Push Notifications

Push Notifications

notification bell-png

Push Notifications can be sent to you App users to help direct their attention when you want it! Maybe you've made a change to the school handbook, want you staff to complete a digital test, or your parents to see a resource you want share about Social Media Safety Settings.

They appear just like a notification you might receive from any app on your phone like Instagram or Whatsapp. But how do you make them, and how do you use them well? Follow our advice below to create great Push Notifications!

Push Notifications are created, viewed and sent from your Safer Schools England Web Management Portal. Users can find any notifications they've missed or want to revisit by clicking the notification bell icon at the top of their screen throughout the App.

This article will take you through the steps of creating your first one, sending them, and seeing your previous notifications.

Creating a Push Notification

STEP 1 Once logged into your Portal, select Push Notifications on the menu, then select Create Push Notifications.

SS eng PN create

STEP 2 At the top of this page, you're able to select which audience you'd like to send your notification to. You can send to Selected Audience by ticking which roles in the App you'd like to see your notification. Remember to consider the content of the Push Notification if choosing to send to pupils.

WarningIf you're attempting to push to content within the App that is role specific, such as an article in the News Builder or a Survey, roles will automatically be assigned to your Push Notification. You won't be able to send the content to a role that can't already see it.

STEP 3 Next, give your Notification a Title and a Body. The title should draw attention, whilst the body should offer a little more information. The title has a character limit of 40, and the body 200, so keep them brief and to-the-point!

WarningUnsure? If you need help on what makes a good Push Notification click 👉🏻 here

STEP 4 Scroll down and chose where you want to direct the user within the Safer Schools England App. You'll notice these all lead to difference sections of your App. In some cases, you'll have the option to paste a link, in others it will be as simple as heading to the assigned section.

SS eng PN locations

NOTE If you need help with these pathways, click 👉🏻 here

Sending Your Notification

Once you've added all of the above details, it's time to send your Push notifications. This is done at the bottom of the Create Push Notification page where it says Schedule. You have two options here:

NOW: This will send your notification to your App users immediately. Once the NOW option is selected, click Send at the bottom.

LATER: This will allow you to 'queue' your notification for a later time in the day or even on another date. This allows you to queue all of your notifications for the week on the Monday for example. Once you've selected the date and time, click Schedule at the bottom.

SS eng PN view
Viewing your Notifications

Once they're sent/scheduled, you're able to view past and pending Push Notifications by clicking View Push Notifications under Push Notifications in the left hand sidebar on the portal.

You have a number of filter options too, as can be seen below. This is at the top of your View Push Notifications screen. You're able to filter your notifications by date, contents (such as title, or body of the notification), sender, type or exact date. Here, you're also able to View or Delete previous notifications.

Good Push Notifications

Consistency

Your adult users will receive selected push notifications from the Safer Schools NI App containing safeguarding updates, alerts and blogs from us at Safer Schools NI. It can therefore be important to differentiate any push notifications sent out directly from the school. Try and keep your Title and body used consistent, with a similar structure and language to help differentiate. You could even use your school name at the beginning of the notifications.

Clear and Concise

Push notifications have a 200 character limit in the Body, and only 40 for the Title. It is important to make your push notification clear and concise. We suggest include what a post relates to in the title, for example if its the latest holidays at the start of term, titling it "School Holidays Update!" would be great! You could even include an emoji to make it eye catching.

Other Considerations

1. Is it timely? You can schedule a push notification for a specific time or date to ensure it has the best engagement. For example, PN's to busy parents first thing in the morning might get lost in the start of their day, but it might be ideal for an older pupil as they're heading into school.

2.  Is it actionable? The push notification should make it clear what the user should do next. For example, if you are wanting to inform staff of a Safeguarding Risk, include a link to a page within your Safer Schools NI App or a resource that would give them guidance on what action to take next.

3. Is it Specific? You can send the notification to a specific user role. Ensure the contents of a notification is appropriate to the group you're engaging with. For example, informing staff that they need to return their child's school photo permission slips wouldn't be relevant to them!

Notifications that aren't relevant to users will cause them to disengage with notifications from the App and then they might miss important ones in the future.

Getting Started

With all of this in mind, we've developed a Push Notification Map to help you in getting started with Push Notifications in your Safer Schools England App. Each notification is divided by audience group (parents or staff, primary or secondary), and you can filter by topic and time of year! There are then suggestions of in app content, or external content you can direct your users to. Feel free to download and use, or you can download it on our website, alongside many other launch materials: https://oursaferschools.co.uk/england-launch-your-app/



Notes

Still feeling unsure?

Contact the Safer Schools England Service Desk using the contact details below.
📰 Check out our other support articles
📹 Take a look at our instructional videos
📞 Phone: 02896005777
💻 Website: Visit Safer Schools and use the Live Chat

 




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