JoomSchool - Frontend Teacher Guide

A walkthrough of everything a teacher can do on the JoomSchool frontend portal: log in, check the dashboard, edit their profile, post announcements, message students and parents, record attendance, enter marks, and (if enabled) view exam results.

Overview

When a school administrator adds a new teacher in JoomSchool, the teacher gets a Joomla user account in the Teachers group plus a JoomSchool profile that records their designation, the classes, sections, divisions and subjects they teach. With those credentials, the teacher logs into the school's website and reaches the teacher portal.

The portal is a single Joomla page that swaps its contents based on which menu item is active. The top of every page shows a navigation bar with the school's name, the menu items the teacher is allowed to use, an envelope icon with an unread-messages count, and a profile dropdown for viewing or editing their profile or logging out.

Prerequisites

• The school has installed and configured JoomSchool, and a frontend menu item to the JoomSchool dashboard is published.
• The administrator has added the teacher's profile and either created a new Joomla user or linked an existing one.
• The teacher is assigned to at least one class, section, division and subject — without these, dropdowns on the attendance and marks views will be empty.

Logging in

Use the standard Joomla login form on the school's website. Enter your username (or email) and password — the credentials the administrator gave you, or the password you chose if you have already logged in once.

If your account is in the Teachers Joomla group, you'll land on the JoomSchool dashboard. If you log in but see the regular Joomla site instead, check with the administrator that:

• Your account is in the Teachers group (not just a regular Joomla user).
• A frontend menu item linking to the JoomSchool dashboard is published.

Dashboard tour

The teacher dashboard is divided into two widgets:

• Latest messages (left column) — recent private messages from students, parents and other staff. The unread count is also shown on the envelope icon in the top navigation bar.
• Academic info (right column) — a summary of your academic assignments: the classes, sections, divisions and subjects you're scheduled to teach.

The greeting at the top reads "Welcome back, Your Name". Below it, the menu bar lists the seven (or eight) pages a teacher can visit:

My Profile (view)

Choose My Profile from the menu. The read-only profile page shows your details:

• Name and photo
• Designation
• Classes / sections / divisions / subjects you teach
• Account email
• Any custom fields the administrator has defined for teachers

Use this page to confirm your records are accurate. To change anything, go to Profile Setting.

Profile Setting (edit)

The edit form has four tabs that mirror the administrator's view:

Profile tab

• Name — your full name as it appears on attendance lists and message threads.
• Custom fields the administrator has marked visible to teachers.

Academic Info tab

Most of these are managed by the administrator (Class, Section, Subject, Division). On many schools' setups, this tab is read-only for teachers. Talk to the administrator if your subject assignments are wrong.

Account Details tab

Update your account email here. Password changes go through the standard Joomla user profile.

Photo tab

Upload a new photo. Photos are used on the result sheet, biodata and teacher list views the school may publish.

Save changes with the Save button at the top of the page.

Posting Announcements

Announcements are how teachers broadcast information to students and parents.

Click Announcements in the menu. The list shows existing announcements; click New (or the equivalent button) to compose one.

Fill in the form:

• Title — short, descriptive headline.
• Class — pick one or more classes the announcement targets. Multi-select.
• Image — optional banner image for the dashboard widget.
• Description — the body of the announcement, with a rich text editor (formatting, links, lists).
• Attachment — optional file (permission slip, syllabus, photo).
• Status — Published or Unpublished.

Click Save. The announcement is now visible to students and parents in the targeted classes, and (if email notifications are enabled) parents receive an email.

Messaging

Click Message in the top navigation (or the envelope icon) to open your inbox.

Reading and replying

Each row in the inbox shows the sender's name, subject and a preview. Click to open the thread; type into the Reply box at the bottom and click Send Reply.

Sending a new message

Click Compose. Pick the recipient type from the To dropdown:

• Teacher — to message a colleague.
• Student — to message one of your students.
• Parent — to message a parent.
• Section — to send a single message to every student in a section. This option only appears if the administrator has enabled "Allow private messaging to sections" in the PMS options.

Type the recipient's name; suggestions appear as you type. Click the right person, fill in Subject, Message body, and optionally attach files via the Attachment field.

Click Send.

Notifications

When email notifications are enabled in the school's options, recipients also get an email. If a student or parent says they're not receiving notifications, check their email is correct and not in spam.

Recording Attendance

Click Attendance in the menu. The list shows attendance records you've entered; click the row to edit, or New to create a fresh record.

The form asks for:

• Date — defaults to today; pick another date for back-dated entry.
• Class — one of the classes you teach.
• Section — a section within that class.
• Subjects — multi-select. Pick the subjects you taught during the day. (You can record attendance for several subjects on the same day in one go.)
• Start Time / End Time — optional but recommended for hour-tracked schools.
• Note — any unusual circumstance ("substitute teacher", "fire drill at 11:00").

After picking the four required fields, the form expands to show a row per student. For each student, set the status: Present, Absent or Late.

Click Save. The attendance is recorded immediately and visible to parents on their Attendance Report.

Entering Marks

Click Marksheet in the menu. The view shows a filter bar at the top — pick all four:

• Exam — the exam whose marks you're entering.
• Class — one of your classes.
• Section — a section within that class.
• Subject — one of the subjects you teach.

Below the filter, a table appears with one row per student. Type the mark in the Marks column for each student, plus an optional comment. Tab between rows for fast entry.

Click Save at the top. The marks are committed and immediately appear on result sheets when the exam is published.

If your administrator has enabled the spreadsheet import option (see the school administrator), you can also upload an XLSX or ODS file with three columns (Roll, Marks, Comment). Pick the four filters first, then upload — the file is parsed and marks are saved row by row.

Viewing Results

If your administrator has enabled Enable Results for Teacher in Components → JoomSchool → Options → Results, a Results menu item is added to your sidebar. Clicking it shows the result page with:

• Filter by class, section and student
• The same view that students and parents see for that student

If the menu item isn't visible, the school has chosen not to expose results to teachers.

Tips & Best Practices

• Record attendance daily, on the day of teaching. Filling in a week of attendance retroactively is error-prone; the Date field defaults to today, and it's easy to stamp the wrong date.
• Enter marks within a few days of an exam, while the bigger picture is fresh. Late entries delay the result publication for the whole school.
• Use messages for one-on-one parent contact. Email lacks the audit trail that messages provide.
• Use announcements for class-wide information like homework deadlines, field trips and exam timetables.
• Keep your photo up to date. Multiple views (the result sheet, the biodata) embed it.
• Don't post announcements during school hours from your phone if data is patchy — the editor's autosave is unreliable on mobile networks.

Troubleshooting