How to Manage and Add Contacts from a Student’s Record.

In this guide, we will show you how to manage and add Contacts (to a Student) via a Student Record. This article will cover the following areas;

• Add Contacts to the Student Record
• Edit Contacts
• Removing Contacts
• Understanding Contact Records
• Members of Staff who are Contacts

Access: The minimum permissions required to follow this guide are found in the Framework Module of Config>Setup>Roles & Permissions.

See also How to add a new address to a Contact and link to related Students

Note: The Emergency Contact information is displayed on the top right of the Student Profile Page. Listed in this section will be any Contact with Parental Responsibility.

Add Contacts to the Student Record

IMPORTANT : when Adding a Contact best practice is to ALWAYS CHECK that the contact doesn’t already exist on your database. For example if you are adding a Mother to a students record if that parent is already on the database as for example an Aunt to another student then you would select Click to Add Existing Contact. See How to find and remove duplicate contacts.

To Add a Contact click on the + icon top right of the Contacts panel.

This will open the Add/Edit pop-up, with two options, Click to link to an existing Contact or Click to create/add a new Contact.

IMPORTANT: If using Link to an Existing Contact, you MUST NOT link a Staff Profile to a Student Record as a Contact. This can cause problems with Communication and when using MCAS.

To add an Existing Contact , select Click to link an existing Contact and use the Person Name field to search for them and Select the right person from the list.

The Linked Students tab will automatically open to the selected Student’s record.

Check the information is correct and then once you’re happy click Save.

Then work along the remaining tabs and fill in any required information.

To add a New Contact select Click to create/add a new contact.

Personal Details

If Click to Create/Add a New Contact is selected, the Personal Details Tab will display.

In the Personal Details panel, fill out the basic information for the contact that you are adding, any fields marked with an Asterisk (*) are mandatory.

Also note the tick boxes at the bottom of the screen to note other important information.

Important: If the Member Of Armed Forces check box is ticked on the Contact record for a Contact marked as having Parental Responsibility then the Student will appear as a Service Child in the Census. This will not automatically update the Service Children in Education field within Additional Details. For more information on how to update this please see How to Add Additional Student Information.

Once the fields are complete, click Save, or if a new contact is being created, click Next.

Matched Contacts

When creating a New Contact and Next is clicked at the bottom of the personal details tab, the Matched Contact(s) list will be displayed. This is a list of similar contacts for review to prevent the accidental creation of duplicate contacts.

In the Action column, there are 2 options: View Contact and Link Contact.

View Contact

If a contact is displayed in the list and you are unable to discern from the information displayed whether the contact is a match for the record being created, click the View Contact icon to see further information.

This will display the full contact record, with a notice at the top that This contact was found via duplicate check. The Personal Details and Linked Students tabs can be accessed for review to help determine if the Contact Record is for the same person. Once reviewed, click Close to return to the Matched Contacts list.

If an existing record for the contact is identified from the Matched Contacts list, click the Link Contact icon to link the Contact Record to the Student.

You will Automatically be taken to the Linked Students tab.

Alternatively, select Create New, to create a new contact. Where you will also be taken to the Linked Students tab.

Linked Students

For each student in the Linked Students tab you need to identify the following:

• Contact’s Relationship to this Student – select from dropdown list
• Parental Responsibility – this is key when sending Communications through Bromcom to Contacts
• Grant access to student details in MCAS – this will give access to Student information on the Parent Portal
• Parental Ballot, Student Reports and Correspondence – these allow Contact lists to be filtered on these items when using Quick Reports
• Transfer Address – will Transfer the Contact Address with the Student
• Court Order Restricted Access – select if there is a Court Order in place to Restrict Access
• Source of Contact Priority – select from dropdown list
• Contact Priority – this is the Contact’s Priority to the Student
• Alternative Contact Notes – is Free Text

After reaching the Linked Students tab, users cannot navigate to other tabs until all required fields on this tab have been completed and Save has been selected. Saving at this stage links the contact to the current student and unlocks access to all remaining tabs.

Phone & Email

Click the + icon and select whether to add a Phone or Email .

Enter the required information and click Save when you’re happy.

Note: The Priority is the Telephone priority and not the Contact priority.

Address

There are two options for the Address, Link to Known Address or Click to Add New Address.

If a new Address is being added, enter the Address Type (for example Home or Work), add the Start Date this address is being used from, the Postcode and click on Search to find a list of addresses within that Postcode. Select the Address from the list and click on the Use button, when complete click on the Save button.

Note: By using the Postcode Finder it will automatically be a validated address with a URPN for Census purposes.

When selecting Link to Known Address, use the Person Name field to search for the Contact associated with the Address you would like to link and select them from the list.

Select the Address to link from the table, this will open the address details in the bottom half of the screen, check that the details are correct and press Save.

The Contact Record is now complete to save to the Student Record click on the Save button.

When Editing an Address the the UPRN can be disabled by clicking on the Pencil icon to the right. This will grey out the UPRN and make it Non Applicable opening the Address fields for manual entry.

Edit Contacts

From the left Menu go to Students>View>Profile and look for the Contacts panel.

To Edit an existing Contact move the pointer to that Contact, which will now display blue with icons to the right, click on the Pencil icon to Edit.

Using the Tabs along the top of the pop-up you can now Edit the Personal Details, Linked Students, Phone & Email, Address and User Defined Fields associated with the Contact.

Removing Orphaned Contacts

When you Delete a Contact, that Contact becomes an Orphaned Contact. Move the pointer to the Contact to be removed, who will now display blue, click on the Dustbin icon

A Confirmation message will be given select Cancel or Proceed.

That Contact is no longer visible on the Contacts panel.

To view the list of Orphaned Contacts, from the left Menu go to Others, click on the Search Filters option top right and from the Contact Type dropdown select Orphaned Contacts.

Understanding Contact Records

There are a number of different Icons and codes on the contact record on the student profile that can help you with managing contacts.

Firstly, if there is a (H) after the Contact name, this indicates that they live in the same house as the Student.

Next, you will see a # followed by a number, this is the unique Contact ID number. Next, you will see the Contact’s Relationship to the Student and the Contact Priority.

On the right hand side, there is a list of Codes that will or will not be highlighted depending on the selections made for the Contact giving an instant view of what selections have been given to that Contact.

• C – Copy any Correspondence for the Student
• P – Parental Responsibility
• B – Can vote in Parental Ballots
• R – Should receive copies of Student Report
• T – Transfer Contact Address with Student
• House:
  • Green – Lives at same Address as another Contact.
  • Red – Lives at same Address as another Contact, but is a different address from those listed with a Green house
  • House with a Line Through – Address should not be disclosed
  • No House – No one lives at the same address
  • Red circle with white line – No Access
• Waving Person:
  • Grey – if the icon is grey there can potentially be two scenarios
    • This means no MCAS Account has been created for this contact
      • OR
    • There has been an MCAS Account created but the contact does not have access to this student – this is apparent when you edit a Contact attached to a student, select the Phone & Email tab and you see the text ‘Linked to MCAS’  under the email address
  • Green – Click to use MCAS using this Contact’s credentials
  • Red- Email address required to login to MCAS.

If a Note has been added to either the e-mail or Telephone Number a blue i Information icon will be displayed next to it, moving the mouse pointer over this will display the Note as a pop-up message.