Introduction
The General Settings page in Involve provides comprehensive configuration options for your school. These settings control system behaviour, available features, and how information displays to staff, students, and parents.
Settings are organised into logical categories. Changes take effect immediately after saving, though some notification settings may only apply to future events.
Calendar Settings
These settings control how calendars appear throughout Involve.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Hide weekends | Removes Saturday and Sunday from calendar views. Enable this to focus calendars on school days only. |
| Display full day in calendars | Shows all hours in calendar views starting from 6am. By default, calendars only show active hours. Enable this for boarding schools or if you have very early activities. |
| Show fixtures and performances in School Calendar | When enabled, sports fixtures and performances appear on the main school calendar alongside other events. |
| Show trips in School Calendar | When enabled, school trips appear on the main school calendar. Useful for seeing at a glance when trips are scheduled. |
| One minute calendar granularity | Allows selecting event start times in 1-minute increments rather than the default 5-minute increments. Enable this if your schedule requires precise timing. |
Event Defaults
Configure default values for new events to speed up data entry.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Default event length | Sets the default duration for new events when not otherwise specified. Options range from 15 to 120 minutes. Choose the duration that matches your most common lesson or activity length. |
| Default note addressee | Controls who notes are visible to by default. Choose 'Staff only' for internal notes that parents and students cannot see, or 'Students & parents' if notes should typically be shared with families. |
Notification Settings
Parent & Student Notifications
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Parent notification - Lesson and group notification | Enables email notifications to parents for lessons and group activities. Parents will be notified when their child has new or changed activities. |
| Student notification - Lesson and group notification | Enables email notifications directly to students for lessons and group activities. |
| Notify when added to activities | Sends notifications to students and parents when students are added to new activities such as clubs or groups. |
| Notify parents of co-curricular absences | Automatically emails guardians when their child is marked absent from any co-curricular activity or lesson during the day. |
Scheduled Notifications
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Upcoming clashes email | Sends staff a weekly email every Friday with any event clashes and students who will miss class in the following two weeks. Configure the time this email is sent. |
| Weekly digest | Sends students and parents a summary of upcoming co-curricular events every Friday, covering the next two weeks. Note: Enabling this will disable individual notifications for events more than one week away. |
| Also notify for second week changes | When weekly digest is enabled, this option also sends notifications about changes made to events in the second week of the digest period. |
Parent & Student Features
Control which features are available to parents and students through the Involve portal.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| School handbook | Enables access to the school handbook and wiki pages. Use this to share policies, procedures, and information with parents and students. |
| Assignments | Enables the assignments feature, allowing teachers to set and track homework and coursework. |
| Parent evenings | Enables parent evening booking functionality, allowing parents to schedule appointments with teachers. |
| Behaviour | Enables behaviour tracking features. When enabled, parents and students can view behaviour records and rewards. |
| Wellbeing | Enables wellbeing features for parents only. This allows parents to view and engage with wellbeing-related information. |
| Goals and progress | Enables goals and progress tracking, allowing students to set targets and monitor their achievement. |
| Parent update details | Allows parents to update student and parent contact details directly through the portal, keeping your records current. |
| Reports & files sharing | Enables distribution of reports and files to parents. Use this to share school reports, certificates, and other documents. |
System Settings
Core system configuration options.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| School timezone | Sets the timezone for displaying lesson times and calendars. This ensures all times are shown correctly for your location. Default is Europe/London. |
| Club self-signup limit | Sets the maximum number of self-signup clubs a student can join. Leave empty for no limit. Useful for ensuring students don't overcommit. |
| Student name format | Controls how student names are displayed throughout Involve. Options include full name, surname first, or other formats to match your school's conventions. |
| Teacher name format | Controls how teacher names appear to students and guardians. Choose whether to show full names, titles, or other formats. |
| Attendance lock date | Locks attendance functionality before this date. Staff cannot modify attendance records for dates before the lock date. Useful for finalising historical records. |
Teacher Access & Security
Settings that control staff access and protect sensitive information.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Auto screen hiding | Automatically hides Involve after a period of inactivity. This protects privacy when teachers share their screen during lessons. Choose from 1 to 30 minutes. |
| Prevent staff from editing timings | Stops teachers from editing their own daily timings or contact hours. Enable this if timings should only be managed centrally. |
| Hide student profile notes | Restricts student profile notes from teachers with limited access. Use this to protect sensitive information from peripatetic or external staff. |
| Enforce Google/Microsoft sign-in | Requires all staff to use Single Sign-On (SSO) through Google or Microsoft for enhanced security. Staff will not be able to log in with username and password. |
Attendance Notifications
Configure who receives notifications about attendance issues such as repeat absences (2 lessons, of the same lesson type and group, missed in a row).
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Notify attendance officers | Alerts designated attendance officers about repeat absences and attendance concerns. |
| Notify form tutors | Alerts form tutors about attendance issues for students in their tutor group. |
| Notify house masters | Alerts house masters about attendance issues for students in their house. |
| Notify head of year | Alerts heads of year about attendance issues for students in their year group. |
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