Guardian guide — the parent portal
The parent portal is your private window into your child’s day at school. When a security officer scans your learner’s NFC badge at the gate, the check in or check out is recorded immediately and you can see it here in real time — “At school — arrived 09:39”, “Left for the day — 14:05”, and so on.
A few things make it different from a normal app:
- No login, no password. You open the portal from a secure link the school sends you on your chosen channel (app notification, email, or WhatsApp where it is connected). The link itself is your key.
- It is read-only. You can see your learner’s status and send sick notes, pickup requests and collection arrangements — but you can never change the official school record. That stays with the school.
- It is live. The status updates on its own as scans happen at the gate. You do not need to refresh.
- It is tied to you. The link is bound to your contact details and expires after a set period, so it cannot be passed around indefinitely or indexed by search engines.
You do not install anything to use the portal. Tapping the link in your browser is enough. Installing the app (below) is optional and only adds phone push notifications.
Opening your link
- Tap the secure link the school sent you. It looks like
…/p/<your-secure-code>. - The portal opens straight to your home screen — no sign-in step.
- Bookmark it or keep the message; the same link keeps working until the expiry date shown at the bottom of every page.
If the link ever says it has expired or is no longer valid, the school can send you a fresh one. This is normal — see Your privacy and security below for why.
Your home screen
The home screen greets you by name and shows everything at a glance:
- Your school’s name and a greeting, e.g. “Hi Thandiwe,”.
- A today summary, e.g. “Today: 2 at school”, so you know the headline before reading any detail.
- One card per linked learner, each showing the child’s initials (or photo), their class, and a status pill with the current state.
- A View today link on each card, plus a quick Attendance link.
- Action buttons: View sick notes, My requests, Pickup delegation, Account preferences, and Install MySentinel.
- At the foot of the page: “Your secure school link is active until
.”
Reading a learner’s status
The portal uses a consistent colour language so you can read it at a glance:
| You see | It means |
|---|---|
| Green status, e.g. “At school — arrived 09:39” | A check in/out has been confirmed at the gate |
| Neutral / grey status | No tap yet today, or away for the day |
| Time shown, e.g. “arrived 09:39” | The exact moment the badge was scanned |
The portal says Learner (not “student”) and check in / check out (not “movement”) throughout — the same words the school staff use.
A learner’s day in detail
Tap a learner card (or View today) to open that child’s page.
Here you get:
- A large status banner answering “where is my child right now?” — for example “At school — arrived 09:39” — with a note of who recorded it (and, where relevant, which guardian dropped them off or collected them).
- A gentle reassurance line: “If this does not look right, please contact <the school’s number>.”
- Today — a timeline of every arrival and departure recorded today.
- Earlier this week — the same, going back over recent days.
Each timeline entry is labelled Arrival or Departure with the time, so the picture of the day is unambiguous.
Attendance history
From a learner’s card or page, tap Attendance to see their attendance record over time. This is the longer view — useful for spotting patterns or confirming a day you were unsure about.
Telling the school your child is sick
If your learner is staying home unwell:
- Open the learner’s page.
- Tap Tell the school they’re sick.
- You will see a confirmation that the note was received.
To follow up, go to View sick notes from the home screen. Each note shows its progress:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Received | The school has the note |
| Acknowledged | A staff member has seen it |
| Replied | The school has written back — their reply appears under the note |
Making a request (early pickup)
Need your child out early? Use a pickup request.
- From the home screen tap My requests, or from a learner’s page tap Request early pickup.
- Choose the learner, the time you plan to collect, and (optionally) a short reason. You are listed as the collector.
- Submit. The request goes to the school’s admin / class teacher for approval — it is not an instant release; a staff member reviews it.
On the My requests page your requests are split into Open (still pending or approved) and Recent (completed or closed). You can cancel an open request yourself; if the school has already actioned it, the page updates to tell you.
Pickup delegation — authorising someone else to collect
When someone other than you will fetch your child — a grandparent, a trusted neighbour, a lift club driver — you can authorise them in advance.
- From the home screen, tap Pickup delegation.
- Tap New delegation, choose the learner and capture who you are authorising.
- You can share the resulting link with that person and revoke it at any time.
You can hold up to three active delegations at once. Revoke one to add another beyond that limit.
Account preferences — notifications, quiet hours, language
Tap Account preferences from the home screen to control how and when the school reaches you.
Notification channels
| Channel | Notes |
|---|---|
| App notifications | Phone push — enabled via Install MySentinel (see below) |
| Always available | |
| Shown with a Preview badge. It only appears as “Enabled” when your school has actually connected WhatsApp; until then the portal is honest and shows it as not available, and messages fall back to email |
Per-child notifications. For each learner you can independently switch app, email and WhatsApp check in/out alerts on or off — handy if you only want gate alerts for a younger child.
Quiet hours. Set a From and Until time and routine check-in alerts will hold during that window.
One important safety rule: emergency alerts, safety-mode notices and late-pickup alerts always reach you — they ignore quiet hours and per-child preferences. The portal states this plainly at the foot of the notifications section so you are never in any doubt.
Weekly family summary. Opt in or out of a weekly recap.
Language. Choose English, Afrikaans (Afrikaans) or isiZulu, or follow the school’s default. The whole portal re-renders in your chosen language.
Install MySentinel — turning on phone push
For instant alerts on your phone the moment a scan happens:
- From the home screen or Account preferences, tap Install MySentinel.
- Tap Install and enable (or Enable app notifications) and allow notifications when your phone asks.
A few honest caveats:
- Phone push depends on your browser and device supporting it. Where it isn’t supported, the portal tells you it will keep using email and WhatsApp fallback — you will still be notified, just through another channel.
- Roadmap: real-device push delivery is fully built and proven in code, but it is switched on per environment by the platform team. In a demo or pre-launch environment you may see a message that push isn’t configured yet. Email (and WhatsApp, once connected) keep working throughout.
Your privacy and security
We take POPIA seriously, and the portal is designed around it:
- No account, no stored password to leak. Access is the secure link only.
- Read-only. You cannot alter your child’s official attendance record; you can only view it and send requests/notes the school then reviews.
- The link expires. It is valid for a set window (typically around 30 days) shown on every page. After that, the school issues a fresh one.
- The link is bound to your contact details. If your phone number or email on file at the school changes, the old link automatically stops working — this protects you, and the school simply sends a new one.
- Not searchable. Portal pages are marked so search engines never index them.
- You see only your own children, and only what the school chooses to surface.
If anything ever looks wrong — a status that doesn’t match reality, or a link you weren’t expecting — contact the school office using the number shown on your learner’s page. The portal footer always reads “Powered by MySentinel.”
Quick reference
| I want to… | Where to go |
|---|---|
| See where my child is right now | Home screen → learner card |
| See today’s arrivals and departures | Learner page → Today |
| See the longer record | Attendance |
| Report my child is sick | Learner page → Tell the school they’re sick, track in View sick notes |
| Ask to collect early | My requests → Request early pickup |
| Let someone else collect | Pickup delegation → New delegation |
| Change how/when I’m notified | Account preferences |
| Get phone push alerts | Install MySentinel |
| Change my language | Account preferences → Language |