Getting started with your Involve School Portal is straightforward. This guide will walk you through the essential steps to configure your school’s settings, integrations, and academic calendar.

1. Accessing School Settings

To begin, log in to the portal with Admin rights:

1. Click the Schools menu icon on the left-hand sidebar.
2. Select your school (e.g., The Involve Education Academy).
3. Click on Settings at the bottom of the list.

2. Validate Your MIS (Management Information System) Is Connected

For the common MISs, Involve will send a request to Wonde to open up the permissions to sync the data into Involve. After we have sent the request to Wonde, Wonde will be emailing the contact at your school who is listed as your MIS Admin to receive your school's permission for the MIS data to be sent to Involve. 

Ensuring your data syncs correctly is the first priority:

• Go to the MIS tab.
• Wonde Connection: If using Wonde, ensure you’ve confirmed data access via the email sent to you.
• Click Resync Data if you need to manually refresh the connection (data is typically synced every night)
• Notifications: Set your preferred times for automated emails regarding student absences or daily summaries for tutors and house masters.

3. Set Up Integrations

If your school uses SOCS for sports fixtures, head to the Integrations tab:

• SOCS Sports Fixtures: Paste your SOCS URL (found in your SOCS account admin settings) and click Save and Sync to import fixtures automatically.

4. Designate Contacts and Approvers

Under the Contacts & Approvers tab, you can manage who receives specific information:

• Primary Contacts: Ensure your "Involve Lead" is correct so the Involve team knows who to contact for updates.
• Other Roles: Assign staff to roles like Finance Contacts, Event Approvers, Attendance Officers, and Room Managers.
• How to add: Select a name from the dropdown menu to add them to a specific category.

5. Configure Term Dates & Special Days

Define your academic year to ensure the calendar functions correctly:

1. Select Term Dates from the side menu.
2. Choose your Timetable length (e.g., 1 week or 2 weeks) and Terms per year.
3. Expand each term to set the start and end dates.
4. Special Days: Use the + Add special day button to mark Bank Holidays, INSET days, or early finishes. These will automatically reflect in the school calendar.

6. Define Week Timings

This section allows you to customize the rhythm of the school day:

• Tabs: Set timings for Lunch, Day Start & End, Registration, Breaks, and Lesson Times.
• It is critical that these timings are set, otherwise there could be issues with Involve operating as expected. For example, if the AM/PM registration timings are not set for the term, the registrations may not write back to your MIS.
• You can easily copy term settings from one term and paste them into the next term, using the "Copy term settings" link in the Week Timings area
• Global vs. Specific Rules:
  • Set a Default timing for the whole school.
  • Use + Add new rule to set different timings for specific Year Groups or Pods.
  • Example: If Year 10 has an earlier lunch than the rest of the school, create a rule specifically for that pod.

7. General & Experience Settings

Under the General tab, you can fine-tune the user experience:

• Calendar Settings: Toggle visibility for weekends, trips, and performances.
• Phased Rollout: Under Parent and Student Experience, you can disable specific features (like "Behavior Management") if you aren't ready to launch them yet.
• Privacy: Enable Auto screen hiding to automatically enter a privacy mode after a period of inactivity—useful for teachers sharing screens in class.

8. Personal Staff Settings (Contact Hours)

Individual teachers should set their own availability to help the Magic Scheduler work effectively:

1. Click on your Profile icon (e.g., "SW") and select Settings.
2. Enter your Contracted contact hours.
3. Check or uncheck days of the week to indicate when you are working.
4. Specify your working hours for each day (e.g., 09:00 to 16:00).