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? Remember, they're not a text message, but a gentle nudge to users to prompt a desired action.

Push Notifications are created, viewed and sent from your Safer Schools NI 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.

Note that only Account Admins can create and send Push Notifications. If you need to add additional admins to help with this, find out how to here 👈🏻

Creating a Push Notification

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

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.

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!

Unsure? 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 NI 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.

Note that pathways available with depend on the role selected to receive the Notification. If selected a staff/safeguarding lead role, you'll see further options.

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.

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. 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.