can then progress through to make any necessary updates, tap the finished button to complete your action.
Note: The ability to make edits is set by your school's user accessibility setting and may not be accessible for everyone.



Viewing Student Information

You can view details pertaining to your student when viewing the details of a leave item.  Select the i icon next to the student’s name and the details will expand downward, revealing pertinent information for that student.

MORE …

Tap on the  More  button from the home screen to open extended functionality.

The available actionable sections will differ due to Login Type. Eg; Staff, Student, Parent


​


Surveys and Lists

Items are created and managed by your school, this feature allows an unlimited number of Surveys and Lists to be provided to staff, students, and parents. These are saved to your Reach Portal and are historically reportable.  

 


My Account 

Three Tabs are provided for you to update and control the basics of your account data.

Personal Tab
Here the actionable fields are;
  1. Name, Email, Phone, Date of Birth, Gender, and Address.
Update as required and tap the Save button
Security 
Here the actionable fields are; 
  1. Username, PIN, Security Question, Security Answer.
Update as required and tap the Save button.
Reset Password   button is also provided 
Hosts
This is a view-only area. 
Your associated Hosts are connected via People Management in the Web Portal.


                                                                     

Diagnostics

This page provides one simple option, to run tests.

Tap the Run Tests button to activate. Each listed test will run, green checkmarks will appear. 
The results will show directly on the screen.






Support Website

This opens the Reach Help Centre in an external web browser.

Quick Link:   Reach Help Centre

 

The Support site areas are;

Your Area

Sign-in to activate Tickets. Here you can Create, Submit and View your previous logged Tickets

Knowledge Base

Your Library of data - Articles, User Guides, PDF’s and Tutorials.

Use the Search Bar, scroll down through the sections, or view items in the Popular or Recent Articles sections
Community

Be involved in the Reach discussion, scroll down or search recent comments.

Tap the Heading of a Discussion to open.
Read / Like / Share / Add Comment / Add Attachments and Tick the Notifications box to keep informed of that Discussion.

The Reach team are active participants in the Community, answering questions or working with the Development team to provide solutions.



Change Log  

The Change Log, added in June of 2020, lists changes and bug fixes that have been updated to the program code.

These changes affect how the Reach platform functions, both mobile app and web portal.

This Change Log is a view-only area.

Each item listed is not an explanation of how things operate, only a record of changes that have been made to Reach.

About

A brief about the Reach platform and current copyright.

   

Debug

An internal system to send data from your device to the Reach support team.

This feature is to compliment your currently logged ticket with the Support site.

NOTE: Sending this to Reach support does NOT mean a support team member will contact you.

To create a ticket, please visit the support website.

Quick Link:  Reach Help Centre

  

School Management

This section is provided for those requiring access to multiple schools.

Eg; A staff member, teaching at different locations, or a parent with multiple students at different Reach schools.

   

Logout

When the button is tapped, a pop-up confirmation will ask if ‘you are sure’, as you will be logged out of  ALL  your attached schools.



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